Describe a Wei
The lowest value of ether, the virtual money used on the Ethereum network, is called Wei. One million,000,000,000,000 wei (1018) is equal to one ether. One wei is one quintillionth of an ether, to put it another way.
What a Wei Does
As the value of some cryptocurrencies has skyrocketed, many are curious about how digital asset tokens like ether might be exchanged for cash. The sole fractional portion of an American dollar is 100, and the atomic unit of U.S. money is a penny. However, the digital currency may be divided into very tiny fractions.
New units have been designated to accurately identify and support transactions, accurately expressing the size of a transaction that is a tiny fraction in terms of ether but a significant value when converted to U.S. dollars or other real-world currencies.
Wei Dai is a cryptography activist who advocates for the broad use of robust encryption and privacy-focused technology. The Wei, the smallest unit of the Ethereum cryptocurrency, is named after Wei Dai.
Ether is a term used to refer to several Wei units. These sub-units include informal names and names that reflect the number of the units (a kwei is a kilo, signifying a thousand Wei, for example). For instance, a gwei is often called a “shannon,” while a kwei is sometimes called a “babbage.”
The Wei’s Model
Wei Dai is regarded as an “intensely private” individual who uses his encryption expertise to ensure that the public record of him is minimal. After earning a computer science degree from the University of Washington, he worked in Microsoft’s cryptography research department. In the Cryptography Research Group, Mr. Dai was employed at Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, Washington. He worked on developing, developing, and deploying cryptosystems for particular applications at Microsoft. Before moving to Microsoft, Mr. Dai worked as a programmer at TerraSciences in Acton, Massachusetts.”
Wei was a founding member of the 1990s cypherpunk movement, whose adherents created the theoretical framework for cryptocurrencies in the 2010s. In his early crypto manifesto for a cryptocurrency known as money, Wei established the framework for “smart contracts”—digital agreements that would self-execute and not need human involvement from a third party. He is recognized for this invention by having the ether atomic unit named after him.
Conclusion
- Like a satoshi is to bitcoin, a wei is to ether, the lowest unit from which a user may transact.
- The penny is the indivisible (atomic) unit of U.S. money, and a dollar may only be divided into 100 divisions or pennies.
- The wei bears the name Wei Dai, who is most recognized for having developed the Crypto++ library and for being the founder of “b-money,” the precursor to Bitcoin.
