MoleEducation Read-Up 4: Ethereum Essentials
This week, we will be taking a look at the largest smart-contract platform, Ethereum. We will learn about why they are necessary, what smart contracts are and how Ethereum generally operates (consensus mechanisms, blockchain trilemma etc.)
A smart contract represents the terms and conditions written in codes that automatically transfer funds from one party to another once the contract’s predefined requirements are met. For example, when both parties agree on exchanging a cryptocurrency, the transaction will move forward with the blockchain ledger via the protocol bound on the smart contract.
The ERC-20 refers to (Ethereum Request For Comments) while the number 20 represents the unique number ID to distinguish the standard from others. ERC-tokens are digital assets designed, issued, and used just like a Bitcoin, except it runs solely on the Ethereum blockchain. These tokens mainly rely on a specific smart contract that keeps track of that token’s transactions.
Theoretically, gas is a unit to measure computational work of the transactions or smart contracts executed by miners at their own expense to keep the Ethereum network running.
First used by Vitalik Buterin, the scalability trilemma is a concept in blockchain regarding its capability to address scalability, decentralization, and security, without compromising any of them. The trilemma claims that it is almost impossible to achieve all three properties in a blockchain system.
https://learn.bybit.com/blockchain/ethereum-blockchain-performance-and-scalability/
