Blockchains are immutable.
Entire operation runs or none of it does.
Blockchains are designed to run on any number of computers/nodes.
Uses algorithms to reach Distributed Consensus.
Algorithms assume that network is not reliable.
No two operations can interfere with each other.
All method calls can be inspected to determine caller address.
A person or other entity able to interface to an Ethereum node, but external to the world of Ethereum. It can interact with Ethereum through depositing signed Transactions and inspecting the blockchain and associated state. Has one (or more) intrinsic Accounts.
A 160-bit code used for identifying Accounts.
Accounts have an intrinsic balance and transaction count maintained as part of the Ethereum state. They also have some (possibly empty) EVM Code and a (possibly empty) Storage State associated with them. Though homogenous, it makes sense to distinguish between two practical types of account: those with empty associated EVM Code (thus the account balance is controlled, if at all, by some external entity) and those with non-empty associated EVM Code (thus the account represents an Autonomous Object). Each Account has a single Address that identifies it.
A piece of data, signed by an External Actor. It represents either a Message or a new Autonomous Object. Transactions are recorded into each block of the blockchain.
A notional object existent only within the hypothetical state of Ethereum. Has an intrinsic address and thus an associated account; the account will have non-empty associated EVM Code. Incorporated only as the Storage State of that account.
The information particular to a given Account that is maintained between the times that the Account’s associated EVM Code runs.
Data (as a set of bytes) and Value (specified as Ether) that is passed between two Accounts, either through the deterministic operation of an Autonomous Object or the cryptographically secure signature of the Transaction.
The act of passing a message from one Account to another. If the destination account is associated with non-empty EVM Code, then the VM will be started with the state of said Object and the Message acted upon. If the message sender is an Autonomous Object, then the Call passes any data returned from the VM operation.
The fundamental network cost unit. Paid for exclusively by Ether (as of PoC-4), which is converted freely to and from Gas as required. Gas does not exist outside of the internal Ethereum computation engine; its price is set by the Transaction and miners are free to ignore Transactions whose Gas price is too low.
Informal term used to mean both a piece of EVM Code that may be associated with an Account or an Autonomous Object.
Synonym for Autonomous Object.
A SECURE DECENTRALISED GENERALISED TRANSACTION LEDGER EIP-150 REVISION 16
An end-user-visible application hosted in the Ethereum Browser.
(aka Ethereum Reference Client) A cross-platform GUI of an interface similar to a simplified browser (a la Chrome) that is able to host sandboxed applications whose backend is purely on the Ethereum protocol.
(aka EVM) The virtual machine that forms the key part of the execution model for an Account’s associated EVM Code.
(aka ERE) The environment which is provided to an Autonomous Object executing in the EVM. Includes the EVM but also the structure of the world state on which the EVM relies for certain I/O instructions including CALL & CREATE.
The bytecode that the EVM can natively execute. Used to formally specify the meaning and ramifications of a message to an Account.
The human-readable form of EVM-code.
The Lisp-like Low-level Language, a human-writable language used for authoring simple contracts and general low-level language toolkit for trans-compiling to.