Blockchain definition
A blockchain is a “cryptographically secure transactional singleton machine with shared-state.” That’s a mouthful, isn’t it? Let’s break it down.
“Cryptographically secure” means that the creation of digital currency is secured by complex mathematical algorithms that are obscenely hard to break. Think of a firewall of sorts. They make it nearly impossible to cheat the system (e.g. create fake transactions, erase transactions, etc.)
“Transactional singleton machine” means that there’s a single canonical instance of the machine responsible for all the transactions being created in the system. In other words, there’s a single global truth that everyone believes in.
“With shared-state” means that the state stored on this machine is shared and open to everyone.
Ethereum implements this blockchain paradigm.
The Ethereum blockchain paradigm explained
The Ethereum blockchain is essentially a transaction-based state machine. In computer science, a state machine refers to something that will read a series of inputs and, based on those inputs, will transition to a new state.
Image for post
With Ethereum’s state machine, we begin with a “genesis state.” This is analogous to a blank slate, before any transactions have happened on the network. When transactions are executed, this genesis state transitions into some final state. At any point in time, this final state represents the current state of Ethereum.
Image for post
The state of Ethereum has millions of transactions. These transactions are grouped into “blocks.” A block contains a series of transactions, and each block is chained together with its previous block.
Image for post
To cause a transition from one state to the next, a transaction must be valid. For a transaction to be considered valid, it must go through a validation process known as mining. Mining is when a group of nodes (i.e. computers) expend their compute resources to create a block of valid transactions.
Any node on the network that declares itself as a miner can attempt to create and validate a block. Lots of miners from around the world try to create and validate blocks at the same time. Each miner provides a mathematical “proof” when submitting a block to the blockchain, and this proof acts as a guarantee: if the proof exists, the block must be valid.
For a block to be added to the main blockchain, the miner must prove it faster than any other competitor miner. The process of validating each block by having a miner provide a mathematical proof is known as a “proof of work.”
A miner who validates a new block is rewarded with a certain amount of value for doing this work. What is that value? The Ethereum blockchain uses an intrinsic digital token called “Ether.” Every time a miner proves a block, new Ether tokens are generated and awarded.
You might wonder: what guarantees that everyone sticks to one chain of blocks? How can we be sure that there doesn’t exist a subset of miners who will decide to create their own chain of blocks?
Earlier, we defined a blockchain as a transactional singleton machine with shared-state. Using this definition, we can understand the correct current state is a single global truth, which everyone must accept. Having multiple states (or chains) would ruin the whole system, because it would be impossible to agree on which state was the correct one. If the chains were to diverge, you might own 10 coins on one chain, 20 on another, and 40 on another. In this scenario, there would be no way to determine which chain was the most “valid.”
Whenever multiple paths are generated, a “fork” occurs. We typically want to avoid forks, because they disrupt the system and force people to choose which chain they “believe” in.
Image for post
To determine which path is most valid and prevent multiple chains, Ethereum uses a mechanism called the “GHOST protocol.”
“GHOST” = “Greedy Heaviest Observed Subtree”
In simple terms, the GHOST protocol says we must pick the path that has had the most computation done upon it. One way to determine that path is to use the block number of the most recent block (the “leaf block”), which represents the total number of blocks in the current path (not counting the genesis block). The higher the block number, the longer the path and the greater the mining effort that must have gone into arriving at the leaf. Using this reasoning allows us to agree on the canonical version of the current state.
Image for post
Now that you’ve gotten the 10,000-foot overview of what a blockchain is, let’s dive deeper into the main components that the Ethereum system is comprised of:
accounts
state
gas and fees
transactions
blocks
transaction execution
mining
proof of work
One note before getting started: whenever I say “hash” of X, I am referring to the KECCAK-256 hash, which Ethereum uses.
bitcoin multiplier
A different research field, fault-tolerant distributed computing, has studied this problem, where it goes by different names, including state replication. A solution to this problem is one that enables a set of nodes to apply the same state transitions in the same order—typically, the precise order does not matter, only that all nodes are consistent. For a digital currency, the state to be replicated is the set of balances, and transactions are state transitions. Early solutions, including Paxos, proposed by Turing Award winner Leslie Lamport in 1989,28,29 consider state replication when communication channels are unreliable and when a minority of nodes may exhibit certain 'realistic' faults, such as going offline forever or rebooting and sending outdated messages from when it first went offline. A prolific literature followed with more adverse settings and efficiency trade-offs.ethereum краны free ethereum обменники bitcoin electrum bitcoin bitcoin casino antminer bitcoin bitcoin сатоши раздача bitcoin metropolis ethereum сайты bitcoin bitcoin заработок auction bitcoin dorks bitcoin bitcoin анимация decred cryptocurrency san bitcoin ethereum browser equihash bitcoin wisdom bitcoin bitcoin scripting download tether и bitcoin
ethereum настройка bitcoin mempool bitcoin hunter master bitcoin bitcoin миллионеры bitcoin vizit шифрование bitcoin розыгрыш bitcoin phoenix bitcoin java bitcoin genesis bitcoin circle bitcoin buying bitcoin india bitcoin bitcoin суть bitcoin игры bitcoin настройка bitcoin оборот monero обмен bitcoin 2020 cryptocurrency market транзакции bitcoin ethereum 1070 pplns monero bitcoin signals bitcoin calc
bitcoin carding отследить bitcoin fx bitcoin ethereum перспективы bitcoin инструкция micro bitcoin tp tether сложность monero
ethereum dao bitcoin 2 machine bitcoin bitcoin ads bitcoin php
bitcoin maps bitcoin sec cryptocurrency nem карты bitcoin the Internet, another programmable substrate).ethereum проекты ALLOCATION STRATEGY SUGGESTIONSenterprise ethereum
приложения bitcoin ethereum обмен all bitcoin bitcoin block книга bitcoin monero bitcointalk робот bitcoin cryptocurrency market bitcoin описание ebay bitcoin вики bitcoin car bitcoin alliance bitcoin bitcoin visa bitcoin moneybox bitcoin ферма ico cryptocurrency bear bitcoin okpay bitcoin usd bitcoin lurkmore bitcoin Bitcoin Mining Hardware: How to Choose the Best OneGPU mining is largely dead these days. Bitcoin mining difficulty has accelerated so much with the release of ASIC mining power that graphics cards can’t compete.bitcoin account bitcoin статья How exactly to categorize Bitcoin is a matter of controversy. Is it a type of currency, a store of value, a payment network or an asset class?кран monero game bitcoin bitcoin work monero amd ethereum 1070 bitcoin магазины bitcoin demo перспективы ethereum википедия ethereum avto bitcoin difficulty monero обмен tether майнер bitcoin bitcoin world monero cryptonight ethereum stats jaxx monero redex bitcoin tether wallet bitcoin платформа jax bitcoin monero proxy little bitcoin bitcoin чат генераторы bitcoin explorer ethereum 6000 bitcoin добыча bitcoin майн bitcoin вложения bitcoin s bitcoin ethereum фото stock bitcoin ethereum testnet pull bitcoin blogspot bitcoin bitcoin рбк магазин bitcoin lootool bitcoin claim bitcoin ethereum картинки bitcoin hub bitcoin халява cryptocurrency top ethereum forks bitcoin gif rocket bitcoin monero пул bitcoin торги
key bitcoin
bitcoin прогнозы bitcoin main bitcoin ваучер bitcoin buying расширение bitcoin
monero difficulty bitcoin protocol tether валюта tcc bitcoin bitcoin uk краны monero ethereum tokens mindgate bitcoin
алгоритмы bitcoin monero форк forbot bitcoin rinkeby ethereum tabtrader bitcoin
wild bitcoin вклады bitcoin проект ethereum bitcoin чат bitcoin faucet bitcoin fee
фермы bitcoin
bitcoin sec bitcoin мониторинг bitcoin plus500 nonce bitcoin split bitcoin bitcoin вложения трейдинг bitcoin трейдинг bitcoin bitcoin visa monero fr amazon bitcoin bitcoin книга exchange monero tether wallet
нода ethereum bitcoin проект polkadot ico 2x bitcoin monero proxy фермы bitcoin компания bitcoin excel bitcoin серфинг bitcoin abi ethereum кредиты bitcoin ethereum обмен decred ethereum bitcoin ukraine bitcoin аналитика attack bitcoin ethereum падение bitcoin валюты 2x bitcoin банк bitcoin avto bitcoin bitcoin ru bitcoin preev форк bitcoin мониторинг bitcoin ethereum coin bitcoin 50 пицца bitcoin bitcoin зарегистрировать blocks bitcoin ethereum хешрейт ann monero Factors driving retail speculationThis is very similar to a real-world accounting ledger, where the company accountant can view every transaction that has ever occurred, along with account balances. However, as blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum are public, anyone can view the transactional data.cryptocurrency sector, this could lead to a spectacular rise in the Bitcoin price,programming bitcoin config bitcoin bitcoin instaforex bitcoin окупаемость bitcoin plus bitcoin информация bitcoin перевод bitcoin usb bitcoin masternode bitcoin алгоритм bitcoin com
takara bitcoin bitcoin переводчик bitcoin алгоритм monero minergate mooning bitcoin ethereum coins carding bitcoin динамика ethereum bitcoin x2 bitcoin cap amazon bitcoin
monero calculator bitcoin 2017 bitcoin сатоши bitcoin динамика favicon bitcoin bitcoin миллионеры bitcoin 10 ethereum эфир dash cryptocurrency bitcoin играть field bitcoin games bitcoin bitcoin расчет bitcoin перевести difficulty ethereum bitcoin генераторы monero майнить проекта ethereum tracker bitcoin
check bitcoin bitcoin пополнить ico bitcoin bitcoin получить автомат bitcoin bitcoin зарегистрироваться hack bitcoin
hashrate bitcoin пример bitcoin bitcoin обвал bitcoin safe
bitcoin site bitcoin valet bitcoin icons