Structure of Ethereum

1.

what is Ethereum:

Ethereum is an innovation based on the application of technologies and concepts in bitcoin to computers. Ethereum itself imitates a lot of bitcoin technology to maintain the computer platform. blockchain technology is one of them
Ethereum platform can safely run any program users want

advantages of Ethereum over other competitive currencies before Ethereum appeared, some digital currencies imitated bitcoin. However, these projects have their own shortcomings, they can only support one or several specific applications at the same time< However, the reason why Ethereum can surpass the limitations of these projects in the past is because of the core idea of Ethereum

what Ethereum wants to implement is a blockchain protocol with built-in programming language. Since it supports programming language, in theory, any blockchain application can be defined with this language, and then run on Ethereum's blockchain protocol as an application

The design of Ethereum is very flexible and adaptable

Ethereum target sets the advantages of blockchain technology, in order to add the advantages of blockchain, such as decentralization, openness and security, to almost all computing fields

blockchain applications of Ethereum

Ethereum has many blockchain applications, such as digital applications of gold and stocks, financial derivatives applications, DNS and digital authentication, etc

Ethereum has achieved more than 100 blockchain applications by many start-ups

Ethereum has also been closely watched by some financial institutions, banking consortia (such as R3), as well as large companies like Samsung, Deloitte, RWE and IBM. As a result, a number of blockchain applications such as simplified and automated financial transactions, merchant loyalty index tracking, and gift cards designed to achieve decentralization of electronic transactions have emerged

the relationship between Ethereum and blockchain:

Ethereum is a programmable blockchain

Ethereum does not give users a series of preset operations (such as bitcoin transaction), but allows users to create complex operations according to their own wishes

in this way, Ethereum can be used as a platform for various types of decentralized blockchain applications, including but not limited to cryptocurrency

like other blockchains, Ethereum also has a peer-to-peer network protocol. Ethereum blockchain database is maintained and updated by many nodes connected to the network. Each network node runs the Ethereum simulator and executes the same instructions. Therefore, people sometimes call Ethereum "world computer"

2. At the top of Ethereum is DAPP. It exchanges with the smart contract layer through Web3. JS. All smart contracts run on EVM (Ethereum virtual machine) and use RPC calls. Below EVM and RPC are the four core contents of Ethereum, including: blockchain, consensus algorithm, mining and network layer. Except DAPP, all other parts are in the Ethereum client. The most popular Ethereum client is geth (go Ethereum)

3. I plan to start a series to talk about architecture. My previous experience is mainly in the area of Internet architecture. Recently, I am sorting out and analyzing the architecture of bitcoin, Ethereum and EOS, so I am going to write a series of articles to talk about the understanding of Internet architecture and blockchain architecture. It will be divided into four articles: 1. Internet proct architecture, 2. Bitcoin architecture analysis, 3. Ethereum architecture analysis, 4. EOS architecture analysis
there is no central server in Ethereum. Instead, there are many equal nodes connected by P2P protocol, which store all the data in many nodes. When a user initiates a transaction, the transaction will be broadcast out through P2P protocol. The miner node verifies, packages and further broadcasts the transaction to the whole network. After confirmation in the blockchain, the operation is considered to be unchangeable
in the articles on blockchain on the Internet, the two words distributed and decentralized are mentioned, sometimes slightly different, sometimes mixed. The author thinks that if we want to distinguish accurately, the distributed system emphasizes that multiple components work together by sending messages, and the decentralized system emphasizes that there is no central node to control the operation of the whole system. Therefore, we think that Ethereum is both decentralized and distributed, or running a decentralized program on a distributed platform.

4. The hierarchical structure of blockchain
1, data layer / data layer
the data layer mainly describes the physical form of blockchain, which is a chain structure starting from Genesis block on blockchain, including block data, chain structure, random number, time stamp, public and private key data on blockchain, and is the lowest level data structure in the whole blockchain technology
2. Network layer / network layer
the network layer mainly realizes the mechanism of distributed network through P2P technology, and the network layer includes P2P networking mechanism, data dissemination mechanism and data verification mechanism. Therefore, blockchain is essentially a P2P network with automatic networking mechanism, and the communication between nodes is maintained by maintaining a common blockchain structure
3. Consensus layer / consensus layer
consensus layer mainly includes consensus algorithm and consensus mechanism, which enables highly dispersed nodes to reach consensus on the effectiveness of block data efficiently in the decentralized blockchain network. It is one of the core technologies of blockchain and also the governance mechanism of blockchain community. At present, there are at least dozens of consensus mechanism algorithms, including workload proof, rights and interests proof, rights and interests authorization proof, burning proof, importance proof and so on
data layer, network layer and consensus layer are the necessary elements of building blockchain technology. Without any layer, it can not be called a real blockchain technology
4. Incentive layer / activator layer
the incentive layer mainly includes the issuing system and distribution system of economic incentive. Its function is to provide certain incentive measures, encourage nodes to participate in the security verification work in the blockchain, incorporate economic factors into the blockchain technology system, encourage nodes that comply with rules to participate in bookkeeping, and punish nodes that do not comply with rules
5. Contract layer / contract layer
the contract layer mainly includes various scripts, codes, algorithm mechanisms and smart contracts, which is the basis of block chain programming. Embedding the code into the blockchain or token, realizing the smart contract that can be customized, and automatically executing without a third party when certain constraints are met, is the foundation of the blockchain's distrust
6. Application layer / application layer
the application layer of blockchain encapsulates various application scenarios and cases, which are similar to applications on computer operating system, portals on Internet browsers, search engines, e-malls or apps on mobile phones. The blockchain technology applications are deployed on Ethereum, EOS and qtum, and are implemented in real life scenarios. The future programmable finance and programmable society will also be built on the application layer
incentive layer, contract layer and application layer are not necessary factors for each blockchain application, and some blockchain applications do not completely include the three-tier structure.