Layer 1 / NETWORK PROFILE
Ethereum
ETH CMC #2 in the snapshot
A shared smart-contract platform whose base layer also settles activity from many rollups.
01 / THE PURPOSE
What is Ethereum for?
Ethereum supports programs that manage tokens, exchanges, loans and other shared state. Applications can call each other, making composability a central feature of the network.
02 / THE ARCHITECTURE
Three questions about the machinery.
How does it agree?
Consensus & securityProof-of-stake validators propose blocks and attest to their validity. Checkpoint finality depends on sufficient stake voting correctly; specified conflicting actions can incur slashing.
Where do instructions run?
Execution modelThe Ethereum Virtual Machine executes account-based contracts. Gas meters computation and storage. Rollups execute elsewhere and use Ethereum in their settlement or data publication process.
03 / THE DESIGN CHOICES
What comes with the design?
Each architecture makes choices about security, performance, coordination, and who can participate.
Base-layer fees vary with congestion; a successful contract call can still implement a bad economic decision.
Rollups, bridges, admin keys and applications introduce dependencies beyond Ethereum consensus.
04 / IN PRACTICE
Follow one use.
Illustrative: a swap consumes ETH for gas while moving two different tokens. A reverted swap can still consume gas because validators performed computation.
05 / CHECK THE EXPLANATION
Sources & snapshot.
Network descriptions use the references below. The CoinMarketCap snapshot determines which assets are in scope and their captured rank; it does not assess the quality of a network.
- Ethereum · Development overview Ethereum
- Ethereum · Proof-of-stake Ethereum
- CoinMarketCap top 100 snapshot Captured 14 Nov 2026 · See the complete scope audit
- Ethereum (ETH) on CoinMarketCap Captured asset rank #2
Profile checked 14 Nov 2026. Network designs and ranked positions can change.