Presentation first given at Redecentralise, London.

1. Ethereum
The world computer
Dr. Gavin Wood
co-founder and lead developer, ethereum project
@gavofyork

2. What, then why. Not how.
Break it down

4. Important Things to Forget
Coin
Crypto
Currency
Bit
Ledger
ChainBlock
Transaction
Hash
Proof of work
Proof of stake
Consensus
Fork
Miner
Sign
ASIC
Curve
Contract

5. What is Ethereum?

8. It’s a Computer, Silly!
Slow
Code runs 5-100x slower that natively compiled
Expensive to use
Basic computation, memory and storage costs are ~1950s levels
Not always immediately decisive
Actions of last 60s may be reorganised

9. Sounds. Awesome.

10. Actually, it is.
Truly Global Singleton
One computer for the entire planet now and forever
Cannot Fail, be Stopped, be Censored
No authority, government or corporation behind it, resistant to attack
Ubiquitous
Where ever there’s Internet, there’s Ethereum

11. Natively Multi-User
Has as many accounts as is needed
Natively Object-Oriented
Encapsulation enforced in “virtual silicon”
Accessible
Where ever there’s Javascript, there’s Ethereum
Verifyable & Auditable
All code honoured now and forever

12. Simile
Internet is to communication
as
Ethereum is to computation

13. External account
Object (code)
message
Storage
The World Computer
The World
Computer

14. Guarantees
Atomicity
Entire operation runs or nothing does
Synchrony
No two operations can interfere with each other
Provenance
All messages (method calls) can be inspected to determine caller address

15. Guarantees
Permanence
Object’s data are permanent
Immortality
Object can never be externally deleted - can only voluntarily commit suicide
Immutability
Object’s code can never be changed

16. Counter

17. Alice
Bob
Counter
like(Cake)
Cake -> 1

18. Alice
Bob
Counter
like(Reggae)
Cake -> 1
Reggae -> 1

19. Alice
Bob
Counter
like(Cake)
Cake -> 2
Reggae -> 1

20. Objects can Call Each Other
e.g. Multi-signature “Marriage contract” could
act as individual in terms of voting

21. Charlie
Marilyn
Counter
Cake -> 2
Reggae -> 1
Marriage
Charlie,Marilyn

22. Charlie
Marilyn
Counter
auth(Counter.like(Cake))
Cake -> 2
Reggae -> 1
Marriage
Charlie,Marilyn
Pending message:
Counter.
like(Cake)
Auth: Marilyn

23. Charlie
Marilyn
Counter
auth(Counter.like(Cake))
Cake -> 3
Reggae -> 1
Marriage
Charlie,Marilyn
like(Cake)

24. Only Changes Cost
Network takes fees for operations that alter
objects.
Operations that merely inspect the object are
gratis.

25. Counter
Cake -> 3
Reggae -> 1
winning
Cake
3 votes
then
Reggae
1 vote
Inspect

26. Why?
World Computer

27. Compared to the walled garden of the server
Ethereum is an
Innovation Commons

28. Servers are Walled Gardens
Interoperability Difficult
Reliability, standards, trust, security collude to make it a nightmare
Increased Barriers
Naturally supportive of monopolies;
try integrating trade or payment without a third party
Cumbersome
Servers are expensive to set up and maintain;
Ethereum is always-on, always ready

29. Not to mention Privacy
Privacy
Less siloing of user-data; less intermediation; more privacy
Security
Security through nihilism; there’s no server to hack!
Authenticity
All interactions with the Global Computer are cryptographically signed:
Unauthorised Interactions are Impossible

30. Ubiquitous and ethereal
Ethereum is the First
Decentralised Computer

31. Centralisation & Central Authorities
Single point of control
Single point of failure
Single bottleneck

32. Software Development
Individual coders
Strict hierarchy “cathedral”
Open-source hackers “bazaar”
Clones and forks (Github-style)

33. Computing
Isolated (no network)
Mainframe
Server/client
Peer-to-peer

34. (Rough) Progression of Governance
Anarchy
Monarchy/Empire/Fiefdoms
Plutocracy/Aristocracy
Bureaucracy/“Democracy”

35. Distance sales
Back-of-magazine (close to zero)
Amazon
One Matchmaker, One Merchant
eBay/Amazon Marketplace
One Matchmaker, Many Merchants
…
No Matchmakers, Many Merchants

36. Communication
Word-of-Mouth (close to zero)
Press/Radio/Television
Internet
Mobile Mesh?

37. General Theme
Nothing
...strong individual imposes order; progress to...
Centralisation
...order enables cooperation; progress towards...
Decentralisation
Efficient
Resilient
Scalable
...or natural order?

38. A bridge across trust boundaries
Ethereum Commoditises
Trust

39. Ethereum
Platform for Zero-trust Computing
for
autonomous trading
smart contracts
interoperable infrastructure
permissions management
trust webs ...

40. Underpins, specifies and enforces dealings
Ethereum as the Court of
the Internet

41. Ethereum & Crypto-law
Uses blockchain to implement arbitrary
social contracts without a central server

42. Pivotal in the (re-)decentralisation of the
Internet
Ethereum and the
Serverless Internet

43. Ethereum & Web3
Infrastructure for the ITC revolution
Ethereum Zero-trust computing
Whisper Private asynchronous bulletins
Telehash Private realtime comms
IPFS/Swarm Decentralised data distribution

44. Use Cases
Supply Chain
track & tag assets & materials through the supply chain to aid consumer choice
Decentralised Finance
Vouchers, tokens and assets; all programmable
Prediction Markets
Crowd source information through market mechanisms

45. Ethereum
The world computer
Dr. Gavin Wood
@gavofyork
Questions?