The Ethereum ecosystem

In Chapter 1, Blockchain Basics, we studied how an Ethereum blockchain is represented as a giant Merkle tree with the leaves of the tree being the state of execution of a code. We also learned that blockchains are distributed ledgers with a web 3.0 framework.

Figure 2.4 depicts such a framework for an Ethereum technological stack. Things are going to get tricky now, so please pay close attention:

Figure 2.4: Web 3.0 tech stack for Ethereum, Source: Ethereum stack exchange

Mist

Let us start with the mist browser, which will be easiest to understand. This is the user-facing layer of the Ethereum platform. If you are a smartphone user and have used Android or iOS phones, you can think of a mist browser...