block (p.5): The block in Ethereum is the collection of relevant pieces of information (known as the block header), H, together with information corresponding to the comprised transactions, T, and a set of other block headers U that are known to have a parent equal to the present block's parent's parent (such blocks are known as ommers). (†2173)
block header (p. 12): Since a block header includes the difficulty, the header alone is enough to validate the computation done. Any block contributes toward the total computation or total difficulty of a chain. (†2047)
block reward (p.13): We define the block reward as 5 Ether: (150) Let Rb= 5x10^18 (†2333)
blockchain (p.2): In order to form a consensus as to which path, from root (the genesis block) to leaf (the
block containing the most recent transactions) through this tree structure, known as the blockchain, there must be an agreed-upon scheme. (†2048)
consensus mechanism (p.1): Technology-rooted movements like Bitcoin have demonstrated, through the power of the default, consensus mechanisms and voluntary respect of the social contract that it is possible to use the internet to make a decentralised value-transfer system, shared across the world and virtually free to use. This system can be said to be a very specialised version of a cryptographically secure, transaction-based state machine. (†2174)
Ethereum (p.2): Ethereum, taken as a whole, can be viewed as a transaction-based state machine: we begin with a genesis state and incrementally execute transactions to morph it into some final state. It is this fi nal state which we accept as the canonical "version" of the world of Ethereum. (†2049)
Ethereum (p.1): Ethereum is a project which attempts to build the generalised technology; technology on which all transaction-based state machine concepts may be built. Moreover it aims to provide to the end-developer a tightly integrated end-to-end system for building software on a hitherto unexplored
compute paradigm in the mainstream: a trustful object messaging compute framework. (†2050)
fork (p.2): If there is ever a disagreement between nodes as to which root-to-leaf path down the block tree is the ‘best’ blockchain, then a fork occurs.
(†2046)
hash value (p.2): Transactions are collated into blocks; blocks are chained together using a cryptographic hash as a means of
reference. (†2070)
Merkle Tree (p.17): The modified Merkle Patricia tree (trie) provides a persistent data structure to map between arbitrary-length binary data (byte arrays). It is defined in terms of a mutable data structure to map between 256-bit binary fragments and arbitrary-length binary data, typically implemented as a database. The core of the trie, and its sole requirement in terms of the protocol specification is to provide a single value that identifies a given set of key-value pairs, which may be either a 32 byte sequence or the empty byte sequence. It is left as an implementation consideration to store and maintain the structure of the trie in a manner the allows effective and efficient realisation of the protocol. (†2175)
mining (p.2): Mining is the process of dedicating effort (working) to bolster one series of transactions (a block) over any other potential competitor block. It is achieved thanks to a cryptographically secure proof. This scheme is known as a proof-of-work... (†2051)
mining (p.7): In general, Ether used to purchase gas that is not refunded is delivered to the bene ficiary address, the address of an account typically under the control of the miner. (†2071)
nonce (p.3): A scalar value equal to the number of transactions sent from this address or, in the case
of accounts with associated code, the number of contract-creations made by this account. (†2052)
nonce (p.5): A 64-bit hash which proves combined with the mix-hash that a sufficient amount of computation
has been carried out on this block... (†2053)
nonce (p.13): The mining proof-of-work (PoW) exists as a cryptographically secure nonce that proves beyond reasonable doubt that a particular amount of computation has been expended in the determination of some token value "n". (†2054)
parent block (p.6): Thus TRIE(LS(q)) is the root node hash of the Merkle Patricia tree structure containing the key-value pairs of the state q with values encoded using RLP, and P(BH) is the parent block of B, defined directly. (†2334)
peer-to-peer (p.1): In this instance, the token was used to keep peer-to-peer file trading in check, ensuring “consumers” be able to make micro-payments to “suppliers” for their services. (†2335)
proof of work (p.1): Five years later, Nakamoto [2008] introduced another such proof-of-work-secured value token, somewhat wider in scope. The fruits of this project, Bitcoin, became the first widely adopted global decentralised transaction ledger. (†2072)
proof of work (p.2): Mining is the process of dedicating effort (working) to bolster one series of transactions (a block) over any other potential competitor block. It is achieved thanks to a cryptographically secure proof. This scheme is known as a proof-of-work... (†2073)
public key (p.19): Where p(u) is the public key, assumed to be a byte array of size 64 (formed from the concatenation of two positive integers each< 2^256) and pr is the private key, a byte array of size 32 (or a single positive integer in the aforementioned range). (†2336)
smart contract (p.2): Early work on smart contracts has been done by Szabo [1997] and Miller [1997]. Around the 1990s it became clear that algorithmic enforcement of agreements could become a signfi cant force in human cooperation. (†2074)
transaction (s.v. Appendix A. Terminology): 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. (†2286)
transaction (p.4 ; s.v. "4.3 The Transaction"): A transaction (formally, T) is a single cryptographically-signed instruction constructed by
an actor externally to the scope of Ethereum. While is assumed that the ultimate external actor will be human in nature, software tools will be used in its construction and dissemination. There are two types of transactions: those which result in message calls and those which result in the creation of new accounts with associated code (known
informally as `contract creation'). (†2287)
