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laconicd-deprecated/docs/intro/README.md
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Introduction

What is Ethermint

Ethermint is a high throughput PoS blockchain that is fully compatible and interoperable with Ethereum. In other words, it allows for running vanilla Ethereum on top of Tendermint consensus via the Cosmos SDK. This allows developers to have all the desired features of Ethereum, while at the same time benefit from Tendermint’s PoS implementation. Also, because it is built on top of the Cosmos SDK, it will be able to exchange value with the rest of the Cosmos Ecosystem.

Here’s a glance at some of the key features of Ethermint:

  • Web3 compatibility
  • High throughput
  • Horizontal scalability
  • Transaction finality

Ethermint enables these key features through:

  • Implementing Tendermint's ABCI application interface to manage the base Blockchain
  • Leveraging modules and other mechanisms implemented by the Cosmos SDK
  • Utilizing geth as a library to avoid code reuse and improve maintainability
  • Exposing a fully compatible Web3 RPC layer for interacting with the system

The sum of these features allows developers to leverage existing Ethereum ecosystem tooling and software to seamlessly deploy smart contracts which interact with the rest of the Cosmos ecosystem!

In-depth Topics

Tendermint Core & the Application Blockchain Interface (ABCI)

Tendermint consists of two chief technical components: a blockchain consensus engine and a generic application interface. The consensus engine, called Tendermint Core, ensures that the same transactions are recorded on every machine in the same order. The application interface, called the Application Blockchain Interface (ABCI), enables the transactions to be processed in any programming language.

Tendermint has evolved to be a general purpose blockchain consensus engine that can host arbitrary application states. Since Tendermint can replicate arbitrary applications, it can be used as a plug-and-play replacement for the consensus engines of other blockchains. Ethermint is such an example of an ABCI application replacing Ethereum's PoW via Tendermint's consensus engine.

Another example of a cryptocurrency application built on Tendermint is the Cosmos network. Tendermint is able to decompose the blockchain design by offering a very simple API (ie. the ABCI) between the application process and consensus process.