getting ready for ethereum frontier (ethereum toronto meetup) presented by paul paschos
TRANSCRIPT
This presentation will be available on YouTube. A link will be posted in the comments section of this
meetup.
About Ethereum Toronto• Website: www.meetup.com/ethereumtoronto
• Twitter: @ethereumtoronto
• Are you interested in?
• Hosting an Ethereum event
• Assisting with organizing
• Presenting a Topic
• Suggest topics for discussion
• Contact us at [email protected]
Overview• Why are Blockchains Useful?
• Decentralized Apps currently under development
• Ethereum Frontier Launch
• The Transition from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake
• Ethash
• A Quick Mining Update
• Ethereum Network Status Monitor
– Vitalik Buterin
“A blockchain is a magic computer that anyone can upload programs to and leave the programs to self-execute, where the
current and all previous states of every program are always publicly visible, and which carries a very strong
cryptoeconomically secured guarantee that programs running on the chain will continue to execute in exactly the way that the
protocol specifies.”
Why are Blockchains Useful?• Blockchains are useful because they provide the following guarantees:
• Guaranteed data availability
• Guaranteed sharing of data stores - enables use of data stores (including reputation)
• Guaranteed uptime...very far into the future
• Guaranteed transparency in the execution of code - Rogue code can not be inserted
• Guaranteed communication between blockchain apps - apps can talk to each other with 100% realiability
Guarantees allow for decentralized base layer services
• DApps may plug into into these services
• The cost curve of these services approaches zero making these services behave like a public good
• Examples:
• Identity (No need to trust Twitter, Facebook, Google)
• Domain name registration
• Certificate validity information
• Data feeds (prices, weather, other information)
Frontier Homestead Metropolis Serenity
Intended Audience
Exchangers & Miners DApp Builders DApp Users DApp Users
Interface Command Line Command Line GUI (Mist) GUI (Mist)
MiningProof of Work with
Checkpointing Proof of Work Proof of Work Proof of Stake
Mining Rate 10% 100% 100% N/A
Account Balance Carry Over Y Y Y Y
Contract Balance Carry Over N Y Y Y
Frontier
• Everything except account balances will be erased when Homestead is launched
• Bitcoin exchanges up and running at launch
• Checkpointing every 24 hours
• Official exchanges will use this checkpointing service to protect traded assets from potential blockchain rollbacks
Ether Sale Redemption• Ether purchased during the Ether Sale last year will be redeemable
at Frontier Launch
• Instructions to redeem ether will be made available at Frontier Launch
• Redemption will be done through the Command Line as there is no GUI in the Frontier release
• If you are not comfortable using Command Line, then wait for a future release that is more user friendly and includes a point-and-click GUI
Mining Update• Mining Algorithm is called Ethash
• Ethash mining algorithms Hashimoto by Thaddeus Dryja and Dagger by Vitalik Buterin
• Rapid Block Time: 12 8 seconds (decreases with increasing difficulty)
• Mining Pools will not be available at launch
• Features: ASIC resistant, Light Client Verifiable, Full Chain Storage
Mining Update
• ASIC resistant - Reading from memory (RAM) I/O operations is used as the limiting factor in the mining process instead of computer power
• ASIC resistant - Memory-hard computation but memory-easy validation
• Light Client Verifiable - Light clients are supported but mining rewards are only provided to clients running a full node.
• Fast light client boot time of 40 seconds
• Full Chain Storage - Those running a full client get mining rewards. This incentivizes the running of full nodes
• ASIC resistance and a mix of Full Node and Light clients results in a highly decentralized network
GPU Mining• At this stage, mining requires users to be comfortable using the
Command Line
• The most up to date information is available on the mining forums on forums.ethereum.org
• 1+ GB Video Memory required, 2 GB Video Memory recommended
• Implementation written in OpenCL so AMD GPUs will be ‘faster’ than NVIDIA GPUs
etherapps.info/stats/miningScreen capture taken on May 18th. Top 3 addresses are getting > 50% of the mining
rewards
Ethereum Network Status MonitorGoogle “Ethereum Network Status”
http://stats.ethdev.com
How to get involved• Join our meetup “Ethereum Toronto” on meetup.com
• www.ethereum.org
• www.ethdev.com
• Ethereum Blog blog.ethereum.org
• Ethereum Forums forums.ethereum.org
• Reddit Community r/ethereum
• Twitter @ethereumproject
• IRC webchat: https://bit.ly/IRC_ethereum
• IRC #ethereum and #ethereum-dev