ShapeShift.io Pioneers Ethereum on its Digital Asset Exchange

“Ether” now available for instant exchange with Bitcoin and others

SWITZERLAND, August 10, 2015 – ShapeShift.io has integrated the highly-anticipated Ethereum digital asset onto its instant exchange platform. Customers anywhere in the world can now buy or sell “ether” instantly along with Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ripple and several dozen other digital assets through ShapeShift.io.  There is no signup process nor account required to use ShapeShift.

Bitcoin’s success has inspired a number of competing and complementary blockchain-based platforms. The most anticipated among them, Ethereum, which has been in development since 2013, shattered crowdfunding records last year when it raised over $18 million.

“Ethereum is a wild project and will likely change software architecture in the same manner that Bitcoin is changing financial architecture,” explained Erik Voorhees, ShapeShift’s CEO. “The two projects are beautiful compliments to each other.”

The Ethereum platform is designed to enable advanced software development upon a decentralized architecture. Where Bitcoin was designed specifically as money, Ethereum attempts to apply true peer-to-peer principles to scripts and applications themselves. If successful, many future software products will not exist on a central server, but within the Ethereum blockchain, making them censorship-resistant and trustless. Augur, the world’s first decentralized prediction market, is one of the first high-profile projects built upon Ethereum.

By including Ethereum’s digital token on ShapeShift, software developers and users can immediately exchange between “Ether” and assets like Bitcoin or Litecoin, bringing seamless liquidity to the ecosystem.

Note on confirmations taking up to 25 hours  (note: I think this isn’t appropriate for press release (too technical), but should be emphasized clearly in the blog post and social media)

“On a personal note, I’m very appreciative of the hard work that the ShapeShift development team has put into making the Ether listing a reality,” said George Hallam, Business & Partnership Director at Ethereum.

Companies and individuals can immediately utilize the ShapeShift website or API to convert between Ether and most other leading digital assets such as Bitcoin, with no account needed.

About ShapeShift.io:

ShapeShift is a crucial piece of infrastructure in the world of Bitcoin. From start to finish, users can exchange digital currencies in seconds, with no account required. No emails or passwords. No lengthy sign­up process. No accounts. No bid and ask orders. No friction. ShapeShift's goal is to be the fastest, safest, and most convenient way to swap digital assets. See more at: https://shapeshift.io

About Ethereum:

Ethereum is a decentralised platform featuring stateful user-created programs (“contracts”) described by a Turing-complete virtual machine code. Ethereum uses its underlying token (“ether”) to account for computational costs of the execution of Ethereum contracts.

Ethereum is a network for powering decentralised application in need of a secure transaction ledger that can be used to securely execute a wide variety of services including: voting systems, domain name registries, financial exchanges, crowdfunding platforms and many more. Learn more about Ethereum at www.ethereum.org.