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The Ethereum Blockchain
Preface: This course is not intended to replace the high quality Rocket Pool documentation. This is a high level overview to present a complicated protocol in a more easily digestible way.
Before explaining Rocket Pool, one needs a basic understanding of the Ethereum blockchain. A blockchain is essentially a public database of transactions duplicated and maintained over a peer-to-peer network of nodes. Since anyone can run a node, the blockchain is not owned by any private entity or government. A large part of its functionality is to act as a ledger, recording transactions of cryptographic currency. The open nature of the chain means that all these transactions are publicly viewable. New information on the ledger is added as a block of data, old information is never destroyed or changed, thus maintaining an accurate history of events.
The Ethereum blockchain's base unit is the Ether (ETH). Creating transactions to record data on-chain requires a small payment of ETH called gas. ETH is a fungible digital coin that has value in fiat currencies based on its perceived or potential utility and scarcity. This is analogous to Bitcoin, which is the base unit of a separate and independent blockchain. Unlike the Bitcoin blockchain, however, Ethereum can store and run programs called smart contracts.
Effectively, smart contracts are programs stored at an on-chain address that can be run under certain conditions. They greatly expand the use of Ethereum.
To interact with Ethereum, we need to know about nodes and validators...