Book Image

Learn Ethereum - Second Edition

By : Xun (Brian) Wu, Zhihong Zou, Dongying Song
Book Image

Learn Ethereum - Second Edition

By: Xun (Brian) Wu, Zhihong Zou, Dongying Song

Overview of this book

Ethereum is a blockchain-based, decentralized computing platform that allows you to run smart contracts. With this book, you’ll discover the latest Ethereum tools, frameworks, wallets, and layer 2, along with setting up and running decentralized applications for the complete, end-to-end development experience. Learn Ethereum, 2nd Edition is a comprehensive overview of the Ethereum ecosystem, exploring its concepts, mechanisms, and decentralized application development process. You’ll delve into Ethereum's internals, technologies, and tools, including Ethereum 2.0 and the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), gas, and its account systems. You’ll also explore Ethereum's transition to proof of stake, L1/L2 scaling solutions, DeFi protocols, and the current marketplace. Additionally, you’ll learn about EVM-compatible blockchains, connectivity techniques, and advanced topics such as sharding, off-chain scaling, DAOs, Metaverse, and NFTs. By the end of this book, you’ll be well-equipped to write smart contracts and develop, test, and deploy DApps using various tools, wallets, and frameworks.
Table of Contents (24 chapters)
1
Part 1: Blockchain and Ethereum Basics
7
Part 2:Ethereum Development Fundamentals
11
Part 3: Ethereum Development Fundamentals
15
Part 4:Production and Deployment
20
Part 5:Conclusion

zkEVM and EVM improvements

At the heart of Ethereum is EVM, which acts as the engine that powers the entire Ethereum network. It is the runtime execution environment for smart contracts and the blockchain. Quite a few lower-level protocol improvements have been proposed, including some at the EVM opcode level. There are many discussions regarding account model improvement, including further account data abstraction. If you’re interested, you can check out the Ethereum EIP site for details (https://github.com/ethereum/EIPs/issues).

In the original Ethereum 2.0 roadmap, eWASM, the Ethereum version of WebAssembly (WASM), was considered the next generation of the EVM. WebAssembly is a W3C standard that defines the binary instruction set for a stack-based virtual machine. It intends to compile high-level languages such as C/C++/Rust and deploy them on the web similar to the JavaScript engine inside a web browser. It is supported by all four major browsers – that is, Safari...