Free Certified Blockchain Professional (CBCP) Ethereum Questions and Answers — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which year saw the development of blockchain technology?
- 2010
- 2015
- 2009
- 2008 (Correct answer)
Correct answer: 2008
Blockchain technology was first developed in 2008. It was conceptualized by an anonymous entity known as Satoshi Nakamoto, who published a whitepaper describing the technology as the underlying mechanism for the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. The Bitcoin network, the first practical application of blockchain, launched in early 2009.
Question 2: What year did Ethereum get its start?
- 2015 (Correct answer)
- 2017
- 2018
- 2020
Correct answer: 2015
Ethereum officially got its start with the launch of its mainnet, known as 'Frontier,' in July 2015. While the whitepaper was published in 2013 and development began in 2014, 2015 marked the year the network became operational, allowing developers to deploy smart contracts and decentralized applications.
Question 3: Who did not create Ethereum?
- Charles Hoskinson
- Gavin Wood
- Vitalik Buterin
- Satoshi Nakamoto (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Satoshi Nakamoto
Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, not Ethereum. Ethereum was primarily conceived by Vitalik Buterin, with significant contributions from co-founders like Gavin Wood and Charles Hoskinson, among others. Therefore, Satoshi Nakamoto did not create Ethereum.
Question 4: How long does it take to mine a block of Ethereum?
- 12
- 0 (Correct answer)
- 10
- 30
Correct answer: 0
After Ethereum's transition to Proof-of-Stake (known as 'The Merge'), the concept of 'mining' a block in the traditional Proof-of-Work sense no longer applies. Instead, blocks are created and attested by validators at fixed intervals (slots), meaning there is no competitive mining process with a variable 'mining time.' Thus, the time to 'mine' a block is effectively 0 in the old sense, as blocks are now scheduled.
Question 5: Choose the consensus algorithm that Ethereum's PoW mechanism will employ.
- SHA256 algorithm
- Dagger Hashimoto
- Ethash (Correct answer)
- Etchash
Correct answer: Ethash
Before its transition to Proof-of-Stake, Ethereum's Proof-of-Work (PoW) mechanism employed the Ethash consensus algorithm. Ethash was specifically designed to be ASIC-resistant, favoring GPU mining to promote decentralization and prevent the dominance of specialized hardware in the network.
Question 6: What does Ethereum's Ghost protocol entail?
- A way of rewarding miners for mining Ethereum blocks.
- A way of processing transactions without broadcasting them.
- A way of paying miners for mining broadcasted transactions.
- None of the above. (Correct answer)
Correct answer: None of the above.
Ethereum's GHOST (Greedy Heaviest Observed Subtree) protocol was a proposed modification to its Proof-of-Work chain selection rule, aiming to include 'uncle' blocks (valid blocks not on the main chain) in the calculation of the chain's total difficulty. This was intended to reduce orphan rates and improve security, but none of the provided options accurately describe its purpose, making 'None of the above' the correct answer.
Question 7: Which of the following distinguishes Ethereum from Bitcoin?
- Ethereum is deflationary while Bitcoin is inflationary.
- Ethereum is more accepted compared to Bitcoin.
- Ethereum uses PoS while Bitcoin uses PoW.
- Bitcoin scrypt is turing-complete while Ethereum's Solidity is turing-incomplete. (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Bitcoin scrypt is turing-complete while Ethereum's Solidity is turing-incomplete.
The statement claims Bitcoin's scripting language is Turing-complete while Ethereum's Solidity is Turing-incomplete, which is factually incorrect. Bitcoin's script is intentionally limited and not Turing-complete for security reasons, whereas Ethereum's Solidity, running on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), is Turing-complete, enabling complex smart contracts. Therefore, this statement *incorrectly* distinguishes them by reversing their actual capabilities.
Question 8: When was the genesis block of Ethereum mined?
- 2009
- 2018
- 2015 (Correct answer)
- 2013
Correct answer: 2015
The genesis block is the initial block that is mined in a blockchain network. For the entire blockchain network, it serves as the foundation of trust. A foundation of trust must be built for a system to be secure. Consider the layers of an onion and the steps necessary to get to the center layer. Similar security mechanisms are used by blockchains, where each layer/block builds upon a more reliable inner layer using access control, cryptography, hashing, and encryption as well as other security primitives. For instance, the Satoshi Nakamoto-mined genesis block serves as the foundation of trust for the whole Bitcoin blockchain.
Question 9: In the context of Ethereum, what is gas?
- The gas produced by Ethereum servers.
- The security level of the Ethereum network.
- The computational resources required to perform transactions.
- The required cost to perform a transaction on the network. (Correct answer)
Correct answer: The required cost to perform a transaction on the network.
The cost of a transaction on the Ethereum network is called gas. Gas costs paid by the transaction originator serve as an incentive for miners, who donate their computational resources to the network's management.
Question 10: What do Ethereum main blocks consist of?
- Blocks that have already been mined and added to the blockchain.
- Unwanted mined Ethereum blocks.
- Blocks created during the PoW competition that did not get selected. (Correct answer)
- None of the above.
Correct answer: Blocks created during the PoW competition that did not get selected.
Ommer blocks are made when two miners mine the following block simultaneously. In this scenario, only one block will be put to the ledger; the rest are known as ommer blocks.
Question 11: What do Ethereum's ommer rewards blocks do?
- Reward to miners for network participation.
- Rewards to miners for creating ommer blocks. (Correct answer)
- Reward to miners for creating Ethereum blocks.
- Reward to miners for processing transactions from Uncle blocks.
Correct answer: Rewards to miners for creating ommer blocks.
When two competing miners in Ethereum create a block at about the same moment, only one is chosen; the remaining blocks are referred to as ommer blocks. Ommer miners are also rewarded for enhancing network security.
Question 12: What do Ethereum uncle blocks consist of?
- Valid blocks rejected by the network in Ethereum. (Correct answer)
- Blocks from another blockchain such as Bitcoin.
- Blocks that are roughly mined at similar times.
- None of the above.
Correct answer: Valid blocks rejected by the network in Ethereum.
Uncle blocks are legitimate blocks that the Ethereum network has rejected. The canonical chain is not mined for these blocks. In order to compensate miners who mine uncle blocks, the GHOST protocol was proposed.
Question 13: Which of the following best sums up Ethereum?
- A distributed computer with a Native currency. (Correct answer)
- A cryptocurrency derived from Bitcoin.
- A server company located in the US.
- A Bitcoin clone with programmability.
Correct answer: A distributed computer with a Native currency.
The native money of Ethereum, a distributed computer system, is called ether. Although it costs gas to change the state of the world from the computer because calculations must be made, reading the current state of the world is free.
Question 14: What do Ethereum uncle rewards entail?
- Rewards are awarded to miners who create a valid block included in a valid block added to the chain.
- Rewards are awarded to miners who create an uncle block included in a side chain.
- Rewards are awarded to miners who create an uncle block included in a valid block added to the chain. (Correct answer)
- Rewards awarded to miners who create an ommer block included in a valid block added to the chain.
Correct answer: Rewards are awarded to miners who create an uncle block included in a valid block added to the chain.
Miners that produce uncle blocks and put them in a legitimate block that is uploaded to the canonical network are given benefits known as uncle rewards.
Question 15: How many Ether were there at the time Ethereum was created?
- 21 billion
- 72 million (Correct answer)
- 71 million
- 21 million
Correct answer: 72 million
There were 72 million Ether created at launch. Unless we can modify the root of trust and its subsequent blocks (the entire network), or at least 51%, which is nearly impossible, there will only ever be 21 million Bitcoin in existence.
Question 16: What distinguishes Bitcoin from Ethereum?
- Bitcoin was crowdfunded, Ethereum was not.
- Ethereum was crowdfunded, Bitcoin was not. (Correct answer)
- None of the above.
- All of the above.
Correct answer: Ethereum was crowdfunded, Bitcoin was not.
Unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum was funded using a crowdsourcing platform. The biggest crowd funding effort was Ethereum's. A public offering to invest in a digital asset is known as a crowd sale in the cryptocurrency sector. This could be a native coin, an NFT, a blockchain, a decentralized application atop a blockchain, or a token. Crowdsales are mostly used to raise money for a project's or business venture's development.
Which year saw the development of blockchain technology?