Ethereum is an open source, decentralized blockchain computing platform. Developers can use Ethereum to Build, publish and run smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps) without interference or control from any third party.

What is a smart contract? What are decentralized applications? Please refer to the "What is a Smart Contract" and "What is a DApp" chapters.

Like Bitcoin, Ethereum is open source. Anyone with an internet connection can run an Ethereum node or interact with the network. Currently, Ethereum is widely used in decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFT) and other fields, and provides token issuance (ERC-20 standardized tokens) and contracts for a large number of decentralized projects. execution platform.

What is decentralized finance? What are non-fungible tokens? Please refer to the "What is DeFi" and "What are NFTs" chapters.

Ethereum was proposed by programmer Vitalik Buterin in 2013, the same year he released the Ethereum white paper. Ethereum received funding through crowdfunding in 2014. In 2015, the first real-time version of the Ethereum network, “Frontier,” was launched, marking the official launch of Ethereum. The native asset of the Ethereum network is Ethereum ($ETH).

Who is Vitalik Buterin? Please refer to the chapter "Who is Vitalik Buterin".

What is the difference between Ethereum and Bitcoin?

The biggest difference between Ethereum and the Bitcoin network is that while both allow you to use cryptocurrencies without going through any centralized institution (such as a bank), the main purpose of Ethereum is to allow Users build and deploy smart contracts and decentralized applications on it. Ethereum is Turing complete and its programmability means you can build a specific application and have the blockchain store data or control the functionality of that program/contract without any downtime, censorship, fraud or third parties Possibility of interference. Ethereum makes all of this possible through the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), a computer that runs programs on software rather than on a physical computer.

What is the Ethereum Virtual Machine? Please refer to the "What is EVM" section.

In contrast, the Bitcoin network is just a pure payment network, while Ethereum is more like a market for financial services, games, social networks and other applications. It respects your privacy and doesn't censor you, there are no restrictions, so there are endless possibilities on Ethereum.

What is Ethereum ($ETH)?

Ether ($ETH) is the native asset of the Ethereum network. When a user sends $ETH or uses an application running on Ethereum, the user pays a small amount of $ETH as a fee for using the network, which is called a gas fee. This fee is an incentive for miners to process and verify actions that users want to perform. The miners of Ethereum are the key to ensuring the safe operation of Ethereum. Their job is to record data for Ethereum, which is the work of generating blocks. Miners who do this work will also be rewarded with a small amount of newly issued $ETH.

What is gas fee? What is a miner? Please refer to the "What is Gas Fee" and "What is Mining" chapters.

The biggest difference from Bitcoin ($BTC) is that $ETH does not have a maximum supply. When Ethereum launched in 2015, the initial supply of $ETH was 72 million. As of January 2023, the supply of $ETH is approximately 120 million.

What is Ethereum Merger?

The Ethereum merger is an upgrade to the Ethereum network. Ethereum initially used a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism to verify transactions - the same as Bitcoin. However, as network traffic increases, so does the cost of proof-of-work. The founders of Ethereum gradually realized its limitations and therefore proposed Ethereum 2.0 (this term has since been deprecated and is now called the "consensus layer"). The consensus layer uses a consensus mechanism called Proof of Stake (PoS), which is faster, less resource intensive, and (at least in theory) more secure.

What is proof of work? What is Proof of Stake? Please refer to the "What is PoW" and "What is PoS" chapters.

The proposal of the consensus layer is a major upgrade to the Ethereum network. Improve security, speed, and efficiency as your network grows. Due to the complexity of moving assets from one network to another, Ethereum 2.0 (consensus layer) and Ethereum 1.0 (execution layer) coexisted for a long time. The transition began in late 2020 and will be completed in September 2022 with the merger, also known as the Paris upgrade.

History of Ethereum

Ethereum was conceived by Vitalik Buterin in the Introductory Paper and founded by a group of people of. The five original founders, Vitalik Buterin, Anthony Di Iorio, Charles Hoskinson, Mihai Alisie and Amir Chetrit, joined in 2013.

In 2014, when the Ethereum founding team met in Zug, Switzerland, Buterin proposed that Ethereum should be developed as a non-profit project. Formal software development of Ethereum began in 2014 at the Swiss company Ethereum Switzerland GmbH. Gavin Wood published the technical definition of the Ethereum protocol in the Yellow Paper.

In July 2015, the first version of Ethereum was launched. Ethereum was officially launched, and smart contract functions were also launched. In November of the same year, Fabian Vogelsteller proposed ERC-20, a technical standard for issuance and implementation of tokens on the Ethereum blockchain, making it easier for developers to build compliant applications.

In 2016, a decentralized autonomous organization called The DAO raised US$150 million through crowdfunding on Ethereum. However, a few months later The DAO was hacked, causing 360 Loss of 10,000 ether coins. This event resulted in a hard fork of Ethereum into two separate blockchains: Ethereum Classic (the original chain) and Ethereum (the chain we use now).

From 2017 to 2021, Ethereum has gone through many upgrades, including Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul, Berlin and London, etc. Among them, the London hard fork has attracted more attention because the EIP-1559 proposal contained in it changed the way gas fees are estimated on the Ethereum blockchain and reformed the market for transaction fees.

In September 2022, the merger/Paris upgrade was completed and Ethereum finally transitioned from PoW to PoS.

Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade is expected to take place in March 2023. This upgrade will allow Ethereum to withdraw $ETH staked on Beacon Chain since December 2020, which will be another milestone in the development of the Ethereum network.