The Ethereum Yellow Paper is the protocol's official description. It was written by Gavin Wood and is currently being updated by Nick Savers with contributions from many authors around the world. A yellow paper is a technical term for a white paper. If a white paper is a proposal, a yellow paper is the proposal's second part, containing all of the details.

It contains a detailed explanation of how everything in the Ethereum ecosystem works, excluding any changes made through the Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) process. Furthermore, because it is written in the style of a mathematical paper, it may use language that programmers are unfamiliar with.