# Ethereum: A Secure Decentralised Generalised Transaction Ledger (Yellow Paper) Content type: Research Paper Summary: The Ethereum Yellow Paper, authored by Gavin Wood, serves as the formal technical specification for the Ethereum protocol. Unlike the original whitepaper, which focused on conceptual design, the Yellow Paper provides a rigorous mathematical definition of the state transition function, the account model, and the transaction processing rules. It details the precise implementation of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), including opcodes, stack operations, and storage layouts. This document is essen Key concepts: Gavin Wood, ethereum, yellow paper, protocol specification, formal verification, evm, blockchain architecture
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Ethereum: A Secure Decentralised Generalised Transaction Ledger (Yellow Paper)

Gavin Wood

Technical ReportJanuary 2014

Abstract

The Ethereum Yellow Paper, authored by Gavin Wood, serves as the formal technical specification for the Ethereum protocol. Unlike the original whitepaper, which focused on conceptual design, the Yellow Paper provides a rigorous mathematical definition of the state transition function, the account model, and the transaction processing rules. It details the precise implementation of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), including opcodes, stack operations, and storage layouts. This document is essential for developers building Ethereum-compatible clients and provides the canonical reference for the protocol's mechanics, ensuring consistency across the decentralized network. It remains the gold standard for understanding how Ethereum maintains its global state.

Key Findings

  • 1Provided the formal mathematical model for the Ethereum state transition function.
  • 2Defined the technical specifications for the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).
  • 3Established the account-based ledger model vs. the UTXO model.
  • 4Specified the serialization and consensus rules for the network.

Topics

ethereumyellow paperprotocol specificationformal verificationevmblockchain architecture
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Citation

Gavin Wood (2014). Ethereum: A Secure Decentralised Generalised Transaction Ledger (Yellow Paper). Technical Report. https://ethereum.github.io/yellowpaper/paper.pdf

BibTeX

@misc{ethereuma2014,
  title = {Ethereum: A Secure Decentralised Generalised Transaction Ledger (Yellow Paper)},
  author = {Gavin Wood},
  year = {2014},
  howpublished = {\url{https://ethereum.github.io/yellowpaper/paper.pdf}},
}

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