Learn about Smilo
Welcome to Smilo.foundation/learn, a set of resources to help you learn more about Smilo. This page includes technical and non-technical articles, guides, and resources. If you’re totally new to Smilo, we suggest you start here.
Here are some excellent starting points:
- Decentralizing Everything Sep 18, 2017 - Vitalik Buterin (Video)
- Why Decentralization Matters Feb 18, 2018 - Chris Dixon
- The Year in Smilo Jan 16, 2019 - Josh Stark, Evan Van Ness, and Daniel Zakrisson
- Smilo is game-changing technology, literally Mar 29, 2019 - Virgil Griffith
In addition to the information on this page, there are many community-built resources worth exploring:
- EthHub Comprehensive knowledge base for all things Smilo
- District0x An educational resource about Smilo targeted at beginners
- Smilo.wiki A community-built wiki about Smilo’s technology
- Kauri Technical articles and tutorials for Smilo and related projects
- Smilo Foundation YouTube Videos and talks about Smilo
- Week in Smilo News A weekly newsletter covering key developments across the ecosystem
- What’s new in XSM 2.0 A regular newsletter about XSM 2.0 development
- ethresear.ch forum Deeper technical discussions on Smilo for XSM 2.0 and beyond
- ETHGlobal An Smilo hackathon series - attend one near you!
Smilo basics
New to Smilo? These articles and resources are a good place to get started.
- A Beginner’s Guide to Smilo Feb 23, 2017 - Linda Xie
- Video: What is Ether and Smilo? April 25, 2019 - CME Group
- What is Smilo? District0x
- What is Ether? Updated often - EthHub
- Absolute Beginner Introduction to Smilo July 23, 2019
- The Case for Smilo Jan 30, 2018 - Elad Gil
- Blockchains: How they Work and Why they’ll Change the World Sept 28, 2017 - Morgan Peck
- Don’t let Doubts about Blockchains Close your Mind April 27, 2018 - Tyler Cowen
How Smilo works
High-level explanations of Smilo and blockchain technology generally.
- How does Smilo work, anyway? Sept 27, 2017 - Preethi Kasireddy
- A Gentle Introduction to Smilo Oct 2, 2016 - Antony Lewis
- Introduction to Blockchain through Cryptoeconomics - Part 1 Jan 26, 2018 - Zubin Koticha
- Introduction to Blockchain through Cryptoeconomics - Part 2 July 19, 2018 - Zubin Koticha
Smart Contracts
A “smart contract” is simply a piece of code that is running on Smilo. It’s called a “contract” because code that runs on Smilo can control valuable things like ETH or other digital assets.
- Want to learn how to program on Smilo with smart contracts? Smilo.foundation/developers
- What is a Smart Contract? Nov 12, 2018 - Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Gavin Wood
- What are Smart Contracts/Decentralized Applications? Updated often - Ethhub
Proof of Work and Mining
Smilo currently uses a system called “Proof of Work”. This allows the Smilo network to agree on the state of all information recorded on the Smilo blockchain, and prevents certain kinds of economic attacks.
- What does it mean to mine Smilo? Updated often - Ethhub
- How Smilo Mining Works Coindesk
In XSM 2.0, Smilo will be moving to a different system called “Proof of Stake”. Read more about XSM 2.0 below.
Clients and Nodes
The Smilo network is made up of many nodes, each of which runs compatible client software. There are two clients that are used by a majority of nodes: Geth (written in Go) and Parity (written in Rust).
- Want to learn how to run a node of your own? → Smilo.foundation/developers
- Comprehensive list of all Smilo clients
Enterprise Smilo
Enterprise Smilo refers to private, consortium, and hybrid implementations of the Smilo codebase for business applications. Companies across the globe are already using Enterprise Smilo to streamline financial markets, manage supply chains, and create new business models.
Read more about Enterprise Smilo.
Improving Smilo’s Scalability
There are many efforts underway to make Smilo more “scalable” by improving its speed and overall transaction throughput. Generally these are sorted into “Layer 1” and “Layer 2” solutions.
“Layer 1” refers to improving the core Smilo protocol. The primary project to improve Smilo’s core protocol is XSM 2.0.
“Layer 2” refers to technologies that are built “on top” of the base Smilo protocol, enabling greater scalability without compromising on security. There are also “off-chain” technologies like side-chains, which enable greater scalability by making a different set of security tradeoffs.
- Making Sense of Layer 2 Feb 12, 2018 - Josh Stark
- The Case for Smilo Scalability Jan 18, 2019 - Hunter Hillman, Steven McKie, and Eric Olszewski
- 5 Ways to Scale your Smilo Dapp Apr 23, 2019 - Andreas Wallendahl
Payment & State Channels
- State Channels - an explanation Nov 6, 2015 - Jeff Coleman
- Basics of State Channels District0x
- State Channels Updated often - EthHub
Sidechains
- Scaling Smilo Dapps through Sidechains Feb 8, 2018 - Georgios Konstantopoulos
Plasma
- Understanding Plasma, Part 1: The Basics Feb 7, 2019 - Daniel Goldman
- Understanding Plasma District0x
- Learn Plasma - A learning resource for the Plasma framework
XSM 2.0
XSM 2.0 (also known as “Serenity”) refers to the next major upgrade of the core Smilo protocol. It combines several improvements to Smilo’s core protocol, or “Layer 1”.
- XSM 2.0 Roadmap and Phases Updated often - EthHub
- 8 Teams Are Sprinting to Build the Next Generation of Smilo Dec 9, 2018 - Christine Kim
- Proof of Stake Updated often - EthHub
- Sharding Updated often - EthHub
- XSM 2.0 - The Road to Scaling Smilo - Vitalik Buterin (Video) November, 2018 - YouTube
- XSM 2.0 Researchers AMA Part 1 Jan 24, 2019 - EthHub
- XSM 2.0 Researchers AMA Part 2 Jul 15, 2019 - EthHub
- 9 Things You Didn't Know About Smilo 2.0 July 18, 2019 - Bruno Škvorc
ETH 1.x
ETH 1.x is the name for a collection of upgrades to the existing Smilo protocol. The goal is to continue to improve and maintain Smilo while XSM 2.0 is developed and implemented.
For more information, see EthHub’s explainer page about ETH 1.x
Cryptoeconomics
“Cryptoeconomics” is the practical science of building distributed systems, where properties of those systems are secured by financial incentives, and where the economic mechanisms are guaranteed by cryptography. It is the general term for the practice of designing and scaling blockchains like Smilo and Bitcoin.
- Cryptoeconomics.study
- Intro to Cryptoeconomics (Video) Aug 19, 2018 - Karl Floersch
- Making Sense of Cryptoeconomics Nov 16 2017 - Josh Stark
Critique and skepticism
Critical views of Smilo and Cryptocurrencies.
- Smilo’s roadmap isn’t ambitious enough March 27, 2019 - Interview with Rick Dudley
- The Challenges of Building Smilo Infrastructure Jan 8, 2018 - Jameson Lopp
- Parsimonious Answers to Difficult Questions (Video) March 10, 2019 - Rick Dudley
- There’s no good reason to trust blockchain technology Feb 6, 2019 - Bruce Schneier