Can someone explain, in non-technical terms:
1. What Ethereum does and how it uses the blockchain. 2. What new possibilities it opens that weren’t possible before. 3. What this means for the average person online.
1) Ethereum uses the blockchain technology as a way to decentralize any kind of transaction not just a currency transaction. With the Ethereum platform scripts can be written to automate rules & outcomes which affects transactions on the blockchain.
2) Currently the possibilities are still being revealed. It's akin to asking 'what are the possibilities of the Web' back in the 90's. Current ideas such as reputation systems, peer-to-peer file sharing, domain name registration are just the surface. All of the proposed applications will continue to be built upon over time revealing new possibilities with every application that is created.
3) Currently Ethereum has a proof of concept client & ideas for the core applications. Currently the average user is used to dealing with companies that are the controlling entity for a service they provide. Users may need to reconsider their data privacy & the organisations they do business with.
Do they continue rely on the current government to count election votes fairly or do they support a decentralised version. Do they continue to store their documents in Dropbox where the organisation has total control - or use a peer-to-peer version.
Users may start to use these new applications before they have an understanding of the blockchain. Does this new protocol also mean decentralised responsibility? Perhaps the average user becomes more proactive because a collected effort is needed to keep systems healthy (think of how much torrents rely upon their comments/ratings)
Even further into the future it may result in the 'honest web' where to undertake any kind of transaction online you need to first prove you are trustworthy through your reputation score which is based on your previous actions online.
(I just realised how hard it is to describe Ethereum without mentioning protocols, smart contracts & autonomous agents)