The Ethereum network
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 the requirements and usage. These types are described in the following subsections.
The mainnet
The mainnet is the current live network of Ethereum. Its network ID is 1 and its chain ID is also 1. The network and chain IDs are used to identify the network. A block explorer that shows detailed information about blocks and other relevant metrics is available at https://etherscan.io. This can be used to explore the Ethereum blockchain.
Testnets
There is a number of testnets available for Ethereum testing. The aim of these test blockchains is to provide a testing environment for smart contracts and DApps before being deployed to the production live blockchain. Moreover, being test networks, they also allow experimentation and research. The main...