5.2. Summary¶
Ethereum is a universal blockchain. It achieves this by having a different bookkeeping model and relying on a distributed state machine called the EVM.
Ethereum is an implementation on top of BADS, also true of Bitcoin.
Ethereum works on a State model in comparison to Bitcoin’s UTXO
Ethereum runs on EVMs which are state machines run by every node
Smart Contracts are accounts controlled by code that execute when predetermined conditions are met
Smart contracts, often coded in languages like Solidity, are broken down into bytecode which the EVM can actually understand.
Ethereum Gas was introduced to prevent the halting problem and to measure and incentivize EVM processing
Ethereum’s drawbacks have lead to the much anticipated update Ethereum 2.0 which promises large scalability and PoS