Blockchain has some unique properties that make it powerful. It uses all the benefits of decentralized systems. Blockchains can replace the TTP (the middleman) and provide the required trust. The irreversibility of transactions makes blockchain secure and attack-proof.
Ethereum is one of the implementations of blockchain. Bitcoin blockchain has its scripting language, but it is not Turing-complete. Ethereum supports the Turing-complete Solidity language, which we can use to write smart contracts. At the moment, Ethereum transaction processing is slow. In the future, it is going to have some upgrades, which could improve the transaction processing speed of the overall Ethereum blockchain network.
Blockchain makes smart contracts immutable, which opens up a new way of programming in the new paradigm. Smart contracts can cause problems if deployed on production without due diligence and testing.
In the next chapter, we will learn about the most popular smart contract language, Solidity. We will go through contract structures, data types, global variables, and more.