Unit 1 · Level 2 · Ethereum & the EVM world
Review: the EVM world
Ethereum is a shared computer: EOAs (people with keys) and contract accounts (code) act on it, every action burns gas, and the EVM executes it all identically on thousands of machines. Standards like ERC-20 and ERC-721 make tokens plug-and-play, and EVM compatibility spread that whole toolkit across dozens of chains. Let's see what stuck.
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What you get asked
Gas prices are spiking today. What's actually happening?
Fees are an auction. When demand for the chain jumps, users outbid each other and the price per unit of gas climbs.
Chains copy the EVM so that contracts, developer tools and ___ work with few changes.
EVM compatibility means users bring the wallets they know and developers bring the code they've already written.
Match each term to its definition
Five words that describe most of what happens on Ethereum in any given second.
Smart contracts 'run exactly as written'. What's the uncomfortable flip side?
In 2016, a bug in a contract called The DAO let an attacker drain roughly $60M. The code did exactly what it said, not what its authors meant. Unstoppable cuts both ways.
Big picture: what is the 'EVM world' this unit described?
Programs calling programs, tokens plugging into apps, one engine spread across many chains. Next question: what happens when the whole world tries to squeeze in? 🐜
The rest of this unit
A gas-powered world computer, and the standard half of crypto copied.