Ethereum Basics

Blockchain-Based Systems Engineering

Chair of Software Engineering for Business Information Systems (sebis)

Faculty of Informatics
Technische Universität München
wwwmatthes.in.tum.de
Outline
1. Ecosystem
§ Historical Overview
§ Crowdsale Statistics
§ Technical Papers
§ Foundations
§ Network Metrics

2. System Architecture
§ Concept of a World Computer
§ EVM
§ Accounts
§ Blockchain Properties
§ Smart Contracts

3. Network Architecture
§ Overview
§ Node Types
§ Clients
§ Geth
§ OpenEthereum

06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 2

History

§ In November 2013, Vitalik Buterin started working on

the first version of the Ethereum white paper

§ Buterin made the first public announcement of Ethereum

on 24th of January 2014 at the Bitcoin conference
in Miami

§ On the 7th of July 2014, Buterin announced the start

of the public crowd sale

§ The sale lasted 42 days until 2nd of September

§ For the first 14 days the price was 1 BTC for 2000 ETH
§ After that period the price went up to 1 BTC for 1337 ETH

§ In total, ~60 million Ether were sold in exchange for 31.591

Bitcoins
§ Worth around 18.5 million USD at that time
Vitalik Buterin at a Techcrunch conference
§ Used by the Ethereum foundation
History of Ethereum http://ethdocs.org/en/latest/introduction/history-of-ethereum.html
06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 3
Fun Fact

"On that day I realized what horrors centralized

services can bring,..”
Vitalik Buterin wrote on his website's bio that he was
driven to create decentralized money because his
World of Warcraft character was cruelly nerfed by
Blizzard. He said “I saw everything to do with either
government regulation or corporate control as just
being plain evil. And I assumed that people in those
institutions were kind of like Mr. Burns, sitting behind
their desks saying, ‘Excellent. How can I screw a
thousand people over this time.’”

06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 4

Crowdsale Statistics
First 14 Day Period

§ Around 48 million ETH were sold during the first

price period of 14 days

§ Most ETH were sold at the beginning and the end

of the period

§ Biggest single purchase during the first period was

500 BTC which equals 1.000.000 ETH

§ Smallest purchase was 0.01 BTC

§ 43.6% bought 2000 or more ETH

§ 0.8% bought 200.000 or more ETH

§ 11,901,464.23948 ETH to the development team

(https://etherscan.io/address/0x5abfec25f74cd88437
631a7731906932776356f9)
06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 5
White Paper

§ First draft was written by Vitalik Buterin

himself (2013)

§ Contains high level descriptions of

Ethereum’s core functionalities

§ Living document and regularly updated

by Ethereum core developers (not only
Buterin!)

§ Extensive summary of the Ethereum

platform and technology

§ Most current version can be found the

public Git repository of Ethereum:
https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/White-
Paper

06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 6

Yellow Paper

§ Published in April 2014 by Dr. Gavin

Wood

§ Dr. Gavin Wood is still listed as the only

author

§ Defines the technical specification of

Ethereum

§ Very detailed, contains mathematical

function definitions and byte code mappings

§ Required to implement a full node

Ethereum yellow paper: https://ethereum.github.io/yellowpaper/paper.pdf
§ Only updated when errors are found or the
specification changes

06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 7

Foundation
“The Ethereum Foundation’s mission is to promote and support Ethereum
platform and base layer research, development and education to bring
decentralized protocols and tools to the world that empower developers to produce
next generation decentralized applications (dapps), and together build a more
globally accessible, more free and more trustworthy Internet.”

§ Founded in June 2014 in Zug, Switzerland

§ Non-profit organization

§ Foundation council consists of Vitalik

Buterin and Patrick Storchenegger who is
responsible for all legal affairs

§ Owns (or had owned) at least 31.591

Bitcoins funding capital due to the
crowdsale

Official website of the Ethereum foundation https://www.ethereum.org/foundation

06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 8
Like Bitcoin, Ethereum is in Productive Use
Transactions per Day

§ 1.716.600 peak of transactions per day § 439.549 peak of transactions per day1
§ Currently almost 6x the number of
BTC transactions each day 1
The given graph shows 7-day average.
Ethereum transaction chart by Etherscan: https://etherscan.io/chart/tx
06 Ethereum Basics © sebis
Bitcoin transaction chart by Blockchain.com: https://www.blockchain.com/charts/n-transactions 9
Like Bitcoin, Ethereum is in Productive Use
Active Wallets

§ Currently around 188 million unique § Currently around 81 million unique

wallets with at least one incoming wallets with at least one incoming
or outgoing transaction or outgoing transaction

Ethereum unique address chart by Etherscan: https://etherscan.io/chart/address

Bitcoin unique wallets chart by Blockchain.info: https://www.blockchain.com/de/charts/my-wallet-n-users
06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 10
Like Bitcoin, Ethereum is in Productive Use
Also Uses Proof of Work

§ As of Jan 2022, the network hash rate is at around ~1.010.019 GH/s

§ Mostly GPUs are used for hashing (ASIC-resistant PoW)
§ Estimated annual electricity consumption at the current rate is 113.15 TW/h1
1Remember: Bitcoins annual electicity consumption is 204.50 TW/h
06 Ethereum Basics Energy consumption estimation by Digiconomist: https://digiconomist.net/ethereum-energy-consumption
© sebis 11
Ethereum network hash rate chart by Etherscan: https://etherscan.io/chart/hashrate
Outline
1. Ecosystem
§ Historical Overview
§ Crowdsale Statistics
§ Technical Papers
§ Foundations
§ Network Metrics

2. System Architecture
§ Concept of a World Computer
§ EVM
§ Accounts
§ Blockchain Properties
§ Smart Contracts

3. Network Architecture
§ Overview
§ Node Types
§ Clients
§ Geth
§ OpenEthereum

06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 12

World Computer
State Machine

Tx Properties
Tx
Tx • All participants are using the same
computer
Tx
• Users issue transactions to call
programs on the computer
World
Tx • Everyone shares the same
Computer resources and storage

• The computer has no explicit, single

Tx owner

Tx • Using the computer’s resources

Tx costs money

Tx = Transaction
06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 13
Election Example Using a World Computer

State of the world

State 0 (initial)
(nothing happened yet)

Class Election

var votes: {
World
amabo: 0
pmurt: 0

Computer
}

vote(key) {
votes[key]++
}

06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 14

Election Example Using a World Computer (cont.)
WorldComputer.execute(Election.vote("amabo"))
State of the world

State 0 (initial)
(nothing happened yet)

Election

State 1 {amabo:1, pmurt:0}

var votes: { (vote for amabo)
World
amabo: 1
pmurt: 0

Computer
}

vote(key) {
votes[key]++
}

06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 15

Election Example Using a World Computer (cont.)

State of the world

State 0 (initial)
(nothing happened yet)

Election
WorldComputer.execute(Election.vote("amabo"))
State 1 {amabo:1, pmurt:0}
var votes: { (vote for amabo)
World
amabo: 2
pmurt: 0

Computer
}

vote(key) { State 2 {amabo:2, pmurt:0}

(vote for amabo)
votes[key]++
}

06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 16

 Election Example Using a World Computer (cont.)

State of the world

State 0 (initial)
(nothing happened yet)

Election

State 1 {amabo:1, pmurt:0}

var votes: { (vote for amabo)
World amabo: 2
pmurt: 1

Computer
}

vote(key) { State 2 {amabo:2, pmurt:0}

(vote for amabo)
votes[key]++
WorldComputer.execute(Election.vote("pmurt")) }

State 3 {amabo:2, pmurt:1}

(vote for pmurt)

06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 17

Election Example Using a World Computer (cont.)
State of the world

State 0 (initial)
(nothing happened yet)

Election State 1 {amabo:1, pmurt:0}

(vote for amabo)

var votes: {
World
amabo: 3
pmurt: 1
State 2 {amabo:2, pmurt:0}
Computer
}
(vote for amabo)

vote(key) {
votes[key]++
}
State 3 {amabo:2, pmurt:1}
(vote for pmurt)

State 4 {amabo:3, pmurt:1}

(vote for amabo)

06 Ethereum Basics
WorldComputer.execute(Election.vote(“amabo")) © sebis 18
Blockchain as a State Machine
State of the world Blockchain

State 0 (initial) Genesis Assumption

Transactions lead to a new state (block added)

(nothing happened yet) Block A block contains only one
transaction
Tx

State 1 {amabo:1, pmurt:0} Genesis

Block 1
(vote for amabo) Block
Tx

State 2 {amabo:2, pmurt:0} Genesis

Block 1 Block 2
(vote for amabo) Block

Tx

State 3 {amabo:2, pmurt:1} Genesis

Block 1 Block 2 Block 3
(vote for pmurt) Block

Tx
Genesis
State 4 {amabo:3, pmurt:1} Block 1 Block 2 Block 3 Block 4
(vote for amabo) Block

06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 19

Brief Insight into the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)

What is a virtual machine in a blockchain?

Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)
§ Simply, virtual machines (VM) are mechanisms for
Virtual ROM
creating instances of software that imitate real
machines. EVM
code

(immutable)

What is the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)?

(Account)
Program counter Stack Memory storage
§ EVM was the first virtual machine to be placed on a PC
blockchain network, allowing programmers to
conduct calculations on the blockchain for the first Gas available

time. It's a stack-based architecture designed by Gas

Vitalik Buterin, which allows developers to create Machine state

decentralized apps (dApps) on Ethereum. All
World state (persistent)
Ethereum accounts and smart contracts are stored
on this virtual machine.

06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 20

Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)
State Machine

The EVM specifies an execution model for state changes of the blockchain.

Formally, the EVM can be specified by the following tuple:

(block_state, transaction, message, code, memory, stack, pc, gas)

The block_state represents the global state of the whole blockchain including all accounts,
contracts and storage

All Ethereum accounts All smart contracts

controlled by a private key including their storage
block_state

Genesis
Block 1 Block 2 Block 3 Block N
Block

06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 21

Ethereum Account Types

Compared to Bitcoin, Ethereum uses an account-based ledger. Each distinct address represents a
separate, unique account.

Ethereum supports two types of accounts:

1. Accounts that are controlled by private keys and owned externally

§ This account type is called “Externally Owned Account” (EOA).
§ Accounts that are controlled by a private key do not have any code stored on the blockchain.
This type can be seen as the default wallet of a user1. It can sign transactions, issue smart
contract functions calls and send Ether from one account to another.
§ The origin of any transaction is always an account controlled by a private key.

2. Smart contract2 accounts which are controlled by their code

§ Smart contracts are treated as account entities with their own, unique address.
§ Contracts3 can send messages to other accounts, both externally controlled and smart
contracts.
§ They can’t issue a transaction themselves.
§ They have a persistent internal storage for reading and writing.
1
In this context, a user is an human being. Thus, EOAs are controlled by humans.
2
Deeper overview on smart contracts can be found in the following slides.
3”Contract” is used as a short form of “smart contract”.
06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 22
Account Properties

On an abstract level, an Ethereum account is a 4-tuple containing the following data:

(nonce, balance, contract_code, storage)

nonce
An increasing number that is attached to any transaction to prevent replay attacks.

balance
The current account balance of the account in Ether.

contract_code
The bytecode representation of the account. If no contract code is present, then the account is
externally controlled.

storage
The data storage used by the account and empty by default. Only contract accounts can have their
own storage.

06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 23

Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)
Transaction

A transaction is a signed data package that is always sent by a EOA and contains the following data:
§ The recipient of the transaction
§ A signature identifying the sender
§ The amount of ether to transfer from the sender to the recipient
§ An optional data field – data field is used for function call arguments (e.g. function inputs)
§ A GASLIMIT1 value, representing the maximum amount of gas
you are willing to consume on a transaction
§ A GASPRICE value, representing the fee the sender pays per computational step
§ There are two types of transactions: From EOA to EOA and from EOA to smart contract

Type 1: EOA to Smart Contract Type 2: EOA to EOA

Transaction Smart Transaction

EOA EOA EOA
Contract
1
Same terminology is also used for defining the maximum amount of gas a block uses.
06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 24
Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)
Message

A message is very similar to a transaction. Messages are only sent by contracts and
exist only virtually, i.e. they are not mined into a block like transactions.

A message contains:
§ The sender of the message (implicit)
§ The recipient of the message
§ The amount of ether to transfer alongside the message
§ An optional data field
§ A GASLIMIT value

Whenever a contract calls a method on another contract, a virtual message is sent.

Whenever an EOA calls a method on a contract, a transaction is sent.

Transaction Smart Message Smart Message Smart

EOA
Contract Contract Contract

06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 25

Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)
Code & Memory

code
The code basically represents a smart contract as bytecode. For the EVM, a smart contract
is a sequence of opcodes similar to assembly code.

Example:
PUSH1 0x60
PUSH1 0x40
MSTORE
PUSH1 0x04
CALLDATASIZE
LT
PUSH2 0x00b6
JUMPI
PUSH4 0xffffffff

memory
An infinitely expandable byte array that is non-persistent and used as temporal storage
during execution.

06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 26

Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)
Stack & Program Counter

stack
The stack is also used as a fast, non-persistent buffer to which 32 byte values can be pushed
and popped during execution.

pc
PC stands for “program counter”. The program counter is always initialized with 0 and
points to the position of the current opcode instruction.

Simple Opcode Execution Example:

0 PUSH1 0x60
1 PUSH1 0x40
2 MSTORE Program Counter (2)
3 PUSH1 0x04
4 CALLDATASIZE
5 LT
6 PUSH2 0x00b6
7 JUMPI
8 PUSH4 0xffffffff

06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 27

Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)
Gas

Gas
§ Every executed opcode instruction uses a EVM
miner’s computational resources More gas

and therefore costs a certain fee (called EVM

Operations
Message call
code
gas).

§ Each opcode uses a certain amount of gas Program counter Stack Memory
(Account)
storage
which may depend on the arguments of the PC
operation, e.g., number of bytes to be
allocated. Gas available
Gas
§ The opcode for selfdestruct (address) uses
negative gas because it frees up space
from the blockchain.

More gas

06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 28

The Economic Side of Ethereum
Legacy Transactions EIP-1559 Transactions (since August 5th, 2021)

§ At the beginning of a transaction, the sender must § The Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP)-1559,
specify a maximum amount of gas that he/she is enabled the deflationary functionality of the Ethereum
willing to pay for the transaction to be executed. blockchain and sought to alter how gas prices are
calculated.
§ The sender can set an arbitrary amount of Ether
he/she is willing to pay for each gas unit called § The main motivation for EIP-1559 was the large
gasprice. volatility in transaction fees.
§ The final cost for each transaction is gas * gasprice
§ With EIP-1559, gas price is now divided into two parts:
and this fee is received entirely by the miner.
§ base fee: calculated by the network based on the
§ If a transaction requires more gas than the demand level (burnt) – predictable
maximum specified gas, the transaction will fail. On § priority fee (tip): determined by the transaction
the other hand, if it takes less, the sender only pays sender (received by the miner)
for the gas that was used.
§ Transaction fee = gas * (basefee + tip)
§ The actual size of a block is not limited like in
Bitcoin. Instead, the miner sets a gaslimit that § As of January 5th, 2022, the network burns an average
defines how much computational resources he is of 6.18 ETH every minute. So far, the Ethereum
willing to provide for each block. blockchain has burned a total of 1,887,620 ETH.

Deflation information by Ultrasound: https://ultrasound.money

For further info about EIP-1559, see https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-1559
06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 29
An EIP-1559 Transaction

Transaction: https://etherscan.io/tx/0xf053bfba668022c43f837939373b2fc35672d04d67bbc48d3d7c42e9d90ecc7e
06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 30
Properties of the Ethereum Blockchain
Ethereum (currently) is a Proof-of-Work (PoW) blockchain like Bitcoin.

§ The PoW algorithm used by Ethereum is called Ethash and designed to be ASIC resistant.

§ In Ethereum blockchain, when a miner creates a block successfully, they are rewarded with a digital
token called "ether”. Miners spend energy on mining and solving a puzzle. In return they get a block
reward which is transaction fee + mining reward. Mining reward is 2 ETH ($5,435 as of 25th of
February 2022).

§ The mining difficulty is adjusted after each block.

§ Correctly mined blocks that are outpaced by a block of another miner are not orphaned like in
Bitcoin but added as uncle blocks.
§ The idea behind this is to counter mining centralization because miners who mine a correct
block are still rewarded.
§ As of January 2022, average block time of Ethereum blockchain is 12 to 14 seconds.1

§ The transactions in the uncle block are considered invalid.

1Bitcoin’s block time is 10 minutes in average.
For further resources, see https://www.notion.so/BBSE-Additional-Content-85f1424258e64f679d3a6efac0d8c683
06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 31
Brief Insight into Smart Contracts

§ A smart contract is a set of functions that can be called by other users or contracts.
§ They can be used to execute functions, send ether or store data.
§ Each smart contract is an account holding object, i.e. has its own address.
§ Smart contracts have some peculiarities compared to traditional software.

Security

The development process of smart contracts requires special attention on security.

Once deployed, a contract is publicly accessible by anyone on the network with the following information:
§ Address of the smart contract
§ OPCODE
§ Number of public functions and their hash signature

§ Furthermore, the whole transaction history is accessible (function calls + actual arguments).
§ Smart contracts – once deployed – cannot be changed or patched anymore.

è All contracts deployed on the Ethereum blockchain are publicly accessible

and can’t be patched.

06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 32

Fun Fact

On October 13th, 2018, Ethereum’s creator, Vitalik

Buterin, has expressed his regret about using the
term “smart contracts”. He states that he should have
called them “persistent scripts”, however, he thinks
this wouldn’t have been as catchy as calling them
smart contracts.

Meanwhile, Ethereum associate, Vlad Zamfir replied

to Vitalik's tweet by preferring the term “stored
procedures” instead.

06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 33

Brief Insight into Smart Contracts as a Closed System

Smart contracts can’t access any data from outside the blockchain on their own. There are no HTTP
or similar network methods implemented to call external services. This is on purpose to prevent non-
deterministic behavior once a function is called (there are also no functions to generate random
values).

Currently, the only way to write smart contracts using external data (e.g. weather data, traffic data etc.)
is to use oracles. Oracles are basically third-party services that verify data from web services and write
the data via a special smart contract to the blockchain. Other smart contracts can now call the oracle
contract to get the data.

On chain Off chain

1. Requests Data

A: Requests Data
Oracle 3. Writes data Oracle External
SC Contract Web API
B: Returns Data Service
2. Returns Data

06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 34

Brief Insight into Solidity

Usually, smart contracts are not written as a sequence of opcodes instructions directly. Solidity is a
high-level language with a JavaScript-like syntax and the de facto standard for writing Ethereum
smart contracts. However, unlike JavaScript, Solidity is statically typed.

Language properties

• Statically typed
• Object-oriented
• Supports inheritance
• Complex, user-defined types
• Public & private methods
• Dynamic binding
• Compiled to EVM opcode instructions

06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 35

Use Cases for Smart Contracts
Fungible Token Systems
Fungible token systems are currently the largest use case for smart contracts, mostly used to collect
money via initial coin offerings (ICOs). Usually, tokens work as a sub-currency of Ethereum and represent a
certain asset such as a stock. Popular examples: Tether (USDT), Shiba Inu (SHIB), Polygon (MATIC)

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)

At a very high level, NFTs are unique cryptographic tokens that are stored on a blockchain. There are many
types of NFTs. They can be anything digital such as drawings, music, media, virtual fashion items, etc.
Popular examples: Bored Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks

Play-to-Earn Games
Lately, smart contracts are also being used in play-to-earn games where users earn game-native tokens
which they can use to buy or trade in-game assets. Popular examples: Axie Infinity, Decentraland

Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO)

DAOs are non-hierarchical business models that are collectively owned by a group of members. Think of it
as a generalization of multi-signature wallets where all decisions are taken based on members’ votes.
Thus, no single member can unliterally take a decision (e.g., send a transaction). DAOs are useful for
starting an organization with people you have limited trust (e.g., only communicating over the internet)
since you only need to trust the system design and no other single member.
Popular examples: BitDAO, Moloch, Maker

06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 36

Brief Insight into Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs)
Vision
§ Create a fully digital (virtual) organisation.
§ The organisation exclusively uses smart contracts to interact
with its shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers,
partners and public authorities.
§ These stakeholders can be humans or organizations in the
“real world” or other DAOs.

06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 37

Outline
1. Ecosystem
§ Historical Overview
§ Crowdsale Statistics
§ Technical Papers
§ Foundations
§ Network Metrics

2. System Architecture
§ Concept of a World Computer
§ EVM
§ Accounts
§ Blockchain Properties
§ Smart Contracts

3. Network Architecture
§ Overview
§ Node Types
§ Clients
§ Geth
§ OpenEthereum

06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 38

Network Architecture Overview

Pool participant Pool participant

Light node

Mining pool
Pool participant
provider
Light node

Full node Full node

Light node

Solo miner Full node Full node Full node

Solo miner

06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 39

Node Types

Full nodes
Full nodes are the foundation of the Ethereum network. Each full node holds a copy of the entire
blockchain and syncs it with other nodes. Transactions must be sent to a full node which distributes it
among the network participants.

Light nodes
A light node is a client that is connected to a full node for the sake of not having to sync and download
the entire blockchain. For most private people, light nodes are the most comfortable way of interacting
with the Ethereum blockchain. One of the most common light nodes is https://myetherwallet.com
(always triple check the domain).

Solo miner
A solo miner is an entity that tries to mine a block on its own. At the current network hashing rate this is
practically impossible. However, in order to mine a block it is required to have a synced copy of the full
blockchain.

Mining pools
Mining pools are a coalition of entities combining their hash power to solve a mining problem. A pool
consists of a controller that splits and distributes the mining puzzle among the participants.

06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 40

Popular Ethereum Implementations
Nodes with Clients
Not all Ethereum nodes are using the same code base. Since the
specification for an Ethereum node is open source, basically anyone could
create a different implementation. The two major Ethereum implementations
are:

Geth
The most commonly used and official Ethereum implementation. Geth is
implemented in Go and provides a command-line interface for running a full
node. Geth comes with a JavaScript console and a JSON RPC server.
Through which – if publicly exposed – other (light) nodes could connect to
the network.

OpenEthereum (former: Parity)

OpenEthereum is another popular Ethereum implementation in Rust with the
goal to be “the fastest, lightest, and most secure Ethereum client“.
OpenEthereum ships with a browser-based UI which is considered as a very
user-friendly way to interact with Ethereum. However, the multi-signature
wallet used by OpenEthereum was responsible for the biggest (based on
USD) hack in Ethereum’s history. The company Parity transitioned the Parity
codebase and maintenance to a DAO to allow for a continued development.
The Geth node is available at https://geth.ethereum.org/
The OpenEthereum node is available at https://github.com/openethereum/openethereum
06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 41
Announcement by Parity Technologies: Transitioning Parity Ethereum to OpenEthereum DAO
Peer Discovery

Both Geth and OpenEthereum have a maintained list of default peers hardcoded into their source
code. Otherwise, it would be possible that no nodes are found, and the sync will always fail.

The Geth client comes with 6 hardcoded peers:

1. Looks up
New Node

3. ack 2. hello message

Hardcoded Node

Once a node is selected, a hello message is sent to make an initial connection with the node.

06 Ethereum Basics © sebis 42