What:
Just like Bitcoin, it’s a peer-to-peer Blockchain network. Here, instead of Proof of Work, we have Proof of Stake.
- Ethereum is essentially a global computer. Unlike Bitcoin’s UTXO model, Ethereum’s users have accounts (more like traditional banking).
- Externally Owned Accounts (EOAs): Type of account controlled by a users via their private keys. It has an address and a balance.
- Ethereum Contract Accounts: Controlled by code, they’ve address, balance, code and storage (for storing the state variables!
EVM - Ethereum Virtual Machine
- Think of Ethereum as a single, massive, replicated Finite State Machine.
- The “state” is a snapshot of all of the account balances.
- The “transactions” are signed instructions which cause the state to change. When a new transactions are processed, every node in the network executes it within it’s local EVM to compute the new state.