# Overview

## Electroneum Smart Chain Development Documentation

This documentation is designed to help you build with the Electroneum Smart Chain. It covers the tech stack and documents advanced topics for more complex applications and use cases.

Most of this documentation was inspired by the [official Ethereum documentation](https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/) as similar concepts apply to the Electroneum Smart Chain.

## Development modules <a href="proxy.php?url=#development-modules" id="development-modules"></a>

If this is your first attempt at Electroneum Smart Chain development, we recommend starting at the beginning and working your way through like a book.

### Foundational topics <a href="proxy.php?url=#foundational-topics" id="foundational-topics"></a>

* [Intro to Electroneum Smart Chain](https://developer.electroneum.com/foundational-topics/intro-to-the-electroneum-smart-chain) *– A quick overview of the Electroneum Smart Chain*
* [Intro to ETN](https://developer.electroneum.com/foundational-topics/intro-to-etn) *– A quick overview of ETN*
* [Intro to dapps](https://developer.electroneum.com/foundational-topics/intro-to-dapps) *– An introduction to decentralized applications*
* [Web2 vs Web3](https://developer.electroneum.com/foundational-topics/web2-vs-web3) *– The fundamental differences that blockchain-based applications provide*
* [Accounts](https://developer.electroneum.com/foundational-topics/accounts) *– Entities in the network that can hold a balance and send transactions*
* [Transactions](https://developer.electroneum.com/foundational-topics/transactions) *– Transfers and other actions that cause Electroneum's state to change*
* [Blocks](https://developer.electroneum.com/foundational-topics/blocks) *– The way transactions are batched to ensure state is synchronised across all actors*
* [Electroneum virtual machine (EVM)](https://developer.electroneum.com/foundational-topics/electroneum-virtual-machine-evm) *– The EVM handles all the computation on the Electroneum network*
  * [Opcodes](https://developer.electroneum.com/foundational-topics/electroneum-virtual-machine-evm/opcodes)
* [Gas and fees](https://developer.electroneum.com/foundational-topics/gas-and-fees) *– Computational power required to process transactions, paid for in ETN by transaction senders*
* [Nodes and clients](https://developer.electroneum.com/foundational-topics/nodes-and-clients) *– The individuals participating in the network and the software they run to verify transactions*
* [Networks](https://developer.electroneum.com/foundational-topics/networks) *– Implementations of the Electroneum Smart Chain including test networks*
* [Consensus mechanisms](https://developer.electroneum.com/foundational-topics/consensus-mechanisms) *– How the individual nodes of a distributed network agree on the current state of the system*
  * [Istanbul Byzantine Fault Tolerance (IBFT)](https://developer.electroneum.com/foundational-topics/consensus-mechanisms/ibft)

### Electroneum stack <a href="proxy.php?url=#ethereum-stack" id="ethereum-stack"></a>

* [Intro to the stack](https://developer.electroneum.com/electroneum-stack/intro-to-the-stack) *– An overview of the Electroneum/web3 stack*
* [Smart contracts](https://developer.electroneum.com/electroneum-stack/smart-contracts) *– Programs that reside at an Electroneum address and run functions when triggered by transactions*
* [Development networks](https://developer.electroneum.com/electroneum-stack/development-networks) *– Local blockchain environments used to test dapps before deployment*
* [Development frameworks](https://developer.electroneum.com/electroneum-stack/development-frameworks) *– Tools that make developing with Electroneum easier*
* Electroneum client APIs *– Convenience libraries that allow your web app to interact with Electroneum and smart contracts*
  * [JavaScript APIs](https://developer.electroneum.com/electroneum-stack/electroneum-client-apis/javascript-apis)
  * [Backend APIs](https://developer.electroneum.com/broken-reference)
  * [JSON-RPC](https://developer.electroneum.com/electroneum-stack/electroneum-client-apis/json-rpc)
* [Data and analytics](https://developer.electroneum.com/broken-reference) *– How blockchain data is aggregated, organised and implemented into dapps*
  * [Block explorers](https://developer.electroneum.com/broken-reference):   Mainnet: <https://blockexplorer.electroneum.com/>. Testnet: [https://testnet-blockexplorer.electroneum.com](https://testnet-blockexplorer.electroneum.com/)
* [Storage](https://developer.electroneum.com/electroneum-stack/storage) *– Decentralized storage structures and mechanism*
* [Integrated Development Environments (IDEs)](https://developer.electroneum.com/electroneum-stack/integrated-development-environments-ides) *– The best environments to write dapp code*

### Advanced <a href="proxy.php?url=#advanced" id="advanced"></a>

* [Bridges](https://developer.electroneum.com/advanced/bridges) *– An overview of bridging for developers*
* [Standards](https://developer.electroneum.com/advanced/standards) *– Agreed upon protocols for maintaining efficiency and accessibility of projects to the community*
  * [Token standards](https://developer.electroneum.com/advanced/standards/token-standards)
* [Maximal extractable value (MEV)](https://developer.electroneum.com/broken-reference) *– How value is extracted from the Electroneum blockchain beyond the block reward*
* [Oracles](https://developer.electroneum.com/advanced/oracles) *– How information is injected into the Electroneum blockchain*
* [Data availability](https://developer.electroneum.com/broken-reference) *– docs-nav-data-availability-description*
* [Networking layer](https://developer.electroneum.com/advanced/networking-layer) *– Explanation of Electroneum's networking layer*
  * [Network addresses](https://developer.electroneum.com/advanced/networking-layer/network-addresses)
* [Data structures and encoding](https://developer.electroneum.com/advanced/data-structures-and-encoding) *– Explanation of the data structures and encoding schema used across the Electroneum Smart Chain stack*
  * [Patricia Merkle Trie](https://developer.electroneum.com/advanced/data-structures-and-encoding/patricia-merkle-trie)
  * [Recursive-length prefix (RLP)](https://developer.electroneum.com/advanced/data-structures-and-encoding/recursive-length-prefix-rlp)
  * [Web3 secret storage definition](https://developer.electroneum.com/advanced/data-structures-and-encoding/web3-secret-storage-definition)