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I have found the below diagram (and this explanation) useful in understanding how blockchains work in general:

Bitcoin Block Data [Illustration by Matthäus Wander (Wikimedia)]

This answer goes on to say that

Ethereum's actual blockchain structure is somewhat more elaborate...

I'd like to understand how the turing complete smart contract programming language fits into Ethereum's blockchain creation and confirmation.

This diagram, from here, shows a similar diagram, adapted for Ethereum:

enter image description here

What other diagrams are there to illustrate the Ethereum blockchain process and overall architecture?

Community
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Lee
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2 Answers2

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I couldn't find what I was after so I did my own:

enter image description here

Lee
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    So great! Do you have a high res / vector version ready? Cant read the small parts... – Roland Kofler Jul 10 '16 at 15:58
  • @RolandKofler Thanks, I'll see what I can do. Will be a while though. I can just about read the small text when I click on it and zoom in. – Lee Jul 12 '16 at 07:55
  • it is an amazing work. Try to read the account, transaction, block header text etc. – Roland Kofler Jul 12 '16 at 07:58
  • @RolandKofler Fair point - it's only just legible; I'll see if I can increase resolution. – Lee Jul 12 '16 at 08:03
  • yeah need to hang it on a wall :--) – Roland Kofler Jul 12 '16 at 08:05
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    @RolandKofler I've re-uploaded it as a high-res .png (exported as 120 dpi). I have a 300dpi version but above imgur's 2MB capacity. I also have an SVG version. – Lee Sep 07 '16 at 13:55
  • Thanks, would you fileshare the SVG version? With Dropbox, Gdrive,...? That would be so amazing having it printable! – Roland Kofler Sep 07 '16 at 13:59
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    Done: https://github.com/4c656554/BlockchainIllustrations/tree/master/Ethereum - Let me know if you see any errors (I'll update and give credit). – Lee Sep 08 '16 at 10:58
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    So great! I will examine next week when I have time, going to the thompson reuters Hackethon... – Roland Kofler Sep 09 '16 at 15:51
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I don't know about all the diagrams existing , but you can find a nice explication and schema of the patricia merkle tree here vs bitcoin merkle tree :

https://blog.ethereum.org/2015/11/15/merkling-in-ethereum/

jayD
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