Research corpus ContractsBLC-PAPER-0002

Ethereum: A Next-Generation Smart Contract and Decentralized Application Platform

Buterin's white paper argues that a chain can do more than move a native coin. It can run programs whose results land in shared state.

Rights uncertain
Design paper
Publisher's current page, plus a historic library path

Compare

Record

Authors: Vitalik Buterin
Date: Circulating white paper, 2014. Drafts exist from late 2013. This record follows the historic library file, not the living HTML on ethereum.org.
Publisher: Vitalik Buterin
Version: Historic library PDF of Buterin's white paper. The publisher's current page is HTML and has moved on.
Document ID: BLC-PAPER-0002
DOI: None recorded
Last reviewed: 1 October 2026
Licence: No licence recorded. Rights status under review.

No hash is published. This build does not store those PDF bytes, so a checksum would be invented. Where a legacy path exists, it points at the Internet Archive copy of the old library.

Direct answer

Buterin's white paper argues that a chain can do more than move a native coin. It can run programs whose results land in shared state.

The historic library holds a PDF of that white paper. It is not Gavin Wood's yellow paper, and it is not a status report on today's clients.

Why it is in the corpus

The useful shift is from a cash script to a machine other people can re-execute.
Re-execution is the cost. Later scaling papers in this library are arguments about who still has to pay it.

Where to read

Official source — ethereum.org white paper (current HTML, not the historic PDF)
Legacy library pathThe old URL stays. It is served from the Internet Archive copy of the previous site.

Read the publisher's page or the legacy PDF. Full text is not republished here.

Full text

Full text is not published on this page. Public availability is not a licence to republish a document. Blockchain Lab has not recorded a licence that permits an HTML transcription, a training set, or a retrieval corpus of the paper. Text on this page is Blockchain Lab's own wording, or a pointer to a study that is also Blockchain Lab's wording.

Claims and assumptions

Blockchain Lab's reading of what the document is doing. Not a quotation and not the source text.

A chain can host general programs, not only transfers of one coin.
A meter is part of the design, or the machine can be stalled.
The white paper is a proposal. The yellow paper is the separate attempt at a specification.

Assumptions

Honest participants keep re-executing the same programs.
The publisher's current HTML is not the historic PDF. Cite the file you mean.

What changed

Ethereum's later clients, fees, and rollups are not this white paper. The EIP-150 yellow paper in the historic library is a different document and has its own record.

Relationships

Distinct documentYellow paper, EIP-150 revision
Starts fromBitcoin
ProposesSmart contract
ProposesVirtual machine
Later scaling readingsPlasma

Construct with this

A pattern link for people designing a system. It is not a claim that this paper is a product specification, and it is not permission to copy anyone’s code.

Cite this record

These citations point at the source document. They are not a licence to copy it.

Author–date

Buterin, V. (2014). Ethereum: A Next-Generation Smart Contract and Decentralized Application Platform. Vitalik Buterin. https://ethereum.org/en/whitepaper/

BibTeX

@techreport{ethereum2014,
  title = {Ethereum: A Next-Generation Smart Contract and Decentralized Application Platform},
  author = {Vitalik Buterin},
  year = {2014},
  institution = {Vitalik Buterin},
  url = {https://ethereum.org/en/whitepaper/},
  note = {Rights status: Rights uncertain. Blockchain Lab record: https://blockchainlab.com/research/corpus/papers/ethereum}
}

RIS

TY  - RPRT
TI  - Ethereum: A Next-Generation Smart Contract and Decentralized Application Platform
AU  - Vitalik Buterin
PY  - 2014
PB  - Vitalik Buterin
UR  - https://ethereum.org/en/whitepaper/
N1  - Rights status: Rights uncertain
ER  -

CSL-JSON

[
  {
    "type": "report",
    "id": "BLC-PAPER-0002",
    "title": "Ethereum: A Next-Generation Smart Contract and Decentralized Application Platform",
    "author": [
      {
        "literal": "Vitalik Buterin"
      }
    ],
    "issued": {
      "date-parts": [
        [
          2014
        ]
      ]
    },
    "publisher": "Vitalik Buterin",
    "URL": "https://ethereum.org/en/whitepaper/",
    "note": "Rights status: Rights uncertain. Not a licence to republish the paper."
  }
]

JSON BibTeX file RIS file CSL-JSON

Rights record

Source status: Publisher's current page, plus a historic library path
Use status: Read the publisher's page or the legacy PDF. Full text is not republished here.
Rights: Rights uncertain
Training and retrieval: Not permitted from this site. There is no rights-cleared full text to retrieve or to train on.

Rights and licensing Corrections