Ethereum Blockchain

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.

Ethereum Blockchain

Ethereum, just like any other blockchain, can be visualized as a transaction-based state machine.

This definition is mentioned in the Ethereum yellow paper written by Dr. Gavin Wood.

The core idea is that in Ethereum blockchain, a genesis state is transformed into a final state by executing transactions incrementally.

The final transformation is then accepted as the absolute undisputed version of the state.

Mining plays a central role in state transition. The state is stored on the Ethereum network as the world state.

This is the global state of the Ethereum blockchain.

Sending Payment

There are several steps involved in sending funds from one account to another. The steps are as given below:

1. First either a user requests money by sending the request to the sender, or the sender decides to send money to the receiver. The request can be sent by sending the receiver’s Ethereum address to the sender.
2. Once the sender receives this request he will either scan this QR code or copy the Ethereum address in the Ethereum wallet software and initiate a transaction.
3. Once the request (transaction) of sending money is constructed in the wallet software, it is then broadcasted to the Ethereum network. The transaction is digitally signed by the sender as proof that he is the owner of the Ether.
4. This transaction is then picked up by nodes called miners on the Ethereum network for verification and inclusion in the block. At this stage, the transaction is still unconfirmed.
5. Once it is verified and included in the block, the PoW process starts.
6. Once a miner finds the answer to the PoW problem, by repeatedly hashing the block with a new nonce, this block is immediately broadcasted to the rest of the nodes which then verifies the block and PoW.
7. If all the checks pass then this block is added to the blockchain, and miners are paid rewards accordingly.
8. Finally, the receiver gets the Ether, and it is shown in her wallet software.

Suryateja Pericherla

Suryateja Pericherla, at present is a Research Scholar (full-time Ph.D.) in the Dept. of Computer Science & Systems Engineering at Andhra University, Visakhapatnam. Previously worked as an Associate Professor in the Dept. of CSE at Vishnu Institute of Technology, India.

He has 11+ years of teaching experience and is an individual researcher whose research interests are Cloud Computing, Internet of Things, Computer Security, Network Security and Blockchain.

He is a member of professional societies like IEEE, ACM, CSI and ISCA. He published several research papers which are indexed by SCIE, WoS, Scopus, Springer and others.