What is Ethereum Mainnet?
As the primary blockchain for its extensive ecosystem, the Ethereum mainnet, commonly referred to as the Ethereum main network, is the network that is currently operational. It is the main, active public blockchain network where actual transactions are recorded and carried out, complete with related expenses and actual value. Since everyone can read and write to it, it operates as a programmable, permissionless public blockchain, enabling broad involvement.
Definition and Purpose
- The production-ready blockchain that handles all transactions and smart contract activities is called the mainnet. The mainnet is where developers place their Decentralized Applications (DApps) so that consumers may communicate with them and take advantage of the services they provide.
- The Ethereum blockchain records all mainnet transactions and operations permanently, making them secure and unchangeable.
- When a blockchain protocol is finished and put into use, all cryptocurrency transactions are broadcast, validated, and stored on a distributed ledger technology. This is referred to as the “mainnet” in general.
Fundamental Features
The following are important to the Ethereum mainnet’s functionality:
- Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM): The Ethereum Virtual Machine is a sandboxed, separated runtime environment that functions as a virtual CPU and runs all Ethereum programs. Because of its architecture, which puts simplicity ahead of security and raw performance, untrusted code is guaranteed to execute deterministically.
- Smart Contracts: These are executable programs that are stored on the blockchain and compiled into bytecode so that the EVM may read and execute them. Transactions other than cryptocurrency transfers can be facilitated on the mainnet with smart contracts.
- Transactions: On the mainnet, transactions can be any number of operations, although they most frequently include the exchange of currency between users or the activation of smart contracts. Ethereum tracks balances in the account state, in contrast to Bitcoin, which employs an Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) paradigm.
- Gas: Gas is needed for all Ethereum blockchain operations and is paid for with Ether (ETH), the native money of the mainnet. Users must pay for each transaction, which discourages spam and keeps too complicated calculations from delaying the network. The cost of petrol increases with the complexity of the transaction.
- Block Structure: Nodes verify, collect, and aggregate transactions, from which they choose a subset to form a block. Successfully mined blocks are broadcast and accepted by the network. Block headers are crucial to Ethereum blocks. The parent block hash, ommers hash, and Merkle Patricia tries’ roots (state, transactions, and receipts) are crucial.
Network Architecture
- The primary network of Ethereum functions as a peer-to-peer (P2P) network.
- Nodes: Within this network, individual systems support consensus and network maintenance.
- The complete blockchain is stored on full nodes, which also verify every transaction.
- New block creation and publication are also handled by publishing nodes.
- Lightweight nodes transfer their transactions to full nodes, just monitoring block headers to enable speedier transactions.
- Interaction Infrastructure: By offering a cloud-like architecture as an Ethereum node-as-a-service, such as Infura, developers and consumers can engage with the mainnet without having to host a complete node locally. This opens public blockchains. Blockchain, Ethereum client like Geth, and web3.js RPC library make up the Ethereum ecosystem.
Consensus and Scalability Evolution
- Proof-of-Work (PoW): Since 2015, Ethereum’s mainnet has used Ethash, a Proof-of-Work consensus model. While similar to Bitcoin, this technique has faster block times (12 seconds vs. 10 minutes). The high energy consumption of this PoW strategy limits its scalability and limits the network’s transaction processing capability to 15 TPS, which is shared globally by all apps.
- Ethereum 2.0 (Serenity): Ethereum 2.0, or Serenity, is about to overcome these constraints. This upgrade seeks to switch the mainnet to PoS in 2021.
- By switching to PoS, the network should become more efficient and decentralised while also consuming a lot less power (up to 99.9%).
- Key scalability techniques like sharding, which divides the network into several sections (shards) to execute transactions concurrently, are also introduced by Serenity.
- WebAssembly’s Ethereum-flavored version, eWasm, is being developed as a backup backend for running Ethereum code. It will be implemented during Phase 2 of Ethereum 2.0 and is intended to enable smart contract execution at nearly native speed.
- Layer 2 Solutions: State channels and side channels are two Layer 2 options that the Ethereum community has investigated in the interim. These allow for faster transactions by removing trusted party transactions from the main chain, which lessens the strain on the main blockchain.
Development Ecosystem
For developers, the Ethereum mainnet offers a stable environment. Vitalik Buterin’s original idea for Ethereum was to make it possible to create Decentralised Applications (DApps) and arbitrary programming (smart contracts).
- Smart Contracts and DApps: DApps work by interacting with the blockchain using smart contracts.
- Programming Language: Solidity is the main object-oriented programming language used to create Ethereum smart contracts.
- Development Tools: Development tools such as Ganache (for local testing) and Remix IDE (a web-based environment for Solidity) help developers.
- ERC Standards: The platform follows a number of Ethereum Request for Comments (ERC) standards, which offer instructions for developing interoperable assets on the blockchain. These Ethereum standards include ERC20 for fungible tokens and ERC721 for non-fungible tokens.
- Testnets: Before smart contracts and DApps are deployed to the live mainnet, they are tested in testnets like Ropsten, Kovan, Rinkeby, Goerli, and Sepolia.
Distinction from Testnets
Testnets and the Ethereum mainnet differ essentially in the following ways:
- Real Value vs. Test Ether: Transactions involving real Ether (ETH) and related fees (gas) take place on the mainnet. In contrast, testnets make use of test ether, which is useless in practice.
- Irreversibility: On the mainnet, transactions are permanently documented and irreversible.
- Purpose: Real-world operations and value transfer take place on the mainnet. Developers can test apps and smart contracts on testnets without worrying about the financial ramifications. As functional prototypes, they exist.
- Resetting: Testnets are frequently reset on a regular basis to provide developers a fresh start while testing. Mainnet transactions are constant.
- Forking: Using a “forked” Ethereum mainnet, developers can test a simulated version without messing with the real network.
Importance of Ethereum Mainnet
Ethereum’s mainnet powers most transactions, smart contracts, and decentralized apps. Decentralization makes networks transparent and censorship-resistant. Adoption and expansion of decentralized technology require it. For the execution of smart contracts and financial transactions, developers and users depend on its stability and security.
Related Concept: Mainnet Swap
Although the Ethereum mainnet is the actual operational network, the phrase “mainnet” can also apply to the entire stage of development and deployment of a blockchain platform. A proprietary blockchain with a native coin may be released by certain blockchain projects after they have raised capital (for example, through Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs)) by releasing their own ERC-20 tokens on the Ethereum network. These situations involve a procedure called a mainnet swap, in which the coins of the new blockchain are swapped for the previously issued ERC-20 tokens. In order to make only the new currencies usable after the swap, the remaining ERC-20 tokens are often destroyed.