The Ethereum blockchain stack consists of various components.   At the core, there is the Ethereum blockchain running on the peer-to-peer Ethereum network.   Secondly, there’s an Ethereum client (usually Geth) that runs on the nodes and connects to the peer-to-peer Ethereum network from where blockchain is downloaded and stored locally.   It provides various […]

The Ethereum network is a peer-to-peer network where nodes participate in order to maintain the blockchain and contribute to the consensus mechanism.   Networks can be divided into three types, based on requirements and usage.   Mainnet Mainnet is the current live network of Ethereum. The current version of mainnet is Byzantium (Metropolis) and its […]

Vitalik Buterin conceptualized Ethereum in November, 2013.   The critical idea proposed was the development of a Turing-complete language that allows the development of arbitrary programs (smart contracts) for blockchain and decentralized applications.   This concept is in contrast to Bitcoin, where the scripting language is limited in nature and allows necessary operations only.   […]

Altcoin projects can be started very quickly from a coding point of view by simply forking the bitcoin or another coin’s source code, but this probably is not enough.   When a new coin project is started, several things need to be considered to ensure a successful launch and the coin’s longevity.   Usually, the […]

Various limitations in Bitcoin have also sparked some interest in altcoins, which were developed specifically to address limitations in Bitcoin.   The most prominent and widely discussed limitation is the lack of anonymity in Bitcoin.   Privacy and Anonymity As the blockchain is a public ledger of all transactions and is openly available, it becomes […]

Mining is a process by which new blocks are added to the blockchain.   Blocks contain transactions that are validated via the mining process by mining nodes on the Bitcoin network.   Blocks, once mined and verified are added to the blockchain which keeps the blockchain growing.   This process is resource-intensive due to the […]

Blockchain is a public ledger of a timestamped, ordered, and immutable list of all transactions on the Bitcoin network.   Each block is identified by a hash in the chain and is linked to its previous block by referencing the previous block’s hash.   In the following table structure of a block is presented, followed […]

Bitcoin Transactions Transactions are at the core of the bitcoin ecosystem. Transactions can be as simple as just sending some bitcoins to a bitcoin address, or it can be quite complex depending on the requirements.   Each transaction is composed of at least one input and output. Inputs can be thought of as coins being […]

Introduction Bitcoin has started a revolution with the introduction of the very first fully decentralized digital currency, and the one that has proven to be extremely secure and stable from a network and protocol point of view.   As a currency bitcoin is quite unstable and highly volatile, albeit valuable.   Since its introduction in […]