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 # The Solidity Contract-Oriented Programming Language
 [![Join the chat at https://gitter.im/ethereum/solidity](https://badges.gitter.im/Join%20Chat.svg)](https://gitter.im/ethereum/solidity?utm_source=badge&utm_medium=badge&utm_campaign=pr-badge&utm_content=badge) [![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/ethereum/solidity.svg?branch=develop)](https://travis-ci.org/ethereum/solidity)
+Solidity is a statically typed, contract-oriented, high-level language for implementing smart contracts on the Ethereum platform.
 
-## Useful links
-To get started you can find an introduction to the language in the [Solidity documentation](https://solidity.readthedocs.org). In the documentation, you can find [code examples](https://solidity.readthedocs.io/en/latest/solidity-by-example.html) as well as [a reference](https://solidity.readthedocs.io/en/latest/solidity-in-depth.html) of the syntax and details on how to write smart contracts.
+## Table of Contents
 
-You can start using [Solidity in your browser](http://remix.ethereum.org) with no need to download or compile anything.
+- [Background](#background)
+- [Build and Install](#build-and-install)
+- [Example](#example)
+- [Documentation](#documentation)
+- [Development](#development)
+- [Maintainers](#maintainers)
+- [License](#license)
 
-The changelog for this project can be found [here](https://github.com/ethereum/solidity/blob/develop/Changelog.md).
+## Background
 
-Solidity is still under development. So please do not hesitate and open an [issue in GitHub](https://github.com/ethereum/solidity/issues) if you encounter anything strange.
+Solidity is a statically-typed curly-braces programming language designed for developing smart contracts
+that run on the Ethereum Virtual Machine. Smart contracts are programs that are executed inside a peer-to-peer
+network where nobody has special authority over the execution and thus they allow to implement tokens of value,
+ownership, voting and other kinds of logics.
 
-## Building
-See the [Solidity documentation](https://solidity.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installing-solidity.html#building-from-source) for build instructions.
+## Build and Install
 
-## How to Contribute
-Please see our [contribution guidelines](https://solidity.readthedocs.io/en/latest/contributing.html) in the Solidity documentation.
+Instructions about how to build and install the Solidity compiler can be found in the [Solidity documentation](https://solidity.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installing-solidity.html#building-from-source)
+
+
+## Example
+
+A "Hello World" program in Solidity is of even less use than in other languages, but still:
+
+```
+contract HelloWorld {
+  function f() pure returns (string memory) {
+    return "Hello, World!";
+  }
+}
+```
+
+To get started with Solidity, you can use [Remix](https://remix.ethereum.org/), which is an
+browser-based IDE. Here are some example contracts:
+
+1. [Voting](https://solidity.readthedocs.io/en/v0.4.24/solidity-by-example.html#voting)       
+2. [Blind Auction](https://solidity.readthedocs.io/en/v0.4.24/solidity-by-example.html#blind-auction)
+3. [Safe remote purchase](https://solidity.readthedocs.io/en/v0.4.24/solidity-by-example.html#safe-remote-purchase)
+4. [Micropayment Channel](https://solidity.readthedocs.io/en/v0.4.24/solidity-by-example.html#micropayment-channel)
+
+## Documentation
+
+The Solidity documentation is hosted at [Read the docs](https://solidity.readthedocs.io).
+
+## Development
+
+Solidity is still under development. Contributions are always welcome!
+Please follow the
+[Developers Guide](https://solidity.readthedocs.io/en/latest/contributing.html)
+if you want to help.
+
+## Maintainers
+[@axic](https://github.com/axic)
+[@chriseth](https://github.com/chriseth)
+
+## License
+Solidity is licensed under [GNU General Public License v3.0](https://github.com/ethereum/solidity/blob/develop/LICENSE.txt)
 
-Any contributions are welcome!