Jason Simeon Genge - What Is Ehereum ?

Jason Simeon Genge - What is Ethereum?

Jason Simeon Genge - An introduction to Ethereum, the peer to peer computing framework based on the blockchain design.

It describes how Ethereum relates to earlier blockchain technologies and how it represents an evolution of these technologies

■In 2008, Bitcoin was launched as a peer-to-peer database that relied on a new data structure referred to as the 'blockchain'.■The blockchain consists of blocks, where each block holds a set of transactions and a reference to the previous block. This helped create a chain of all transactions that ever occurred.■This data structure is replicated across all participating nodes so that every participant is aware of the transactions without having to get them from a central authority.

         Distributed Consensus    

■In order to control how new blocks (with new transactions) are added to the chain, the design relies on a consensus mechanism which requires anyone (a node in the peer to peer network) who would like to nominate a new block (with new transactions it has gathered from its peers) to solve a puzzle that requires significant computations (computer processing power). The difficulty of this puzzle is dynamically adjusted such that it takes on average 10 minutes for any one node to solve the puzzle. A process known as mining.■■Whenever a node solves the puzzle and create the new block (which includes new transactions that it has gathered from other peers around it), the node is rewarded with an amount of new Bitcoins which it can use to pay for the cost of solving the puzzle (computer equipment and electricity).

         Decentralization    

■Given the architecture of the blockchain, the database continues to grow so long as nodes keep trying to nominate and verify new blocks regardless of nodes joining or leaving the network

■The fact that the entire database exists without depending on a single node, makes it very powerful and almost impossible to alter or destroy (the decentralized feature of the blockchain)■The integrity/validity of transactions in the block chain is ensured through the use of cryptographic techniques that make it efficient to verify if any invalid transactions have been added

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