Getting Started With Ethereum

This is a practical introduction to Ethereum: an asset and decentralised application platform.

One major keynote is knowing that the Ethereum currency unit is Ether(ETH). It is represented in smaller units as wei, where 1 ether is the equivalent of 10¹⁸ wei. It uses different units such as Babbage(10³wei), Lovelace(10⁶wei), Shannon(10⁹wei), Szabo(10¹²wei), Finney(10¹⁵wei), Ether(10¹⁸wei), Grand(10²¹wei) etc.

Wallets are gateways to accessing an Ethereum account; they can likely be linked to your bank accounts with Ethereum. A wallet requires your private keys. Examples of such wallets include Metamask, Jaxx, MyEtherWallet, and Emerald Wallet, to mention a few.

These are some key Security Principles in owning a wallet

✓ Control your private keys.

✓ Use robust passwords and reliable backup solutions.

✓ Test with small amounts first.

✓ Never store private keys digitally.

✓ Backup mnemonic phrases securely.

Using the Metamask wallet
✓ Create MetaMask DApp extension for Google Chrome and install.

✓ Get your mnemonic backup once your wallet is created, usually 12 words.

✓ You can switch to Test Network, like Kovan, Ropsten, Rinkeby, for testing.

✓ Connect to a node, which can be a public or private blockchain, whichever case applies.

✓ Get your wallet funded from a testnet faucet.

✓ View your transaction on Etherscan( Ethereum explorer)

Note: RPC( Remote Procedure Call) permits you to connect your wallet to any node(Private or Public blockchain).

Two Account Types:

✓ Externally Owned Accounts (EOAs): They have private keys and are owned by a user (like your MetaMak wallet).

✓ Contract Accounts — Have smart contract code, no private keys, governed by their code.

Smart contract is written in a high-level programming language called Solidity. We can have a simple faucet smart contract implementation in Solidity that:

✓ Accepts ether deposits

✓ Makes Withdrawals available at 0.1 ETH

✓ Demonstrates basic contract functionality

✓ Run contract on Ropsten testnet using Remix IDE

✓ Performs Contract interactions like deposits and withdrawals.

To have a clearer understanding of transaction mechanisms, such as gas costs, internal transactions, how contracts run when called, Wallet creation, smart contract deployment, and interaction. You can check the reference below.

Ethereum as World Computer: More than cryptocurrency, Ethereum enables the operation of smart contracts on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) — a worldwide, shared computer.

Reference; ethereumbook/02intro.asciidoc at develop · ethereumbook/ethereumbook · GitHub