Field Notes

entity

Ethereum

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Ethereum is a general-purpose programmable blockchain that supports smart contracts and decentralized applications. Its native currency is ether (ETH). It switched from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake in 2022, making it the largest PoS settlement layer by economic security.

Design

Ethereum runs a shared global state machine whose state transitions are defined by smart contract code executed in the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). Validators stake 32 ETH to participate in consensus, proposing and attesting to blocks in fixed 12-second slots. Protocol finality normally arrives after about 12 to 15 minutes.

The broad contract surface creates distinct failure modes. Application bugs, malicious token approvals, and bridge risk are not consensus failures but they can cost users funds, and they are more common on Ethereum than on narrower chains.

Privacy and speed

Ledger privacy is low by default: accounts, balances, contract calls, and events are public. Privacy must be added at the application or L2 layer.

Ethereum L2 rollups compress execution off-chain while settling proofs or disputes to the L1, offering lower cost at the expense of additional trust assumptions around sequencers, upgrade keys, proof systems, and data availability.

Cryptocurrency design comparison places Ethereum’s design beside Bitcoin, Monero, Solana, and Zcash.

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