Ethereum architectural software
When I started being interested in the blockchain, I found 2 kinds of literature on the subject: Both were very useful to me as a starter and I'm very grateful to the authors. An example of literature of the first kind is the book from Don Tapscott " The Blockchain Revolution ". It describes in detail recent start-ups that use the blockchain in different application domains.
It was very comforting to see that there are people who are succeeding in applying their blockchain ideas in the real world. But the book said nothing about the fundamental actors who are actually developing the core software and the helper tools around it.
And the book said nothing about the dark sides of the blockchain. This is an ambitious goal and I'll not pretend to address all the above questions in a single post or even two, but I'll try to go in that direction. I hope that this might be of any help for you to better understand the technical landscape.
To guide this explanation, we'll also consider a supporting question "does it make sense to set blockchain standards"? I'm not a blockchain master, just an "advanced beginner" In any case, your comments are more than welcome. In the following text, I'll assume that you know what is a blockchain, a bitcoin and Ethereum. If not, you may want to quickly read my trilogy on LinkedIn describing the blockchain in plain words , the Bitcoin in plain words , and the comparison between Ethereum and Bitcoin in plain words.
Now that you know what is a blockchain itself, what is a blockchain network? Each one is called a node. They participate to the "gossip" network by listening to peer nodes for announcement of new transactions and newly validated blocks, and exchanging data with their peers. Each full node stores a complete copy of the blockchain and can send a copy of any block of it to whichever peer asking for it. Each node maintains, for the virtual machine executing the transactions, the "state of the universe" issued from the data they collect.
It is possible that alternative Ethereum-based networks could be established, which utilize the same open source source code and open source protocol underlying the Ethereum Platform. The Ethereum network may compete with these alternative Ethereum-based networks, which could potentially negatively impact the Ethereum Platform and ETH. It is possible that the Ethereum Platform will not be used by a large number of external businesses, individuals, and other organizations and that there will be limited public interest in the creation and development of distributed applications.
Such a lack of interest could impact the development of the Ethereum Platform and potential uses of ETH. It cannot predict the success of its own development efforts or the efforts of other third parties. The User recognizes that the Ethereum Platform is under development and may undergo significant changes before release. The User acknowledges that any expectations regarding the form and functionality of the Ethereum Platform held by the User may not be met upon release of the Ethereum Platform, for any number of reasons including a change in the design and implementation plans and execution of the implementation of the Ethereum Platform.
The Ethereum Platform rests on open-source software, and there is a risk that the Ethereum Stiftung or the Ethereum Team, or other third parties not directly affiliated with the Stiftung Ethereum, may introduce weaknesses or bugs into the core infrastructural elements of the Ethereum Platform causing the system to lose ETH stored in one or more User accounts or other accounts or lose sums of other valued tokens issued on the Ethereum Platform.
Cryptography is an art, not a science. And the state of the art can advance over time. Advances in code cracking, or technical advances such as the development of quantum computers, could present risks to cryptocurrencies and the Ethereum Platform, which could result in the theft or loss of ETH.
To the extent possible, Stiftung Ethereum intends to update the protocol underlying the Ethereum Platform to account for any advances in cryptography and to incorporate additional security measures, but it cannot predict the future of cryptography or guarantee that any security updates will be made in a timely or successful manner. As with other cryptocurrencies, the blockchain used for the Ethereum Platform is susceptible to mining attacks, including but not limited to:.
Any successful attacks present a risk to the Ethereum Platform, expected proper execution and sequencing of ETH transactions, and expected proper execution and sequencing of contract computations. Despite the efforts of the Ethereum Stiftung and Team, known or novel mining attacks may be successful. Under such a scenario, the entire Ethereum Platform could become destabilized, due to the increased cost of running distributed applications. Instability in the demand of for ETH may lead to a negative change of the economical parameters of an Ethereum based business which could result in the business being unable to continue to operate economically or to cease operation.
If the Ethereum Platform is rapidly adopted, the demand for transaction processing and distributed application computations could rise dramatically and at a pace that exceeds the rate with which ETH miners can bring online additional mining power.
Insufficiency of computational resources and an associated rise in the price of ETH could result in businesses being unable to acquire scarce computational resources to run their distributed applications. This would represent revenue losses to businesses or worst case, cause businesses to cease operations because such operations have become uneconomical due to distortions in the crypto-economy.
We recommend any groups handling large or important transactions to maintain a voluntary 24 hour waiting period on any ether deposited. In case the integrity of the network is at risk due to issues in the clients, we will endeavor to publish patches in a timely fashion to address the issues. We will endeavour to provide solutions within the voluntary 24 hour waiting period.
All disputes or claims arising out of, relating to, or in connection with the Terms, the breach thereof, or use of the Ethereum Platform shall be finally settled under the Rules of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce by one or more arbitrators appointed in accordance with said Rules.
All claims between the parties relating to these Terms that are capable of being resolved by arbitration, whether sounding in contract, tort, or otherwise, shall be submitted to ICC arbitration. Prior to commencing arbitration, the parties have a duty to negotiate in good faith and attempt to resolve their dispute in a manner other than by submission to ICC arbitration. The arbitration panel shall consist of one arbitrator only, unless the ICC Court of Arbitration determines that the dispute is such as to warrant three arbitrators.
If the Court determines that one arbitrator is sufficient, then such arbitrator shall be Swiss resident. All nominations must be Swiss resident. If a party fails to nominate an arbitrator, the Court will do so.
The Court shall also appoint the chairman. The place of arbitration shall be Zug, Switzerland. The language of the arbitration shall be English. In deciding the merits of the dispute, the tribunal shall apply the laws of Switzerland and any discovery shall be limited and shall not involve any depositions or any other examinations outside of a formal hearing.
The tribunal shall not assume the powers of amiable compositeur or decide the case ex aequo et bono. In the final award, the tribunal shall fix the costs of the arbitration and decide which of the parties shall bear such costs in what proportion.
Every award shall be binding on the parties. The parties undertake to carry out the award without delay and waive their right to any form of recourse against the award in so far as such waiver can validly be made. Ethereum is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: These apps run on a custom built blockchain, an enormously powerful shared global infrastructure that can move value around and represent the ownership of property.
This enables developers to create markets, store registries of debts or promises, move funds in accordance with instructions given long in the past like a will or a futures contract and many other things that have not been invented yet, all without a middleman or counterparty risk.
The project was bootstrapped via an ether presale in August by fans all around the world. It is developed by the Ethereum Foundation , a Swiss non-profit, with contributions from great minds across the globe. On traditional server architectures, every application has to set up its own servers that run their own code in isolated silos, making sharing of data hard. If a single app is compromised or goes offline, many users and other apps are affected.