Summary

This chapter started with some general concepts, including blocks, block structure, gas, and messages, which were introduced and discussed in detail. The later sections of the chapter introduced the practical installation and management of Ethereum wallets and clients. The two most commonly-used clients, Geth and OpenEthereum, were discussed. We also explored an introduction of programming languages for programming smart contracts in Ethereum.

Supporting protocols and topics related to challenges faced by Ethereum were also presented. Ethereum is under continuous development, and new improvements are being made by a dedicated community of developers on a regular basis. Ethereum improvement proposals, available at https://github.com/ethereum/EIPs, are also an indication of the magnitude of research and the keen interest exhibited by the community in this technology.

In the next chapter, we will explore Ethereum smart contract development, along with the relevant tools...