The Full Time Crypto Field Guides
ETHEREUM
For the People!
The Full Time Crypto Field Guides
A Full Time Crypto Field Guide
The Ethereum Field Guide
Smart contracts, accounts, and the world computer.
Full Time Crypto
For the People! — Knowledge. Ownership. Freedom.
Before you start
What this is
Ethereum is a programmable network. Ether is its fuel.
This book is for a beginner who keeps hearing “ETH,” “gas,” and “smart contract” and wants the words before the wallet.
Ethereum can run programs. Those programs can hold assets and follow published rules. They cannot read your mind, undo a bad click, or make a website honest.
There is no “ETH2” token to buy. The Merge did not create a new coin. Withdrawals are a later upgrade, not the Merge itself.
Educational information only. Not financial, investment, legal, tax, or trading advice. Dates, supply figures, and court records in this book are taken from the sources listed at the back. If a fact is not sourced, it is not printed as a fact. Unverified items stay open.
How this book is built
Contents
Every Full Time Crypto Field Guide uses the same spine of parts, in this order. Extra pages appear only when this coin actually has them.
- Title page
- What this is
- Day the coin was born
- Who is behind it
- Where it came from
- What it is and is not
- How it works
- How you send and hold it
- What can go wrong
- United States law and tax notes
- The Merge, Shapella, and staking
- The DAO fork: an irregular state change, still in the spec
- NOTES
- GLOSSARY
- Check the terms
- Answer key
- Sources
The birthday
Day the coin was born
July 30, 2015 (Frontier live)
Ethereum does not have one birthday. Frontier is the live public release this book uses for “the network began.” The genesis header timestamp is 0x00 — a field, not a wall-clock event.
| Event | Date | What that date is |
|---|---|---|
| Draft / hosted paper | November 2013 draft; hosted paper “published in 2014” | ethereum.org white paper. Not a network launch. |
| Public announcement | 25 January 2014, Miami | Ethereum Foundation blog era. Idea shown to a public audience. |
| Genesis header timestamp | 0x00 | A field in the genesis block. Explorers that print a friendly date for block 0 are not replacing this fact. |
| Frontier live | 30 July 2015 | Stephan Tual, Ethereum Foundation Blog, “Ethereum Launches.” Participants generated and loaded the genesis block. |
Vitalik Buterin proposed a general-purpose blockchain in 2013. The white paper is published on ethereum.org.
On 30 July 2015, participants generated and loaded the genesis block for Frontier. That is the birthday this book uses for the live public network.
Later upgrades changed fees, consensus, and withdrawals. They did not start a second Ethereum with a new ticker. There is no ETH2 token.
People and projects
Who is behind it
Vitalik Buterin proposed the project. Many other people built the early clients and the 2014 sale of ether. The Ethereum Foundation supports research and ecosystem work. It does not own the chain the way a company owns an app store.
Today, multiple independent client teams implement the protocol. Validators, wallet companies, and application teams are separate.
A legally defined “founder list” is unverified. This book does not invent one. A familiar website is not “Ethereum.”
Place and lineage
Where it came from
Ethereum came from a 2013–2014 design for a general-purpose blockchain, then a 2015 public Frontier release.
The Yellow Paper specifies the virtual machine. Execution-specs still contain apply_dao() — the 2016 irregular state change is live code every client must implement to sync from genesis.
Applications, bridges, and rollups sit beside the chain. They are not the chain.
Keep these separate
What it is and is not
It is
- A public blockchain that can run smart contracts.
- A network whose native asset is ether (ETH), used for fees and, for some people, staking.
- A proof-of-stake chain since the Merge on September 15, 2022.
It is not
- A single company.
- An “ETH2” token. That name was a leftover phrase. You did not receive a new coin at the Merge.
- The same thing as a bridge, a rollup, or a sidechain. Those are other systems that talk to Ethereum.
- A network with a Bitcoin-style fixed maximum supply. Ether issuance is a policy, not a 21-million-style cap.
The machine
How it works
- Agreement method
- Proof of stake since the Merge (September 15, 2022). Validators propose and attest to blocks. A node can verify without staking 32 ETH.
- Units
- Ether (ETH). Gas is the metering unit for computation. You pay fees in ETH.
- Issuance
- No fixed maximum supply. After the Merge, issuance to validators replaced mining rewards. EIP-1559 can burn a base fee. Net supply can rise or fall. This book does not print a live “ETH float.” Look up current data if you need a number.
An account can be an externally owned account (a key you control) or a contract account (code). Both live on the same ledger.
A transaction can send ETH or call a contract. The call can succeed or fail. Failed calls can still cost gas.
Layer 2 systems and bridges are not Ethereum mainnet. They settle to it or lock value against it. Their operators, upgrade keys, and withdrawal delays matter.
A payment, in order
- A wallet signs a transaction: to, value, data, gas limit, and fee fields.
- The transaction enters the public pool of waiting work.
- A validator includes it in a block.
- Other participants execute the same rules and accept the block if it is valid.
- The receipt shows success or failure and how much gas was used.
Keys, not cookbooks
How you send and hold it
The coins are recorded on the network. The wallet holds the secret that can move them. If someone else has that secret, they can usually move the coins.
A recovery phrase is a list of ordinary words that can rebuild the keys. Nobody who is helping you should need it. A support chat, a giveaway, or a “wallet check” that asks for it is trying to take the coins.
Custodial accounts (an exchange or app that holds the keys for you) can freeze, limit, or lose access. Self-custody gives you control and the full job of backup. Neither choice is magic.
This chapter is not a crime cookbook. It does not teach mixing, tumbling, fake identities, or how to hide funds from a lawful process. It teaches you not to donate your keys to a stranger.
Ethereum-style addresses look similar on many EVM networks. The address alone does not choose the chain. Sending ETH on the wrong network can strand funds.
An “Approve” prompt can let a contract move tokens later. Read the spender and the amount. Disconnecting a website does not always revoke that on-chain permission.
Safer habits
- Download wallet software only from a site or store listing you found yourself, not from a message.
- Write the recovery phrase on paper or another offline backup. Do not photograph it, email it, or type it into a website.
- Send a tiny test first. Confirm the network, the asset, and the destination.
- For a company account, turn on a second factor that is not only a text message if you can.
- Stop if anyone asks for the phrase, a remote-control app, or a “verification deposit.”
- Confirm you are on Ethereum mainnet (or the exact network you intend) before signing.
- For tokens, verify the contract address from a source you found yourself—not from a chat screenshot.
This book does not tell you how to hide funds, evade a law, or defeat an investigation. A wallet lesson is about not losing your own keys—not about becoming invisible.
Read this twice
What can go wrong
Malicious contract
Ethereum will execute a hostile program perfectly. The chain is not a referee of fairness.
Approvals and signatures
A token allowance or an off-chain signature can empty a wallet later.
Wrong network
The same-looking address on another chain is a different destination.
Bridges and rollups
Those are extra systems. A bridge bug is not “Ethereum failed.”
Phishing
Fake MetaMask sites, fake support, and airdrop drains are common.
United States readers only
Law and tax notes
These notes are for United States readers only. Other countries have different rules.
The Internal Revenue Service treats convertible virtual currency as property for federal tax purposes. That is the starting point in IRS Notice 2014-21. Later IRS pages, including the virtual-currency frequently asked questions, expand on reporting. They do not turn this book into tax advice.
Selling crypto, trading one crypto for another, or using crypto to pay for goods or services can be a taxable event. Receiving crypto as wages, as a trade or business payment, or in some airdrop or hard-fork situations can also create income. See Notice 2014-21 and Revenue Ruling 2019-24 for the IRS’s own words on forks and airdrops.
Keep records: date, amount in U.S. dollars, what you received or spent, and which service or wallet you used. A lost key is not automatically a deductible story you can invent later.
A listing, an exchange product, or a court remark about someone else is not your tax result.
Staking rewards can have tax consequences. The IRS has published guidance on virtual currency. This book does not assign a tax treatment to your validator or exchange account.
Do not treat an application’s “APY” screen as a legal classification of ether or of a token.
On 14 June 2018 William Hinman, then Director of Corporation Finance, said that, putting aside the fundraising that created Ether, “current offers and sales of Ether are not securities transactions” in his understanding at that time. Footnote [1] is a Commission disclaimer: the speech expresses the author’s views. That is not a Commission opinion and not a court holding. This book does not print “the SEC ruled ETH is not a security.”
This is not legal or tax advice. Rules change. Read the linked primary pages and talk to a licensed professional about your own facts.
This coin’s extra pages
The Merge, Shapella, and staking
The Merge, on September 15, 2022, switched Ethereum from proof of work to proof of stake. It did not issue an ETH2 token. Your ether did not need to be “swapped” into a new coin.
Shapella (Shanghai/Capella) on April 12, 2023 enabled validator withdrawals. Withdrawals are not the Merge. People who confuse the two dates will misread staking history.
Solo validators deposit 32 ETH into the official deposit contract. That is optional. Anyone can run a non-validating node. Exchange “staking” and liquid-staking tokens are different products with extra contracts and counterparties.
This book does not print a live circulating supply or “ETH float.” ETH is not a floating-rate note. ethereum.org publishes no live supply figure and defers to third-party dashboards. Two official pages disagree on how much ETH is staked (a worked example of about 14 million versus a displayed 42.6 million), so this book does not print a current issuance rate as a fact.
The Merge did not lower gas fees. Official docs list that as a misconception: it was a change of consensus, not an expansion of capacity.
This coin’s extra pages
The DAO fork: an irregular state change, still in the spec
On 17 June 2016 the Foundation reported an attack draining The DAO. Its first proposal said “NO ROLLBACK.” What shipped a month later did move balances.
On 20 July 2016, at block 1,920,000, an irregular state change transferred about 12 million ETH from the Dark DAO and Whitehat DAO contracts into the WithdrawDAO recovery contract. EIP-779 documents a hardcoded list of 116 addresses. Every consensus client that syncs mainnet from genesis must still implement apply_dao().
ethereum.org says the DAO was drained of over 3.6 million ETH. The Hard Fork Completed post says the fork moved about 12 million ETH. Those are different quantities from different sources. This book does not merge them.
Some miners refused the fork and formed Ethereum Classic. EIP-867 tried to write a process for later irregular state changes and was left Stagnant. The code can be overridden by coordinated humans. That is the sourced counter-example to “the ledger cannot be edited.”
Write it down
NOTES
Write whether a prompt you saw was a send, an approval, or a contract call—and which network it named.
More room
NOTES
Words used in this book
GLOSSARY
Read these before the check-the-terms pages. A word is only useful if you can say it back in your own words.
- Ether (ETH)
- Ethereum’s native asset. It pays for gas and can be staked.
- Gas
- The meter for computation. You pay for it in ETH.
- Smart contract
- Program code stored on the chain. It runs as written.
- Validator
- A participant who proposes or attests to blocks under proof of stake.
- The Merge
- September 15, 2022 switch from mining to proof of stake. Not a new token.
- Shapella
- 12 April 2023 upgrade (epoch 194048) that enabled validator withdrawals. Not the Merge.
- Layer 2
- A separate system that posts data or proofs back to Ethereum. Not the same as mainnet.
- Bridge
- A way to represent value on another network. Extra risk. Not Layer 1.
- Approval
- Permission for a contract to move tokens later.
- EOA
- An externally owned account controlled by a key, not by contract code.
- Irregular state change
- A fork rule that alters balances outside normal transaction execution, as at block 1,920,000 (the DAO fork).
Check yourself
CHECK THE TERMS
Circle one answer. The answer key is on the next pages. Do not peek until you have tried.
-
When did Ethereum Frontier go live?
- July 30, 2014
- July 30, 2015
- September 15, 2022
-
Did the Merge create an ETH2 token?
- Yes
- No. There is no Eth2 token native to the protocol. Liquid staking tokens are third-party receipts
- Only for stakers
-
Which date enabled withdrawals?
- The Merge, September 15, 2022
- Shapella, 12 April 2023, epoch 194048
- Frontier, July 30, 2015
-
Is a bridge the same as Ethereum Layer 1?
- Yes
- No
- Only if the logo matches
-
Must you hold 32 ETH to run a verifying node?
- Yes
- No. 32 ETH is for a solo validator. Official: no ETH is required to run a node
- Only on weekends
-
This book prints a live ETH float.
- True
- False. That is not an Ethereum term, and official pages disagree on staked amounts
- Only in the glossary
-
Hinman’s 2018 remarks about Ether are…
- A court Howey holding
- Staff remarks with a Commission disclaimer, not a holding
- The Yellow Paper
-
The DAO fork…
- Never happened
- Moved balances by an irregular state change still in execution-specs
- Created ETH2
-
An Approve prompt can…
- Only show your balance
- Let a contract move tokens later
- Reverse a send
After you try
ANSWER KEY
- B. July 30, 2015 The Foundation blog announced Frontier on July 30, 2015.
- B. No. There is no Eth2 token native to the protocol. Liquid staking tokens are third-party receipts ethereum.org: there is no Eth2 token native to the protocol.
- B. Shapella, 12 April 2023, epoch 194048 Withdrawals are Shapella, not the Merge.
- B. No Bridges are separate systems. Official docs note they have been the site of the largest DeFi hacks.
- B. No. 32 ETH is for a solo validator. Official: no ETH is required to run a node A listed misconception.
- B. False. That is not an Ethereum term, and official pages disagree on staked amounts No live float. No official live supply.
- B. Staff remarks with a Commission disclaimer, not a holding Footnote [1]. Not a judgment.
- B. Moved balances by an irregular state change still in execution-specs Block 1,920,000. apply_dao() is live code.
- B. Let a contract move tokens later Allowances persist until changed.
Check our work
Sources
Primary pages first. In-repo research packs under docs/field-guides/ were used as source wells. Payhip product blurbs were not used as facts. If a pack left a gap UNVERIFIED, this book leaves it open.
