Decentralized applications are blockchain-based and run without a central authority

Ethereum is a blockchain-powered platform for building decentralized software and apps

Among crypto enthusiasts, ethereum is known for the cryptocurrency it uses to facilitate transactions: ether, or ETH. It's often compared to an app store. The underpinnings of ethereum's blockchain include dApps, which operate using automated scripts called "smart contracts."

Top Ethereum dApps

Thousands of decentralized apps (dApps) run on Ethereum, including marketplaces, financial platforms, and social networks. Top apps include Uniswap, a decentralized exchange for buying and selling cryptocurrency, and OpenSea, the biggest marketplace for buying and selling non-fungible tokens (NFTs). New apps are built on Ethereum all the time, facilitating billions of dollars worth of transactions. Explore the biggest ones here.

Decentralized autonomous organizations organize on the blockchain

Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are typically formed with a specific goal in mind. ConstitutionDAO, for instance, was made to raise funds to buy a copy of the US Constitution (it failed).

Solana is a blockchain designed for fast, scalable, low-cost transactions

Solana uses a unique Proof-of-History and Proof-of-Stake hybrid to process thousands of transactions per second. Solana supports a wide range of Web3 applications, offering an alternative to Ethereum with lower fees and faster speeds. Its native cryptocurrency, SOL, is used for transactions, staking, and governance.

Bitcoin and ethereum are decentralized cryptocurrencies with different functions

Bitcoin, launched in 2009, is primarily a digital currency and store of value with a fixed supply. Ethereum, introduced in 2015, enables smart contracts and decentralized apps, offering more flexibility.

Smart contracts are the foundational technology behind NFTs

Smart contracts use “if that, then this” logic to track the ownership of NFTs and record when they are bought and sold on the blockchain.

Decentraland is a virtual world that runs on Ethereum

Users can buy plots of land in the virtual Decentraland universe to collect, trade, and battle Pokemon-like monsters in the video game “Axie Infinity.”

Learn about Web3 and how it differs from past versions of the internet

Web3 is the idea of a new, decentralized internet built on blockchain technology. It aims to shift control from centralized entities like big tech companies to users through distributed ledgers and smart contracts. Key components include cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) that operate without a central authority. Web3 promises more user privacy, ownership, and control over data and digital assets.

A simple visual explanation of how blockchains work

Blockchains are decentralized, distributed, and digital methods to record transactions and prevent alterations and tampering of the record. That's a simplified definition. This easy-to-understand six-minute video further and better explains what blockchains are and how they work using colorful illustrations and clear, concise clarifications on their processes and what makes them so special.

The Chain Reaction podcast: The latest in bitcoin and blockchain developments

There are constantly new tokens, DeFi projects, NFT collections, and DAOs being launched, but how can you make sense of everything going on in the crypto space? TechCrunch senior crypto reporter Jacquelyn Melinek explores the impact of crypto on finance, art, web3, and society as a whole. One the best resources to keep up with actual—meaning, beyond the hype—developments in the world of bitcoin and blockchain.

Cryptocurrencies are forms of digital currency

Cryptocurrency's key feature is decentralization. Unlike traditional money, they generally aren't controlled by a single authority. As of early 2025, cryptocurrencies had a cumulative market cap of almost $3.4T, making them worth more than some of the world's most valuable companies, like Google and Amazon (both valued at roughly $2.3T).

What is the Fediverse?

The "fediverse" is a league of like-minded apps looking to make our digital identities—including posts, followers, activity—move seamlessly between networks. It's a decentralized approach, making various social networks interoperable in contrast to Facebook and Twitter, where content is platform-specific. The fediverse provides stability and control to users. Learn more here.

DAI is a popular stablecoin backed by cryptocurrency rather than fiat currency

DAI is backed by collateralized debt denominated in several major cryptocurrencies, including ethereum's ether. It was created by Rune Christensen in 2017 with the goal of helping create a credit system that would allow users to take out loans collateralized by cryptocurrencies.

The dark web protects free speech from censorship and authoritarian oversight

Encrypted networks allow users with internet access anywhere in the world to view blocked content and avoid surveillance when communicating evidence of abuse to independent journalists. The same networks can support democracies by helping activists coordinate protests on dark web forums.

Digital passports allow identity verification to be digitized

By scanning the security chip on the back of passports and capturing images or video of a person, apps like Google Wallet and Apple Wallet create a digital version of the document. Some states have also developed their own apps for digital driver's licenses.

Data center types vary based on location and the workloads they manage

Enterprise data centers are built on-premises and afford businesses greater control over the management and security of their data. Cloud data centers are built off-site and share their resources with millions of users through an internet connection, with the largest—hyperscale data centers—spanning millions of square feet. Managed data centers offer off-site hardware that companies can lease.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

Some argue that advance payday apps aren't markedly different from payday loans

Some apps, like EarnIn, allow users to get money from their paycheck in advance. These apps access users' banking information, allowing the company to immediately take back any borrowed money and track users' financial situations to evaluate their risk. Unlike traditional payday lenders, these apps often waive the right to sue users who don't pay back the initial principal and don't charge interest, but rather ask users for a tip. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

CUDA was Nvidia’s first step into artificial intelligence

CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) is a parallel computing platform that was developed by Nvidia in the mid-2000s. By letting people perform computations in parallel, rather than sequentially, CUDA allowed people to compute large amounts of data quickly. CUDA has been used to build machine-learning models as well.

How soap operas are being reimagined for the smartphone

Apps like ReelShort, FlickReels, and DramaBox purport to offer "micro dramas," but they strongly resemble soap operas, with serial melodramas about romance and murder. This NPR piece unpacks the trend, highlighting why this new format appeals to demographics that never connected with daytime soaps.

Direct lending is the most common form of private credit

Other types include opportunistic credit, special-situations credit, mezzanine finance, venture debt, infrastructure debt, real estate debt, and more. All of these sources of capital technically create private transactions, so they can all call themselves private credit.

Bluesky is gaining momentum by offering users full control over their experience

Controversial changes made by Elon Musk to X have inspired an exodus from that platform and growth in Bluesky. The latter's open-source model gives users customizable feeds, portability between services, and a "billionaire-proof" design that prevents corporate takeover.

A list of technologies that run on Linux, including those on the International Space Station

Besides the Astrobee robots and computer systems on the ISS, the security and reliability of Linux distros have led to their use by the Federal Aviation Administration, the Pentagon, the Library of Congress, and the New York Stock Exchange. Many of the operating systems found in smart devices, autonomous vehicles, and wearables also run atop the Linux kernel.

How microgrids can modernize electric grids to meet 21st-century demands

Just as having a single, outdated internet service provider leaves an area helpless in the case of an outage, failures in the electric grid can be devastating to communities. For this reason, hospitals, data centers, and other structures have their own backup power supplies. However, decentralized microgrids would provide areas with their own electricity generation and storage, thereby reducing overall grid load and reliance while enabling better electricity management.

Agentic AI systems can proactively achieve user goals without user direction

Unlike large language models, which do not take follow-up actions after generating their output, agentic AI uses an initial prompt to take multiple steps, learn from its environment and outcomes, and continue working without follow-up human prompting.

A 1975 law let tribes run their own programs instead of relying on federal bureaucracies

The Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act allowed tribes to contract directly with the federal government to administer their own health, education, and social services—reversing policies from the "termination era."

The United States is one of only around two dozen countries with a fully federal system of government, in which power is divided between national and state governments.

Radioactive elements can introduce software errors because the ionizing radiation they produce can detach electrons from atoms, and computer code relies on the distribution of electrons.

A vending machine run with Anthropic's AI went out of business after it was convinced to give away items for free and sell a video game console.

Watch how algorithms can be designed to train themselves and self-improve without human input, to the point where the optimized code is too complex for programmers to understand.

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

Some renewable energy sources may weaken the resiliency of electric grids by removing outage buffers provided by coal- and natural gas-fired plants, which provide the system with more time to find a new power source if a plant goes down.

The Nasdaq's 'Magnificent 7' companies are responsible for roughly 40% of the Nasdaq 100 index's gains, while the remaining 93 companies account for the other 60%.

Play the role of a student in a game where you try to navigate college and remain debt-free, selecting different income levels, high school experience, race, ethnicity, and more.

Telehealth demand for GLP-1s for weight loss is booming as consumers seek easier access.

Massive 3D printers have been used to build homes by stacking layers of 'concrete toothpaste,' a fire-resistant material that effectively insulates against outside noise.

The story of Dollree Mapp, whose legal challenge over her 1957 conviction for possessing "obscene material" led to a major strengthening of the Fourth Amendment

Learn how monoclonal antibodies, which mimic the body's antibodies, can fight diseases like Ebola.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

Some researchers have labeled nomophobia, the fear of being without your phone, as 'the phobia of the 21st century.'

Explore the known asteroids, comets, and spacecraft involved in asteroid studies within our solar system with 'Eyes on Asteroids,' a 3D visualization from NASA.

Hedge funds, the private investment firms that trade a wide swath of financial assets, make money by imposing steep fees on investors and from the fund's investment performance.

Researchers believe the brain consolidates memories, processes emotions, and plans for the future during dream states

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

Corals are themselves not coral reefs—the term refers to the tiny marine invertebrates that build the rigid reef.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

Power lines are dotted with large, brightly colored balls to improve the visibility of these thin wires to helicopters and small planes and help prevent potential crashes.

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

See a 3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was home to an estimated population of 200,000 to 400,000.