About Ethereum
What are Ethereum and ETH?
Ethereum is a blockchain for transfers and programs called smart contracts. Ether, abbreviated ETH, is its native currency. Ethereum launched with the Frontier release on July 30, 2015. Developers can publish contracts that record token balances, exchange assets or run other applications. Each contract has its own address and rules. An Ethereum account can hold ETH alongside separate tokens, and a wallet displays those balances individually.
What is ETH used for?
ETH pays transaction fees for transferring funds, deploying contracts and using applications. Gas measures the work a transaction requires; the gas price determines how much ETH that work costs. The fee includes a base fee that the protocol burns and a priority fee paid to the validator. A contract interaction can use more gas than a plain ETH transfer. A transaction that executes but fails can still consume gas, because validators performed work before it failed.
How does Ethereum reach agreement?
Ethereum has used proof of stake since the Merge on September 15, 2022. Validators stake ETH, check proposed blocks and send votes called attestations. The protocol chooses a proposer for each slot and uses validators' votes to decide which blocks become finalized. Validators can lose rewards for missed duties and lose part of their stake for specified conflicting messages. Staking involves operating validator software or using a staking service; an ordinary ETH balance does not perform validator duties.
How does ETH supply change?
Ethereum does not have a fixed maximum supply. The protocol issues ETH as validator rewards and removes ETH by burning base fees. Supply grows when issuance exceeds the amount burned and shrinks when burning exceeds issuance. Both quantities vary, so ETH is not guaranteed to remain deflationary. Tokens issued by applications have their own supply rules: Ethereum's ETH issuance and fee burning do not automatically mint or burn those tokens.
What should I check before transferring ETH?
NonLogs supports native ETH on Ethereum mainnet. Wrapped ether, or WETH, is a separate token contract representing deposited ETH. A WETH transfer therefore differs from sending native ETH. Layer-two networks also maintain separate balances, even when a wallet uses the same address on both networks. Match the asset and network on your deposit page before sending. Ordinary Ethereum transfers publish the sending address, receiving address and amount; a new address alone does not hide the transaction.
Where can I trade ETH on NonLogs?
The markets below link to the available NonLogs trading pairs. Each price in the trading-pairs table below comes from completed trades in that pair. Check the last-trade time and the current order book, since a past trade may no longer be available at that price. Trading an ETH balance on NonLogs does not run an Ethereum smart contract or enroll the balance in staking. Deposits and withdrawals move native ETH between the exchange and Ethereum addresses.