Ethereum is a blockchain protocol that includes a programming language which allows for applications, called contracts, to run within the blockchain. Initially described in a white paper by it’s creator, Vitalik Buterin in late 2013, Ethereum was created as a platform for the development of decentralized applications that can do more than make simple coin transfers.

How does it work?

Ethereum is a blockchain. In general, a blockchain is a chain of data structures (blocks) that contains information such as account ids, balances, and transaction histories. Blockchains are distributed across a network of computers; the computers are often referred to as nodes.

Cryptography is a major part of blockchain technology. Mathematical encryption algorithms like RSA and ECDSA are used to generate public and private keys that are mathematically coupled. Public keys, or addresses, and private keys allow people to make transactions across the network without involving any personal information like name, address, date of birth, etc. These keys and addresses are often called hashes and are usually a long string on hexadecimal symbols.

Example of an RSA generated public key

Blockchains have a public ledger that keeps track of all transactions that have occurred since the first, “genesis”, block. A block will include, at least, a hash of the current and previous blocks, and some data. Nodes across the network work to verify transactions and add them to the public ledger. In order for a transaction to be considered legitimate, there must be consensus.

Consensus means that the transaction is considered valid by the majority of the nodes in the Network. There are four main algorithms used to achieve consensus among a distributed blockchain network: the byzantine fault tolerance, proof-of-work, proof-of-stake, and delegated proof-of-stake. Chris explains them well in his post.

Attempting to make even the slightest alteration to the data in a block will change the hash of the block and will therefore be noticed by the entire network. This makes blockchains immutable and append-only. A transaction can only be added at the end of the chain, and once a transaction is added to a block there can be no changes made to it.

Source: andrefortuna.org

Accounts

Users of Ethereum control an account that has a cryptographic private key with a corresponding Ethereum address. If Alice, for example, wants to send Bob 1,000 ETH (ETH / Ether is Ethereum’s money). Alice needs Bob’s Ethereum address so she knows where to send it, and then Bob needs to use his private key that corresponds to that address in order to receive the 1,000 ETH.

Ethereum has two types of accounts: accounts that user’s control and contracts (or “smart contracts”). Accounts that user’s control, like Alice and Bob, primarily serve for ETH transfers. Just about every blockchain system has this type of account that can make money transfers. But what makes Ethereum special is the second type of account; a contract.

Contract accounts are controlled by a piece of code (an application) that is run inside the blockchain itself.

“What do you mean, inside the blockchain?”

EVM

Ethereum has a Virtual Machine, called EVM. This is where contracts get executed. EVM includes a stack (~processor), temporary memory (~RAM), storage space for permanent memory (~disk/database), environment variables (~system information, e.g: timestamp), logs, and sub-calls (you can call a contract within a contract).

An example contract might look like this:

if (something happens): send 1,000 ETH to Bob (addr: 22982be234)

else if (something else happens): send 1,000 ETH to Alice (addr: bbe4203fe)

else: don't send any ETH

If a user sends 1,000 ETH to this account (the contract), then the code in this account is the only thing that has power to transfer that ETH. It’s kind of like an escrow. The sender no longer has control over the 1,000 ETH. The digital assets are now under the control of a computer program and will be moved depending on the conditional logic of the contract.

Is it free?

No. The execution of contracts occurs within the blockchain, therefore within the Ethereum Network. Contracts take up storage space, and they require computational power. So Ethereum uses something called gas as a unit of measurement of how much something costs the Network. The price of gas is voted on by the nodes and the fees user’s pay in gas goes to the miners.

Miners

Miners are people using computers to do computations required validate transactions across the Network and add new blocks to the chain.

Mining works like this: when a block of transactions is ready to be added to the chain, miners use computer processing power to find hashes that match a specific target. When a miner finds the matching hash, she will be rewarded with ETH and will broadcast the new block across the network. The other nodes verify the matching hash, then if there is consensus, it is added to the chain.

What’s inside a block?

Within an Ethereum block is something called the state and history. The state is a mapping of addresses to account objects. The state of each account object includes:

• ETH balance
• nonce **
• the contract’s source code (if the account is a contract)
• contract storage (database)

** a nonce is a counter that prevents the account from repeating a transaction over and over resulting perhaps in taking more ETH from a sender than they are supposed to.

Blocks also store history: records of previous transactions and receipts.

State and History and stored in each node (each member of the Ethereum Network). Having each node contain the history of Ethereum transactions and contract code is great for security and immutability, but can be hard to scale. A blockchain cannot process more transactions than a single node can. Because of this, Ethereum limits the number of transactions to 7–15 per second. The protocol has adopted sharding — a technique that essentially breaks up the chain into smaller pieces but still aims to have the same level of security.

Transactions

Every transaction specifies a TO: address. If the TO: is a user-controlled account, and the transaction contains ETH, it is considered a transfer of ETH from account A to account B. If the TO: is a contract, then the code of the contract gets executed. The execution of a contract can result in further transactions, even calls to contracts within a contract, an event known as an inter-transaction.

But contracts don’t always have to be about transferring ETH. Anyone can create an application with any rules by defining it as a contract.

Who is using Ethereum?

Ethereum is currently being used mostly by crytocurrency traders and investors, but there is a growing community of developers that are building dapps (decentralized applications) on the Ethereum Network.

There are thousands of Ethereum-based projects being developed as we speak. Some more the most popular dapps are games (e.g CryptoKitties and CrptyoTulips).

How is Ethereum different than bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a blockchain technology where users are assigned a private key, linked with a wallet that generates bitcoin addresses where people can send bitcoins to. It’s all about the coins. It’s a way to exchange money in an encrypted, decentralized environment.

Ethereum not only lets users exchange money like bitcoin does, but it also has programming languages that let people build applications (contracts) that are executed within the blockchain.

Bitcoin functions on proof of work as a means of achieving consensus across the network. Whereas Ethereum uses proof of stake.

Ethereum’s creator is public (Vitalik Buterin). Bitcoin’s is unknown (goes by the alias, Satoshi Nakamoto)

Other blockchains that do contracts

There are other blockchain projects that allow the creation of contracts. Here is a brief description of what they are and how they are different than Ethereum:

Neo — faster transaction speeds, inability to fork, less energy use, has two tokens (NEO and GAS), will be quantum resistant.

Icon — uses loopchain to connect blockchain-based communities around the world.

Nem — contract code is stored outside of the blockchain resulting in a lighter and faster network.

Ethereum Classic — a continuation of the original Ethereum blockchain (before it was forked)

Conclusion

Ethereum is a rapidly growing blockchain protocol that allows people to not only transfer assests to each other, but to create decentralized applications that run securely on a distributed network of computers.

Drive, dive and fly with the new Nintendo Labo Vehicle Kit

Buckle up for a new adventure while sitting in the driver’s seat of a car, a submarine and a plane with the Nintendo Labo: Vehicle Kit, launching on Sept. 14. This new Nintendo Labo kit is designed to work with the Nintendo Switch system*, and contains materials to build a variety of customizable cardboard creations called Toy-Con, including a Car, a Submarine, a Plane, a Pedal, two Keys and more. By inserting one of the assembled Keys into any of the vehicles, players can enjoy a variety of fun games and activities. Changing between vehicles while adventuring is a cinch – simply pull the Key out of one and slot it into another to transform from an airplane pilot to a submarine captain!

“Nintendo Labo is a collaborative and creative experience designed to encourage imagination in people of all ages,” said Doug Bowser, Nintendo of America’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “We’re excited to offer a variety of fun gameplay experiences with Vehicle Kit, and look forward to seeing the creative Nintendo Labo community continue to grow.”

Since its introduction in April, Nintendo Labo has inspired new ways to play by combining the family-friendly fun of DIY creations with the technology of Nintendo Switch. Nintendo Labo: Vehicle Kit will unlock even more ways for people to make, play and discover together, as they speed through races, battle cars equipped with extendable arms and explore a mysterious world. Each vehicle features its own controls and special moves, and with the second Key, players can even invite a co-pilot along on their in-game journey. Interacting with the assembled Toy-Con creations instantly translates into in-game actions to create a truly immersive experience – from pulling the cord on the Car to pop a wheelie, pushing the button on the Submarine to launch a grappling hook and so much more.

As with every Nintendo Labo kit, Nintendo Labo: Vehicle Kit includes its own unique Nintendo Switch software designed to work with the included Toy-Con projects. Enjoy the fun of making each Toy-Con creation, playing immersive games with them, discovering how they work and even inventing new ways to play. All materials needed to complete each Toy-Con creations are included – no glue, tape, or scissors required!

The possibilities of Nintendo Labo: Vehicle Kit can be expanded even further with Toy-Con Garage. This intuitive and interactive programming tool is included with every Nintendo Labo kit and features a simple, visual interface and handy tutorials designed for players of all ages. Toy-Con Garage encourages players to experiment with the Toy-Con creations they’ve built or craft their own original designs using handy household items like paper cups, stickers and ribbon. With Toy-Con Garage, the possibilities of Nintendo Labo become almost limitless – players of all ages can enjoy hours of inventing, tinkering, crafting, playing and enriching fun.

Pre-order the Nintendo Labo: Vehicle Kit from select retailers for a suggested retail price of $69.99. Stay tuned to the Nintendo Labo website for more information about Nintendo Labo: Vehicle Kit.

To start making, playing and discovering right now, check out the Nintendo Labo: Variety Kit and Nintendo Labo: Robot Kit, which are currently available in stores at suggested retail prices of $69.99 and $79.99, respectively.

Remember that Nintendo Switch features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about other features, visit https://www.nintendo.com/switch/.

*Nintendo Switch system required and is sold separately.

A cursory glance at the promotional screenshots and you could be forgiven for dismissing Isle of Skye as simply a Carcassonne clone with a Scottish setting. Thankfully, although it shares the same tile-laying mechanic, Isle of Skye has many clever ideas of its own. So much so that the board game has won a host of awards, including the prestigious 2016 Kennerspiel des Jahres.

As clan chieftain, you expand your territory and strengthen your clan in the hope of being crowned King of the Isle of Skye. You do this by purchasing and placing landscape tiles. These tiles feature a mix of highlands, water and mountain areas and must be placed so that the different landscape types match. There are also roads to consider. These do not need to be placed so that they link to other roads, but to earn the maximum income, it is advantageous to have a connected road network. Tiles also feature a range of other point scoring opportunities, including livestock, ships and various types of buildings Finally, a small number of tiles contain scrolls that award bonus points at the end of the game for fulfilling certain requirements.

The first significant difference from Carcassonne is that each player works on building his or her own individual landscape. You may think that this would lead to a rather solitary gaming experience, with little interaction between competing players. Happily though, the brilliantly designed auction system ensures that the game feels both competitive and involving. Before we go to auction, however, we need some cash. Players earn a basic five coins per turn; additional income is earned from tiles that feature whisky barrels as long as they are connected to your castle by road.  There is also a catch-up mechanism that rewards extra coins to players who have fewer points.

With coins burning holes in our sporrans it is time to get trading. At the beginning of each round, all players draw three tiles. They then have to secretly choose one tile to discard and decide how much they are willing to pay for each of the remaining two. Then, in turn order, each player has the opportunity to use any remaining coins to purchase a single tile from an opponent. This works brilliantly, as you have to carefully set prices with the aim of purchasing tiles for the best possible price. However, set these too low and your opponents will snaffle them up. Furthermore, you don’t want to tie up too many coins in trying to secure your own tiles because you may miss the opportunity to purchase a tasty tile from another player. It sounds simple but setting prices can lead to some agonising decisions. Sometimes, you will be tempted to hang on to a tile that is not particularly useful because you know that it will appeal to an opponent. You can then attach a high price and take a gamble that they will bite, but you run the risk of being forced to cough up for your own overpriced tile.

Isle of Skye introduces plenty of variety, with a choice of sixteen different scoring tiles. Only four of these are used in each game and their point scoring potential should form the crux of your overall strategy. Before the game commences these four tiles can be chosen by the players or determined randomly. Not all of these tiles will be scored every round, so certain types of landscape tiles are going to be more valuable at certain points in the game. There is an interesting variety of scoring tiles, which require different tactics to exploit. Some have a spatial element, such as forming squares of four tiles; others will require you to enclose areas of particular landscape types. Then there are those that require you to have the majority of particular items such as ships or coins. The result is a pleasing diversity of scoring opportunities that makes every game feel different.

This isn’t a difficult game to learn and the interactive tutorial will soon have you up and running. To improve your strategy there is the option to watch games that have been played between the highest ranked players. At the start of the game your five coins will not go far, but with some shrewd financial management, you should soon see your income escalating. This will also mean that the landscape tiles will in turn rocket in price, which means that you constantly have to be aware of market trends.

The graphics accurately represent the table-top original and the screen layout works relatively well. All of the required information is laid out along the screen edges, with the central area reserved for your ever-growing kingdom. There are a few times when the interface feels a little unresponsive, like when you are trying to set prices, or get an overview of each scoring tile. I am not convinced by the background, which gives the impression that you are playing on a stained tablecloth. Also, the sound is rather nondescript, although mercifully it does hold back on the bagpipes. Most seriously of all, there appears to be a major bug that causes the game to freeze when playing a pass and play game. I encountered no such problems when competing against just AI opponents. Unfortunately, even at the highest difficulty level the AI does not put up too much of a challenge. In the auction, placing a value on a tile is dependent on so many different variables that creating an AI to challenge experienced players is tough. You are going to want to find some online human opponents to really get the most from this game. Thankfully, setting up an asynchronous online game is easy enough. This mode works especially well, as turns play quickly, and a single game doesn’t drag on too long.

If you enjoyed Carcassonne and are looking for something with more strategy and depth, then Isle of Skye is definitely worth considering even if the app itself isn’t as polished as other leading board game adaptations.

Note: By the time of publication, a recent update has ensured that the interface is much more responsive, sadly the issue with pass and play games freezing hasn’t been resolved.