Summary and next steps

Congratulations – you have made it to the top. Now you know why Ethereum is called a world computer, where the fees go, what you are signing when a website offers you a "login", how a rollup and a bridge work and why every layer of yield adds a layer of risk. And you know how ETH behaves on the market.

What to take away#

• The network: Ethereum runs smart contracts on thousands of nodes. Since September 2022 it has run on proof of stake; a block arrives every 12 seconds and is final after about 12.8 minutes.
• ETH: no fixed cap. The base fee is burned, but since 2024 the supply has grown again.
• The wallet: one address on many networks; token approvals last until you revoke them, Permit signatures can hand over your tokens, delegations the whole account.
• Layer 2 networks: cheap thanks to blobs, but with their own sequencer and security council. Bridges are among the most frequent targets of big thefts.
• Staking: a reward of around 3% in ETH, four ways with different risks; restaking stacks the risk.
• The market: ETH moves with Bitcoin, swings more, and has fallen 70% or more three times.

Ten rules#

1. Never type your seed phrase anywhere unless you need to restore your wallet.
2. Keep savings in a hardware wallet and experiments on a separate address.
3. Read what your wallet shows before you sign. "Approve", "Permit" and "delegate" mean access to your money.
4. Check and revoke unlimited approvals regularly.
5. You recognise a token by its contract address, not by its name.
6. Never copy an address from your transaction history; send a test amount to a new address first.
7. Check the address and the network before sending.
8. Find bridges and apps through official pages, not through ads.
9. For every yield, ask where the money comes from and what happens when one layer fails.
10. Keep a little ETH in the account for fees.

Where next#

• Want to keep your ETH safe? The course Keeping crypto safe covers hardware wallets, backups and inheritance.
• Want to trade ETH? The course Trading with a plan teaches market structure, position size and a trading plan.
• Curious how another big network differs? The course Solana in depth is this course's twin.
• You can review the course's terms any time in the glossary.