# ethereum/yellowpaper

The "Yellow Paper": Ethereum's formal specification

Repository: https://github.com/ethereum/yellowpaper
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/yellowpaper
Language: TeX
License: CC-BY-SA-4.0
License Family: other
Last push: 2025-02-26T11:00:49+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 36/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 8, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4536, "days_push": 553, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1715, forks 534 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:26.264042+00:00)

## What it is
The Ethereum Yellow Paper, a formal mathematical specification of the Ethereum protocol originally written by Gavin Wood in LaTeX. It is a free-culture document (CC-BY-SA 4.0) compiled to PDF, currently outdated as of the Shanghai upgrade.

## Use cases
- understand the formal definition of the Ethereum protocol
- read the mathematical specification of Ethereum's execution layer
- study how Ethereum's state transition and virtual machine are formally defined
- contribute corrections or updates to the Ethereum specification
- reference protocol details up to the Shanghai upgrade

## When to choose
- you need the canonical formal/mathematical specification of Ethereum's protocol
- you are researching or implementing Ethereum protocol internals
- you want to study the formal definitions of the EVM and state transitions

## When to avoid
- you need an up-to-date specification covering the Cancun or later upgrades
- you want an executable or testable specification rather than a mathematical paper
- you need beginner-friendly documentation rather than formal notation

## Facets
- artifact type: learning-resource
- maturity: maintenance
- function: documentation
- domain: blockchain, documentation
- platform: cross-platform
- tags: ethereum, yellow-paper, formal-specification, latex, protocol-specification, cryptocurrency, algorithms

## Member repositories
- ethereum/yellowpaper (main) score 36

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:26.264042+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T03:34:18.098418+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/ethereum/yellowpaper (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:26.264042+00:00, sha 704b5cd0ae15)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.