Ethereum (ETH)

Official Links:
1. Official Website: https://www.ethereum.org/
2. Whitepaper: https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/White-Paper
3. Explorers: https://etherscan.io/ https://blockchair.com/ethereum https://www.oklink.com/eth
4. Communities: coinranking.com dropstab.com coingecko.com coinmarketcap.com
  1. Twitter:
    1. Link: https://twitter.com/ethereum
    2. Username: @ethereum
    3. Followers (#): ~3.2m
  2. Reddit:
    1. Link: https://reddit.com/r/ethereum
    2. Username: @r/ethereum
    3. Members (#): ~2.7m
  3. YouTube:
    1. Link: http://www.youtube.com/@EthereumProtocol
    2. Username: @EthereumProtocol
    3. Subscribers (#): ~79k
Working Platforms:
1. Top Trading Platforms: Binance (Centralized Exchange)/(CEX) Bybit Bitget Coinbase OKX …
2. Top Native/Supported Wallets: Ledger (Hardware Wallet)/(HW) Trezor MetaMask (Software Wallet)/(SW) Trust Wallet Coinbase Wallet …
Build Specifications:
1. Asset Type (Coin/Token): Coin
2. Narratives/Categories: Smart Contract Platform Layer 1 Networks …
3. Issuance Blockchain: Ethereum (Itself)
4. Consensus Mechanism: Formerly, Proof of Work (PoW) and Currently, Proof of Stake (PoS)
5. Algorithm: Ethash (PoW) and Currently, Gasper (PoS)
6. Organization Structure: Semi-Centralized
7. Development Status: Working Product
8. Mineable: No
9. Pre-Mined: Yes
10. Open Source: Yes
11. Transactions per Second (TPS):
  1. Real-Time TPS (Last 30 Days) (#): ~13.4
  2. Max Recorded TPS (#): 62.34
Price Specifications:
1. Current Price ($): ~$2,270
2. All-Time High (ATH):
  1. Date: 10/Nov/2021
  2. Price ($): ~$4,860
  3. Market Cap ($): ~$550b
  4. Circulating Supply (# and %): ~118.3m (98.6% Compared to Current C.S. Not M.S.)
3. All-Time Low (ATL):
  1. Date: 22/Oct/2015
  2. Price ($): ~$0.42
  3. Market Cap ($): ~$42m
  4. Circulating Supply (# and %): ~18m (15% Compared to Current C.S. Not M.S.)
4. % Up from ATL: ~540,000%
5. % Down from ATH: ~53%
6. % to ATH: ~114%
7. Hodlers:
  1. Balance ($): ~$217b
  2. Balance/Market Cap (Ratio): 79%
8. Holders (#): ~111m
9. Beta Coefficient: 1.07
Market Capitalization (Market Cap) Specifications:
1. Rank: 2
2. Market Cap ($): ~$273b
3. Fully Diluted Valuation (FDV) ($): ~$273b
4. Total Value Locked (TVL) ($): ~$32b
5. Market Cap/TVL (Ratio): 8.53 > 1 (Overvalued)
Supply Specifications:
1. Circulation Supply (# and %): ~120m
2. Total Supply (#): ~120m
3. Maximum Supply (#): ∞
4. Supply Inflation (Annual Rate) (%): ~-1.79-2% (Last Year)
5. Supply on Exchanges (# and $ and %): ~13.21m, ~$30.5b, ~11%
6. Total Addresses (#): ~277m
  1. With Balance (# and %): ~105m (38%)
    1. Hodlers (# and %): 80.77m (75.4%)
    2. Cruisers (# and %): 22.54m (21%)
    3. Traders (# and %): 3.81m (3.57%)
Distribution Specifications:
1. Token Distribution (%): 100%
  1. Crowd sale: 83.33%
  2. Foundation, Early Contributors, and Others: 16.67%
2. Ownership Distribution (%): 100%
  1. Retails (%): (52.93%)
  2. Investors (# and %): 60 (10.22%)
  3. Whales (# and %): 6 (36.85%)
Usage Specifications:
1. Daily Active Addresses (#): ~517k
2. Daily Active Users (DAU) (Average 30 Days) (#): ~370k
3. Total Developers (#): 2,392 (Full-Time)
Security Specifications:
1. Security Score: 96.23 (AAA) skynet.certik.com
2. Total Value Hacked ($): $0
About:
1. When was it created: The Ethereum Foundation officially launched the blockchain on July 30, 2015.
2. Who created it and what is their background: Ethereum has a total of eight co-founders — an unusually large number for a crypto project. They first met on June 7, 2014, in Zug, Switzerland. Russian-Canadian Vitalik Buterin is perhaps the best-known of the bunch. He authored the original white paper that first described Ethereum in 2013 and still works on improving the platform to this day. Before ETH, Buterin co-founded and wrote for the Bitcoin Magazine news website. British programmer Gavin Wood is arguably the second most important co-founder of ETH, as he coded the first technical implementation of Ethereum in the C++ programming language, proposed Ethereum’s native programming language Solidity and was the first chief technology officer of the Ethereum Foundation. Before Ethereum, Wood was a research scientist at Microsoft. Afterward, he moved on to establish the Web3 Foundation. Among the other co-founders of Ethereum are: - Anthony Di Lorio, who underwrote the project during its early stage of development. - Charles Hoskinson, played the principal role in establishing the Swiss-based Ethereum Foundation and its legal framework. - Mihai Alisie, who assisted in establishing the Ethereum Foundation. - Joseph Lubin, a Canadian entrepreneur, who, like Di Lorio, has helped fund Ethereum during its early days, and later founded an incubator for startups based on ETH called ConsenSys. - Amir Chetrit, who helped co-found Ethereum but stepped away from it early into the development.
3. What is it: Ethereum is a technology that serves as a network, platform, and marketplace for digital goods and services. It is open to everyone and does not require intermediaries. Ethereum utilizes smart contracts, which are unique because they not only ensure compliance and fulfillment but also have autonomous capabilities. This allows for financial transactions, contracts, and investments without the need for traditional bankers, brokers, or lawyers. Ethereum also enables a fairer financial system and provides opportunities for creators to earn online.
Ethereum is a Proof-of-Stake blockchain that powers decentralized applications (dApps) through smart contracts, without being controlled by a centralized entity. As the first blockchain to feature smart contracts, it has the largest ecosystem of decentralized applications, from decentralized exchanges to crypto lending and borrowing platforms. Ethereum is also home to numerous Layer 2 solutions that offer users a cheaper and faster way to process transactions on the blockchain. Some of these solutions include Arbitrum, which rolls up multiple transactions into a single transaction on Ethereum, and Polygon’s Proof-of-Stake chain, a sidechain that runs parallel to the Ethereum blockchain. 4. How does it work: Ethereum (ETH) is an open-source, Proof-of-Stake blockchain-based distributed computing platform featuring a smart contract (scripting) functionality. The cryptocurrency provided by Ethereum is known as Ether and it is transferred from one account to another to compensate participant nodes for performed computations. In stark contrast to Bitcoin, Litecoin, and other forms of cryptocurrency, Ethereum is used mainly as a computing platform and not as a payment system. It allows users to build and deploy decentralized apps and therefore make use of the processing power. Ethereum is also used as a platform for launching different cryptocurrencies. The ERC20 token is defined as a standard by the Ethereum Foundation. Developers of other currencies can use the token as a template to earn money with an ICO.

Ethereum allows for the creation of ERC-20 tokens, which can be used as native tokens for the applications that live on the Ethereum blockchain. These tokens can be used for governance on their respective applications, for utility purposes such as paying trading fees, or as stores of value, as in the case of stablecoins like USDT and USDC. However, gas transaction fees are still paid in ETH, as transactions are still recorded on the Ethereum blockchain.

As of August 2020, Ethereum is secured via the Ethash proof-of-work algorithm, belonging to the Keccak family of hash functions. There are plans, however, to transition the network to a proof-of-stake algorithm tied to the major Ethereum 2.0 update, which launched in late 2020. After the Ethereum 2.0 Beacon Chain (Phase 0) went live at the beginning of December 2020, it became possible to begin staking on the Ethereum 2.0 network. An Ethereum stake is when you deposit ETH (32 ETH is required to activate validator software) on Ethereum 2.0 by sending it to a deposit contract, thus helping to secure the network by storing data, processing transactions, and adding new blocks to the blockchain. At the time of writing in mid-September 2021, the Ethereum price now for 32 Ether is roughly $116,029. The amount of money earned by Ethereum validators right now is a return of 6% APR, which equates to around 1.91952 ETH, or $6960 in Ethereum price today. This number will change as the network develops and the number of stakers (validators) increases. Ethereum staking rewards are determined by a distribution curve (the participation and average percent of stakers): some ETH 2.0 staking rewards were at 20% for early stakers but will be lowered to end up between 7% and 4.5% annually. The minimum requirement for an Ethereum stake is 32 ETH. If you decide to stake in Ethereum 2.0, it means that your Ethereum stake will be locked up on the network for months, if not years, in the future until the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade is completed.

Ethereum, like all other cryptocurrencies, uses blockchain technology and operates through a decentralized network of nodes that communicate with each other to maintain the network and provide decentralized services for its users. According to ethernodes.org, there are more than 5600 active synced Ethereum nodes in operation as of May 2022. 5. What are the use cases and what problems does it solve: Ether (ETH) is the native coin that powers the Ethereum network and is used to pay for transactions. ETH functions as a utility token and is used to pay for gas fees for transactions on the Ethereum blockchain, denominated in gwei.

The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) provides a secure, isolated, and uniform environment for executing smart contracts and enforcing the rules of the Ethereum protocol. Enabled by Ethereum, Web3 has a broad range of use cases, including the creation of DeFi protocols, peer-to-peer marketplaces, non-fungible token (NFT) exchange platforms, decentralized social networks, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).

One unique aspect of Ethereum is its focus on the blockchain as the foundation for an entire economy. While other cryptocurrencies may primarily function as digital assets or mediums of exchange, Ethereum's blockchain serves as a platform for creating and executing smart contracts. These smart contracts enable the development of decentralized applications (dApps) and facilitate various transactions and interactions. Additionally, Ethereum has its native cryptocurrency called Ether (ETH), which serves multiple purposes within the Ethereum ecosystem. It is used as collateral for staking, which helps secure the network, and it is also the currency used to pay for transaction fees (gas fees) on the Ethereum network. This dual role of Ether as a utility token and a store of value sets Ethereum apart from many other cryptocurrencies.

One of the major emerging trends in the Ethereum ecosystem is decentralized finance, commonly referred to by the abbreviation “DeFi”. This term refers to the numerous protocols built on top of Ethereum that allow users to lend, borrow, buy, and sell their cryptocurrency without having to trust an intermediary in the process. 6. What technology is it using and what are its features (scalability and innovations): EIP-1559: The EIP-1559 upgrade introduces a mechanism that changes the way gas fees are estimated on the Ethereum blockchain. Before the upgrade, users had to participate in an open auction for their transactions to be picked up by a miner. This process is known as a “first-price auction,” and as expected, the highest bidder wins. With EIP-1559, this process is handled by an automated bidding system, and there is a set “base fee” for transactions to be included in the next block. This fee varies based on how congested the network is. Furthermore, users who wish to speed up their transactions can pay a “priority fee” to a miner for faster inclusion. EIP-1559 also introduces a fee-burning mechanism. A part of every transaction fee (the base fee) is burned and removed from circulation. This is intended to lower the circulating supply of Ether and potentially increase the value of the token over time. Interestingly, less than two months after the London upgrade was implemented, the network had burned over $1 billion worth of Ether.

Ethereum 2.0: In 2022, Ethereum renamed its transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake from Ethereum 2.0 to The Merge. The Merge went live on Sept. 15, 2022, after the merge of the Goerli testnet was completed on Aug. 11, 2022. In 2022, Ethereum plans to switch to proof-of-stake with its Ethereum 2.0 update. This switch has been in the Ethereum roadmap since the network's inception and would see a new consensus mechanism, as well as introduce sharding as a scaling solution. The current Ethereum chain will become the Beacon Chain and serve as a settlement layer for smart contract interactions on other chains. In late 2021, Ethereum's Arrow Glacier update was delayed to June 2022. Until then, Vitalik Buterin expects the road to the network's endgame to be shaped by optimistic rollups and Zk-rollups. In January 2022, the Ethereum Foundation announced the decision to remove the “Ethereum 2.0” terminology to “save all future users from navigating this confusing mental model.” It went on to explain that the previously referred to terms of “Ethereum 1.0” would be branded the “execution layer,” while “Ethereum 2.0” would be called the “consensus layer”. This is ultimately to provide a more accurate version of the Ethereum roadmap. In an update on the progress of the Merge, on April 13, 2022, Ethereum developer Tim Beiko tweeted an update on the progress of the Merge, stating that they are “definitely in the final chapter of PoW on Ethereum.” He also mentioned that users can expect it to occur a few months after June, although no exact date was provided. This came on the back of the first mainnet shadow fork — to test the transition to PoS on Ethereum — that was successfully implemented on April 11, 2022. The Merge implements several critical changes to Ethereum. First, it merges the existing PoW Ethereum mainnet with the Beacon Chain, a PoS chain. Together, the two chains will form the new proof-of-stake Ethereum, which will consist of a consensus layer and an execution layer. The consensus layer will synchronize the chain state across the network, while the execution layer handles transactions and blocks production. Second, the Merge significantly reduces ETH issuance. This has been dubbed the "triple halving" in a nod to the Bitcoin halving since the Merge reduces ETH issuance by 90%. With more than 14M ETH already staked, ETH could very well become deflationary after the transition. Furthermore, stakers are expected to earn between 8% and 12% APR at current projections. Staked ETH will not be withdrawable immediately after the Merge — it will only be enabled after the Shanghai upgrade, estimated to be 6 to 12 months later. The Merge will not increase transaction throughput or reduce gas fees, as the block production rate stays roughly the same at 12 seconds (currently 13 seconds). It will also not enable on-chain governance, with protocol changes still discussed and decided off-chain through stakeholders. Importantly, the transition to PoS is expected to reduce Ethereum's annual energy consumption from 112 TWh/yr to only 0.01 TWh/yr — a 99.9% drop. This reduction prompted investors to expect an influx of institutional money in a "greener" Ethereum. On the flip side, Ethereum miners, in an industry estimated to be worth $19 billion, seek to champion ETHPoW, a potential hard fork of Ethereum on proof-of-work. The biggest Ethereum upgrade since The Merge, the Shanghai Upgrade will allow ETH stakers to unstake their ETH and withdraw ETH rewards from the Beacon Chain. During The Merge, the Ethereum proof-of-work chain merged with the proof-of-stake Beacon Chain. Instead of mining, validators stake 32 ETH to secure the network. However, stakers are unable to unstake and withdraw until the Shanghai Upgrade. The Shanghai/Capella (“Shapella”) Upgrade is a hard fork that will implement five EIPs — the most anticipated being EIP-4895, which will enable withdrawals. Shanghai is the hard fork’s name on the execution layer, while Capella is the name on the consensus layer. On Feb. 7, 2023, withdrawals on the Zhejiang testnet were enabled, and on Feb. 28, the Sepolia testnet successfully executed the hard fork upgrade. On March 15, 2023, the hard fork was executed on the Goerli testnet, the last test run before the mainnet upgrade, expected to happen sometime in March 2023. Over 17.5 million ETH will become available for withdrawals.

During its PoW phase, the Ethereum network used the hash algorithm Ethash, a modified version of the Dagger-Hashimoto algorithm. Ethash was designed to be memory-hard to prevent the use of ASICs and encourage the decentralization of mining. However, the Ethash algorithm was criticized for its high energy consumption and its reliance on GPU mining, which can lead to centralization. After transitioning to PoS, Ethereum no longer uses Ethash. Ethereum's PoS mechanism is known as "Gasper," defining how validators propose blocks, how and when attestations are made, and slashing conditions. Gasper is a combination of Casper the Friendly Finality Gadget (Casper-FFG) and the LMD-GHOST fork choice algorithm. Within Gasper, Casper is responsible for upgrading certain blocks to "finalized" so that new participants in the network can be confident that they are syncing the canonical chain. Finality refers to the state where a block on the blockchain cannot be reverted or changed without a consensus failure or a significant attack on the staked ether. Once a block is finalized, it is considered permanent information on the blockchain. The finality of a block on Ethereum is achieved through a two-step upgrade procedure that helps to ensure its certainty and validity. LMD-GHOST stands for "latest message-driven greedy heaviest observed sub-tree". Validators assess each block using this rule before adding the heaviest block to its canonical chain.

Ethereum Token Types: Ethereum makes it possible for multiple token types to be issued and take advantage of the smart contract characteristics of the network. To ensure smart contact compatibility, Ethereum uses token standards, a set of rules that define various blockchain parameters such as token creation, transaction properties, spending, etc. Here are the four most important and popular Ethereum token standards: ERC-20: Fungible token interface with six primary functions that allow the creation of tokens that can be used by dApps ERC-721: Non-fungible token interface that defines parameters of NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain. In contrast to ERC-20 tokens, NFTs are unique, which makes them a great option to represent ownership records on-chain ERC-777: Allows users to issue privacy-focused tokens that take advantage of functions such as a mixer contract ERC-1155: A standard for both NFTs and fungible tokens that introduces cost-saving features via transaction bundling 7. What makes it unique: Ethereum has pioneered the concept of a blockchain smart contract platform. Smart contracts are computer programs that automatically execute the actions necessary to fulfill an agreement between several parties on the internet. They were designed to reduce the need for trusted intermediates between contractors, thus reducing transaction costs while also increasing transaction reliability. Ethereum’s principal innovation was designing a platform that allowed it to execute smart contracts using the blockchain, which further reinforces the already existing benefits of smart contract technology. Ethereum’s blockchain was designed, according to co-founder Gavin Wood, as a sort of “one computer for the entire planet,” theoretically able to make any program more robust, censorship-resistant, and less prone to fraud by running it on a globally distributed network of public nodes.

Ethereum has its programming language, called Solidity, which is used to write smart contracts and dApps on the platform. 8. Is it inflationary, deflationary, or fixed supply: One of the major differences between Bitcoin and Ethereum’s economics is that the latter is not deflationary, i.e. its total supply is not limited. Ethereum’s developers justify this by not wanting to have a “fixed security budget” for the network. Being able to adjust ETH’s issuance rate via consensus allows the network to maintain the minimum issuance needed for adequate security. With the introduction of EIP-1559 however, the base fees used in transactions are burned, removing the ETH from circulation. This means higher activity on the network would lead to more ETH burned, and the decreasing supply should lead to the appreciation of Ethereum price, all things equal. This has the potential to make Ethereum deflationary, something ETH holders are excited about — a potential appreciation in Ethereum price today. 9. How is/will it be distributed: In September 2021, there were around 117.5 million ETH coins in circulation, 72 million of which were issued in the Genesis block — the first-ever block on the Ethereum blockchain. Of these 72 million, 60 million were allocated to the initial contributors to the 2014 crowd sale that funded the project, and 12 million were given to the development fund. The remaining amount has been issued in the form of block rewards to the miners on the Ethereum network. The original reward in 2015 was 5 ETH per block, which later went down to 3 ETH in late 2017 and then to 2 ETH in early 2019. The average time it takes to mine an Ethereum block is around 13-15 seconds. 10. What is its roadmap: Ethereum’s own purported goal is to become a global platform for decentralized applications, allowing users from all over the world to write and run software that is resistant to censorship, downtime, and fraud.

Ethereum developers have further broken down network upgrades into multiple phases, otherwise known as the Ethereum Roadmap, to minimize complexity as they add more features. The roadmap is as follows: “The Surge” - Introduces data-sharding, the process of splitting the Ethereum database horizontally into smaller partitions called “shards” to spread out the load and increase the size of the database. Although an exact release date has not been confirmed, Ethereum’s “Dencun Upgrade” is slated to release around Q1 2024. Dencun will implement EIP-4844, which includes a new transaction type known as “Proto-Danksharding,” allowing Layer-2 rollups to post cheaper transactions to Ethereum. “The Scourge” - Aim to eliminate centralization and censorship risks from occurring due to the transition to PoS. “The Verge” - Introduces “verkle trees,” a powerful upgrade to Merkle proofs (data structures used to encode blockchain data efficiently and securely), allowing for much smaller proof sizes. Proof sizes are expected to decrease by a factor of approximately six to eight compared to ideal Merkle trees, and by a factor of over 20-30 compared to the hexary Patricia trees that Ethereum uses today. “The Purge” - Reduces the hard drive space needed for validators, thereby reducing network congestion as data storage will be more efficient. “The Splurge” - Will bring together many miscellaneous smaller upgrades and “all of the other fun stuff,” according to Vitalik Buterin. 11. Are they working on the roadmap (activity): The above-mentioned phases of Ethereum’s development are being developed in parallel. It will take several years before they reach completion, and there is no concrete timeline for when they are expected to be fully implemented. 12. Why does it have value: Stakers on the Ethereum network earn ETH as their reward for securing the network. 13. Are their social accounts active and how is the community engagement: Furthermore, Ethereum has a strong and active community of developers and enthusiasts who continually contribute to its growth and development. This vibrant community fosters innovation and drives the evolution of the platform. 14. Who governs it: ETH holders own and govern the protocol. They currently take a cut of the total transaction fees (base fee) paid by users (revenue). 15. Who are the top competitors: Solana Tron Avalanche Binance Smart Chain Cardano EOS … 16. How is the competition/competitors doing: Since its inception, Ethereum has maintained its spot as the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. But like every other blockchain network that exists, Ethereum is not perfect. Notable, the legacy blockchain is plagued with high gas fees and low throughput of between 15 to 30 transactions per second. Although plans are already on the way to solve these shortcomings through several upgrades, many competitors have capitalized on this delay to offer crypto users cheaper and faster transactions. The term “Ethereum Killer” emerged around 2016/2017 as substitute blockchains such as Cardano began to enter the crypto scene. In 2018, EOS made its debut as the next “Ethereum killer,” raising $4.1 billion from investors, the highest amount an ICO had ever generated. Since then, others like Tezos, Solana, Fantom, Avalanche, and Binance Smart Chain have surfaced as possible Ethereum killers. Each of these blockchains employs a different consensus model to tackle Ethereum’s PoW-induced limitations. For instance, Solana uses proof-of-history (PoH) while Binance Smart Chain utilizes both proof-of-authority (PoA) and delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS). However, none of these alternative blockchains have been able to unseat Ethereum as the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. Ethereum is also currently the largest blockchain for NFT trading activities. 17. Who has built with/on it: In addition to smart contracts, Ethereum’s blockchain can host other cryptocurrencies, called “tokens,” through the use of its ERC-20 compatibility standard. This has been the most common use for the ETH platform so far: to date, more than 280,000 ERC-20-compliant tokens have been launched. Over 40 of these make the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, for example, USDT, LINK, and BNB. Since the emergence of Play2Earn games, there has been a substantial increase in interest in the ETH to PHP price. 18. Who are the strategic partners, backers and What about collaborations: Investors: Electric Capital Galaxy Digital Kenetic Capital CMT Digital Winklevoss Capital Management, LLC a16z Crypto Outlier Ventures Maven 11 Capital Jump Capital Blocktree Capital Delphi Digital Astronaut Capital Pantera Capital HASHED KRI Boost VC M31 Capital Placeholder VC Paradigm 8Decimal SNZ ValueNet Capital IConfirmation 19. How have they handled past incidents and security breaches: In April 2016, a decentralized venture fund known as The DAO hosted an ICO, raising approximately $150 million in ETH. A few months later (June 2016), an attacker exploited a bug in one of The DAO's smart contracts, enabling the attacker to siphon approximately 3.6 million ETH (~4.49% of the total token supply in June 2016, or ~$40-60 million at the time, depending on the day). A significant portion of the Ethereum community opted to revert the blockchain to remove The DAO and its subsequent hack from the network's history. The opposing stakeholders held the preservation of immutability in higher regard and refused to accept a ledger rewrite. The divide in the community led to a contentious hard fork a few weeks post-hack, causing a permanent split in the network. The legacy chain that did not reverse its transaction history is now known as Ethereum Classic (ETC). 20. Are there any major events upcoming: On 15 September 2022, Ethereum transitioned from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake consensus with the Merge. Now that the Merge is over, the final stage of Ethereum 2.0 is sharding, where the database on the Ethereum blockchain is split into 64 shard chains. With sharding, each validator only needs to verify the respective shards they’re responsible for, instead of verifying the entire network. This will also lower the barrier to entry for anyone who wishes to run a node. Besides encouraging further decentralization, this will improve scalability and ideally reduce the gas fees on the Ethereum network. 21. What is its history: The Ethereum project was initially conceived when Vitalik Buterin published the whitepaper in 2013. The yellowpaper, which consists of more technical details on how Ethereum would work, was later published by Gavin Wood in 2014. A fundraising sale was conducted in September 2014 and the network went live in July 2015.

Ethereum was first described in a 2013 whitepaper by Vitalik Buterin. Buterin, along with other co-founders, secured funding for the project in an online public crowd sale in the summer of 2014. The project team managed to raise $18.3 million in Bitcoin, and Ethereum’s price in the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) was $0.311, with over 60 million Ether sold. The Ethereum Foundation officially launched the blockchain on July 30, 2015, under the prototype codenamed “Frontier.” Since then, there have been several network updates — “Constantinople” on Feb. 28, 2019, “Istanbul” on Dec. 8, 2019, “Muir Glacier” on Jan. 2, 2020, “Berlin” on April 14, 2021, and most recently on Aug. 5, 2021, the “London” hard fork.

Vitalik Buterin conceived the concept of Ethereum in 2013 due to limitations in the functionality of Bitcoin’s scripting language, namely the lack of Turing completeness. The aim was to create a new blockchain network that enabled users to build extensively on top of it in ways not permitted on Bitcoin. Buterin published the first Ethereum whitepaper in 2014, describing a distributed computing platform for executing smart contracts and building decentralized applications. Later, in 2014, Buterin, Mihai Alisie, Anthony Di Lorio, Amir Chetrit, Charles Hoskinson, Gavin Wood, Jeffrey Wilcke, and Joseph Lubin founded the Ethereum Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to Ethereum’s research, core protocol development, and ecosystem growth.

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