What Is Ethereum? The Decentralized World Computer

Beyond a Decentralized Ledger

While Bitcoin was created primarily as a peer-to-peer electronic monetary ledger, Ethereum was conceptualized in late 2013 by programmer Vitalik Buterin to expand blockchain capabilities into a general-purpose, programmable computing platform.

Ethereum allows developers to deploy arbitrary programs called smart contracts that run exactly as written without downtime, censorship, or third-party interference.

The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)

At the center of Ethereum is the EVM, a sandboxed virtual runtime environment executing bytecode instructions across tens of thousands of validator nodes concurrently. The EVM maintains a single, canonical global state that updates deterministically with each new block.

Account-Based State Model

Unlike Bitcoin’s UTXO model, Ethereum uses an account-based architecture similar to traditional banking balances. There are two types of accounts:

• Externally Owned Accounts (EOAs): Controlled by private keys held by humans.
• Contract Accounts: Governed by stored bytecode and executed when called by transactions or other contracts.