Mar 11, 20257 min readeUTXO & Smart ContractsIntermediate

Smart-Contract L1 Tree

Tracing smart-contract L1 evolution from Bitcoin's basic UTXO scripts to Ethereum's account model and the eUTXO family.

Ergo

smart contracts

L1 blockchains

Bitcoin

Ethereum

Cardano

eUTXO

ErgoScript

Sigma Protocols

state models

Infographic titled Smart-Contract L1 Tree showing Bitcoin at the root branching into Ethereum, Cardano and Ergo, with a table comparing determinism, audit complexity, expressiveness and hidden global state risk.

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About This Infographic

This graphic draws a 'family tree' of smart-contract L1s. It starts from Bitcoin as the root — basic UTXO scripting for payments — and branches into three main state-model paths: Ethereum's account-based global VM, Cardano's eUTXO + Plutus, and Ergo's eUTXO + ErgoScript + Sigma Protocols.

The top half of the visual groups Cardano and Ergo as the 'eUTXO family', showing how they extend UTXO ideas for smart contracts while Ethereum follows a global-account approach.

The bottom half compares these four L1s across determinism, audit complexity, expressiveness and hidden global state risk — showing how state model choices impact predictability, how hard code is to audit, how much power developers get, and how much invisible shared state risk each ecosystem carries.

Key Points

Bitcoin: High determinism with simple scripts, low audit complexity, limited expressiveness, no hidden global state.

Ethereum: Deterministic VM but execution paths depend on changing global state, high audit complexity, high expressiveness, significant hidden global state risk.

Cardano: High determinism with eUTXO forcing explicit inputs/outputs, moderate audit complexity, high expressiveness, minimal hidden state.

Ergo: High determinism with eUTXO + ErgoScript, moderate audit complexity, high expressiveness with Sigma Protocols, minimal hidden state.

How to Read This Infographic

01.

Start with the tree diagram showing Bitcoin as the root.

02.

Follow the branches: Ethereum (account-based) vs eUTXO family (Cardano, Ergo).

03.

Compare the table rows: Determinism, Audit complexity, Expressiveness, Hidden global state risk.

04.

Note how eUTXO designs (Cardano, Ergo) maintain Bitcoin's predictability while adding smart contract power.

Usage Guidelines

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• Please keep the attribution link to ergoblockchain.org
• For custom branding or editable files, contact the Ergo community

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