Ethereum
Foundational blockchain technology
Ethereum
The Energy Web blockchain is derived from Ethereum blockchain technology. Ethereum provides a strong foundation for the Energy Web Chain because it is open-source, widely used, and many well-developed tools for development on Ethereum exist today.
Ethereum-based technology is used as EW-DOS's trust layer because anyone can use Ethereum to build and deploy decentralized applications that run on blockchain technology. This aligns with the purpose of EW-DOS, which is to build decentralized, open-sourced applications that accelerate decarbonization of the energy grid.
What Sets Ethereum Apart from Other Blockchains?
Prior to Ethereum, most blockchains were protocols created to exist as a public, decentralized ledger for financial transactions (think Bitcoin).
Ethereum developed the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) to allow users to store and execute programs on the Ethereum blockchain. This lets programmers write programs that contain logic and state management, both which are critical to decentralized applications (dapps). These programs are called smart contracts. Once it is deployed on the blockchain, a smart contract has an address on the blockchain and anyone can use to interact with the contract or call its public functions. You can read more about how to interact with smart contracts here.
This means that blockchain technology can not only be used to buy and trade cryptocurrency, but also to create robust applications for decentralized finance, asset trading, gaming and, in our case, a decentralized energy market.
Read an overview of Ethereum and the Ethereum Virtual Machine on the Ethereum documentation's "What is Ethereum" section here.
Ethereum Fundamentals
The Energy Web Chain is derived from Ethereum, but it is a separate blockchain using a different consensus protocol and unique governance mechanisms. However, most of the fundamentals of the Ethereum network are the same for the Energy Web Chain. These fundamentals are helpful in understanding the role that blockchain technology plays in EW-DOS. This is especially true if you want to develop and deploy smart contracts on the Energy Web Chain.
If you are unfamiliar with Blockchain technology, or the Ethereum Virtual Network, there are some additional resources below to get you started.
Transactions (this is an overview of transactions in Ethereum, but we explain more about transactions on the Energy Web Chain here)
Additional Resources
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