The Ethereum Yellow Paper, officially known as "Ethereum: A Secure Decentralised Generalised Transaction Ledger," is the formal definition of the Ethereum protocol. Written by Ethereum's co-founder, Dr. Gavin Wood, it serves as a technical specification for Ethereum.

The document is highly technical and is primarily intended for those who are deeply interested in the Ethereum protocol and its underlying technology. It details the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), Ethereum's core computational engine, as well as the Gas system, transaction processing, and more.

The term Turing-complete means a computer that can run the same calculations as a Turing machine. Turing machines can get into infinite loops, and the EVM cannot because it would run out of gas, so it's only quasi-Turing-complete.

A stack machine is a computer that stores intermediate data not in registers, but in a stack. This is the preferred architecture for virtual machines because it is easy to implement meaning that bugs, and security vulnerabilities, are a lot less likely.

The EVM also has a volatile space called memory which is used to store data during execution. This memory is organized into 32-byte words.

We have introduced, discussed and formally defined the protocol of Ethereum. Through this protocol the reader may implement a node on the Ethereum network and join others in a decentralised secure social operating system.

Overall, we wish to provide a system such that users can be guaranteed that no matter with which other individuals, systems or organisations they interact, they can do so with absolute confidence in the possible outcomes and how those outcomes might come about.

Writer’s reply:

Reading the Ethereum yellow paper. This is a lofty goal, and I don't think it'll be accomplished. Most people aren't tech savvy enough to understand the smart contract(s) that govern an interaction—and so their trust will continue being based on the trust of others.

My Thoughts:

Allowing people to verify doesn't mean that everyone must do so. Similar to a democratic system, not everyone comprehends the best policies or systems to implement. However, those with the technical ability or knowledge are often motivated by incentives to contribute. While not perfect, both Ethereum and democracy are arguably better than banks and dictatorships.