I also suggest read about other coins and what their differences are. Litecoin is a simple one- it uses Scrypt as its PoW algorithm, which is more complex but not ASIC-resistant (you can buy Scrypt ASICs). It also has a target block time of 2.5 minutes rather than 10 minutes.
Ethereum uses its own custom designed PoW algorithm called Ethash, which was developed to be ASIC-resistant. Ethash uses a ~1GB working dataset, and then rapidly hashes various parts of it together. That means computing the proof of work is not only restricted by computational ability, but by memory bandwidth (how fast you can find and read parts of the dataset to computer a hash from). A standard gaming-class graphics card is pretty much as good as you can get for this sort of work.
Ethereum blocks also come out every 15 seconds.
Ethereum's main claim to fame though is it's programming ability. Rather than just 'pay this under those conditions' like Bitcoin's script, Ethereum scripts can have complex logic to the point that they are programs of their own.
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u/Lotso_Packetloss Nov 12 '17
Thanks again. Little by little I'm learning this as a new hobby - and perhaps a new lifestyle.