Summary
This chapter started with a discussion on the history of Ethereum, the motivation behind Ethereum development, and Ethereum clients. Then, you were introduced to the core concepts of the Ethereum blockchain, such as state machine model, world and machine state, accounts, and types of accounts. Moreover, a detailed introduction to the core components of the Ethereum virtual machine (EVM) was also presented. Other concepts such as blocks, block structure, gas, and messages were also introduced and discussed in detail. The later sections of the chapter introduced the practical installation and management of ethereum clients. Two most popular clients, geth and parity, were discussed. Further development-specific discussion on these clients will be carried out in the next chapter, where development using Ethereum is discussed. Finally, supporting protocols and topics related to challenges faced by Ethereum were presented. Ethereum is under continuous development and new improvements are...