The foundational "paper" for Ethereum is its original , titled A Next-Generation Smart Contract and Decentralized Application Platform , authored by Vitalik Buterin in late 2013. It describes Ethereum as a "world computer"—a programmable blockchain that allows anyone to build decentralized applications (dApps) using Smart Contracts . Core Concepts from the Whitepaper

: The native "fuel" used to pay for transactions and incentivize the network. Purchasing Ethereum (ETH)

: A built-in metering system that requires a small fee (paid in ETH) for every computation to prevent network abuse.

: Self-executing agreements with terms written directly into code, removing the need for intermediaries.

: The "engine" that executes smart contract code consistently across thousands of global nodes.