Module 05 of 10

Ethereum & the EVM

Lessons

About This Module

Ethereum takes a different path from Bitcoin. Instead of tracking unspent outputs, it keeps a shared world state made up of accounts, each with a balance, a nonce and, for contracts, code and storage. A transaction does not consume coins; it asks the network to update that state.

You'll start with the two kinds of account, externally owned accounts (EOAs) and contract accounts, and how a transaction moves value or triggers code. Then you'll look at the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM): how it runs bytecode on a stack, and how gas meters every operation so that computation has a price. The module finishes with how state, storage and blocks fit together.

Once you understand the account model and the EVM, you'll be ready for the next module, Smart Contracts with Solidity, where you write the programs that run on it.

Lessons

3 videos
01

Accounts, Balances and Transactions

The difference between externally owned accounts and contract accounts, how nonces and balances work, and how a transaction updates Ethereum's state instead of spending outputs.

02

The EVM, Bytecode and Gas

How the Ethereum Virtual Machine executes bytecode on a stack, what opcodes do, and how gas limits and fees pay for computation and protect the network.

03

World State, Storage and Blocks

How Ethereum stores account state and contract storage, how blocks record the results of transactions, and how events and logs let applications read what happened.