Ethereum blockchain

• can be visualized as a transaction-based state

machine.
• The core idea is that in Ethereum blockchain, a
genesis state is transformed into a final state
by executing transactions incrementally.
• The final transformation is then accepted as
the absolute undisputed version of the state.

Prepared By Dr.Saranya K G
Ethereum State Transition Diagram
Prepared By Dr.Saranya K G
• transfer of two Ether from address 4718bf7a
to address 741f7a2 is initiated.
• The initial state represents the state before
the transaction execution, and the final state
is what the morphed state looks like.
• Mining plays a central role in state transition.
• The state is stored on the Ethereum network
as the world state.
• This is the global state of the Ethereum
blockchain.

Prepared By Dr.Saranya K G
 Ethereum – bird's eye view
First either a user requests money by sending the request to the
sender, or the sender decides to send money to the receiver.
The request can be sent by sending the receivers Ethereum address
to the sender. For example, there are two users, Bashir and Irshad. If
Irshad requests money from Bashir, then she can send a request to
Bashir by using QR code.
Once Bashir receives this request he will either scan the QR code or
manually type in Irshad's Ethereum address and send Ether to
Irshad's address.
This request is encoded as a QR code shown in the following
screenshot which can be shared via email, text or any other
communication methods. You can download Jaxx wallet from
https://jaxx.io.

Prepared By Dr.Saranya K G
QR code as shown in the blockchain wallet application
Prepared By Dr.Saranya K G
2. Once Bashir receives this request he will either
scan this QR code or copy the Ethereum address in
the Ethereum wallet software and initiate a
transaction.
This process is shown in the following screenshot
where the Jaxx Ethereum wallet software on iOS is
used to send money to Irshad.
The following screenshot shows that the sender has
entered both the amount and destination address
for sending Ether.
Just before sending the Ether the final step is to
confirm the transaction which is also shown here:

Prepared By Dr.Saranya K G
Prepared By Dr.Saranya K G
3. Once the request (transaction) of sending money is constructed in
the wallet software, it is then broadcasted to the Ethereum
network. The transaction is digitally signed by the sender as
proof that he is the owner of the Ether.
4. This transaction is then picked up by nodes called miners on the
Ethereum network for verification and inclusion in the block. At
this stage, the transaction is still unconfirmed.
5. Once it is verified and included in the block, the PoW process
starts.
6. Once a miner finds the answer to the PoW problem, by
repeatedly hashing the block with a new nonce, this block is
immediately broadcasted to the rest of the nodes which then
verifies the block and PoW.
7. If all the checks pass then this block is added to the blockchain,
and miners are paid rewards accordingly.
8. Finally, Irshad gets the Ether, and it is shown in her wallet
software. Prepared By Dr.Saranya K G
The transaction received in Irshad's blockchain wallet
Prepared By Dr.Saranya K G
On the blockchain, this transaction is identified by
the following transaction hash:

0xc63dce6747e1640abd63ee63027c3352aed8cdb
92b6a02ae25225666e171009e

Prepared By Dr.Saranya K G
Prepared By Dr.Saranya K G
Etherscan Ethereum blockchain block explorer
Prepared By Dr.Saranya K G
 The Ethereum network
• The Ethereum network is a peer-to-peer
network where nodes participate in order to
maintain the blockchain and contribute to the
consensus mechanism.
• Networks can be divided into three types,
based on requirements and usage.

Prepared By Dr.Saranya K G
 Mainnet
• Mainnet is the current live network of
Ethereum. The current version of mainnet is
Byzantium (Metropolis) and its chain ID is 1.
• Chain ID is used to identify the network.
• A block explorer which shows detailed
information about blocks and other relevant
metrics is available at https://etherscan.io.
• This can be used to explore the Ethereum
blockchain.

Prepared By Dr.Saranya K G
 Testnet
• Testnet is also called Ropsten and is the widely used test
network for the Ethereum blockchain.
• This test blockchain is used to test smart contracts and DApps
before being deployed to the production live blockchain.
• Moreover, being a test network, it allows experimentation and
research.
• The main testnet is called Ropsten which contains all features of
other smaller and special purpose testnets that were created for
specific releases.
• For example, other testnets include Kovan and Rinkeby which
were developed for testing Byzantium releases.
• The changes that were implemented on these smaller testnets
has also been implemented on Ropsten.
• Now the Ropsten test network contains all properties of Kovan
and Rinkeby.
Prepared By Dr.Saranya K G
 Private net
• As the name suggests, this is the private network
that can be created by generating a new
genesis block.
• This is usually the case in private blockchain
distributed ledger networks, where a private
group of entities start their blockchain and use
it as a permissioned blockchain.
• The following table shows the list of Ethereum
network with their network IDs.
• These network IDs are used to identify the
network by Ethereum clients.
Prepared By Dr.Saranya K G
Prepared By Dr.Saranya K G
Prepared By Dr.Saranya K G
 Trie
Patricia trees:
• A trie, or a digital tree, is an ordered tree data
structure used to store a dataset.
• Practical Algorithm to Retrieve Information Coded
in Alphanumeric (Patricia), also known as Radix
tree, is a compact representation of a trie in which
a node that is the only child of a parent is merged
with its parent.
• A Merkle-Patricia tree, based on the definitions of
Patricia and Merkle, is a tree that has a root node
which contains the hash value of the entire data
structure.
Prepared By Dr.Saranya K G
 Distributed Hash Tables

• A hash table is a data structure that is used to

map keys to values.
• Internally, a hash function is used to calculate
an index into an array of buckets from which
the required value can be found.
• Buckets have records stored in them using a
hash key and are organized into a particular
order.

Prepared By Dr.Saranya K G
• With the definition provided earlier in mind,
one can think of a DHT as a data structure
where data is spread across various nodes,
and nodes are equivalent to buckets in a
peer-to-peer network.

Prepared By Dr.Saranya K G
Prepared By Dr.Saranya K G
• Data is passed through a hash function, which
then generates a compact key.
• This key is then linked with the data (values)
on the peer-to-peer network.
• When users on the network request the data
(via the filename), the filename can be
hashed again to produce the same key, and
any node on the network can then be
requested to find the corresponding data.
• DHT provides decentralization, fault
tolerance, and scalability
Prepared By Dr.Saranya K G
• Another application of hash functions is in
digital signatures, where they can be used in
combination with asymmetric cryptography.

Prepared By Dr.Saranya K G