Introducing the Eth1 Architecture
Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Ethereum and co-founder of the Ethereum Foundation, envisioned Ethereum as a decentralized computing platform that enables anyone to create, store, and run smart contract-based Decentralized Applications (DApps).
What separates Ethereum from Bitcoin is the smart contract platform, which makes it possible to support much more broad use cases with blockchain, beyond just payment and money transfer. Smart contracts are computer programs deployed and executed on the Ethereum blockchain network. They enable complex transactions between multiple parties.
As the following diagram shows, an Ethereum blockchain network is a decentralized Peer-to-Peer (P2P) network of Ethereum clients, representing network nodes. An Ethereum client refers to software installed in the network node that can verify the new transaction, execute the smart contract, and process new blocks of the chain. It is a kind of enclave, residing in thousands...
