ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a general overview of the Ethereum Execution Layer (EL). We begin by discussing the concept of Ethereum's world state. We discover that the world state is a database mapping addresses to user accounts and application accounts. We take a look at the various transaction types that exist in the Ethereum protocol. We discuss smart contracts and how they are processed by the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). Finally, we introduce the concept of blockchains and how execution layer data is stored.
