Ethereum:

Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain platform that establishes a peer-to-peer

network that securely executes and verifies application code, called smart
contracts. Smart contracts allow participants to transact with each other without a
trusted central authority. At its core, Ethereum is a decentralized global software
platform powered by blockchain technology. It is most commonly known for its
native cryptocurrency, ether (ETH).

Founder of Ethereum:
Vitalik Buterin (born January 31, 1994) is a Russian-Canadian computer
programmer and founder of Ethereum.

Technology used:
Ethereum is an open source, distributed software platform based on blockchain
technology. It has its own native cryptocurrency called Ether and a programming
language called Solidity. Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology that keeps a
permanent, tamper-proof list of records.
Ethereum Nodes and Client:
A "Node" is any instance of Ethereum client software that is connected to other
computers also running Ethereum software, forming a network.

A "Client" is an implementation of Ethereum that verifies data against the

protocol rules and keeps the network secure.

Types of Ethereum Nodes:

There are three widely known Ethereum nodes that are used: Full nodes, Archive
nodes, and Light nodes.
Full nodes
 Stores full blockchain data (although this is periodically pruned so a full
node does not store all state data back togenesis)

 Participates in block validation, verifies all blocks and states.

 All states can be derived from a full node (although very old states are
reconstructed from requests made to archive nodes)

 Serves the network and provides data on request.

Light nodes:
 Stores only the block header and depends on full node.

 For low capacity devices which cannot afford to store the gigabytes of data.

 The light nodes do not participate in consensus (i.e. they cannot

beminers/validators), but they can access the Ethereum blockchain with the
samefunctionality as a fullnode.

Archive nodes:
 Stores everything kept in the full node and built an archive of historical data.

 Requires terabytes of diskspace.

EthereumAccounts:
An Ethereum account is an entity with an ether (ETH) balance that can send or
receive transactions on Ethereum.
Types of Ethereum Accounts:

Externally Owned Accounts (EOA):

An EOA is controlled by a private key, has no associated code, and can send
transactions

Contract Accounts(CA):

 A contract account has an associated code that executes when it receives a

transaction from an EOA.
 A contract account cannot initiate transactions on its own. Transactions must
always originate from an EOA.
 Controlled by contract code.
EOA VS CA