Edited the flushed out parts of this chapter

Reworded a couple sentences and edited a couple sections for spelling and grammar.

what-is.asciidoc

@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ changes to that state.
 
 In simpler terms, Ethereum is an open-source, globally decentralized computing infrastructure that executes programs called _smart contracts_. It uses a blockchain to synchronize and store the system _state_ along with a cryptocurrency called _ether_ to meter and constrain execution resource cost.
 
-The Ethereum platform enables developers to build powerful decentralized applications with built-in economic functions. Additionally, it provides continuous uptime and reduces or eliminates censorship, third-party interference, and counterparty risk.
+The Ethereum platform enables developers to build powerful decentralized applications with built-in economic functions. While providing continuous uptime, it also reduces or eliminates censorship, third-party interface, and counterparty risk. 
 
 === Compared to bitcoin
 
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ In many ways however, both the purpose and construction of Ethereum are striking
 
 Ethereum's purpose is not primarily a payments network for a digital currency. While the digital currency _ether_ is both integral and necessary for the operation of Ethereum, ether is intended as a _utility currency_ to pay for use of the Ethereum platform. Unlike bitcoin which has a very limited scripting language, Ethereum is designed to be a general purpose programmable blockchain that runs a _virtual machine_ capable of executing code of arbitrary and unbounded complexity. Where bitcoin's Script language is constrained to simple TRUE/FALSE evaluation of spending conditions, Ethereum's language is _Turing Complete_, meaning that it is equivalent to a general purpose computer that can run any computation a theoretical Turing Machine can run.
 
-During the initial development of Ethereum, the cryptocurrency space was rapidly expanding beyond the scope of digital currency, with several projects building secondary layers on top of bitcoin, or separate blockchains for various purposes. Most of these projects had a single purpose and were attempting to bootstrap all the infrastructure of a blockchain for that single purpose. This fragmentation prompted Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum's inventor, to start thinking about a blockchain that didn't aim for a specific purpose, but instead could support a broad variety of applications by being _programmed_. The idea is that with a general purpose blockchain like Ethereum, a developer can program their particular application without having to worry about the underlying mechanism of peer-to-peer networks, blockchains, consensus algorithms e.t.c. Instead, the Ethereum platform abstracts these details and provides a deterministic and secure programming environment for decentralized blockchain applications.
+During the initial development of Ethereum, the cryptocurrency space was rapidly expanding beyond the scope of digital currency with several projects building secondary layers on top of bitcoin or separate blockchains for various purposes. Most of these projects had a single purpose and were attempting to bootstrap all the infrastructure of a blockchain for that single purpose. This fragmentation prompted Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum's inventor, to start thinking about a blockchain that didn't aim for a specific purpose, but instead could support a broad variety of applications by being _programmed_. The idea is that with a general purpose blockchain like Ethereum, a developer can program their particular application without having to worry about the underlying mechanism of peer-to-peer networks, blockchains, consensus algorithms e.t.c. Instead, the Ethereum platform abstracts these details and provides a deterministic and secure programming environment for decentralized blockchain applications.
 
 The connundrum that most developers faced in 2013 and 2014 was "build on top of bitcoin, or start a new blockchain". Each choice had its pros and cons. Building on top of bitcoin necessarily limited the funtionality of a project. But starting a new blockchain came with a very big burden of security and infrastructure, and a high risk of failure. Ethereum resolved this conundrum by offering a general purpose blockchain platform.
 
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ Towards the end of 2013, Vitalik Buterin, a young programmer and bitcoin enthusi
 
 In December 2013, Vitalik started sharing a "white paper", which outlined the idea behind Ethereum: a Turing-complete programmable and general purpose blockchain. A few dozen people saw this early draft and started offering feedback to Vitalik, helping him gradually evolve the proposal.
 
-Both of the authors of this book commented on this early draft. Andreas M. Antonopoulos, received a copy in his role as a host of the "Let's Talk Bitcoin" podcast. Andreas was intrigued by the idea and asked Vitalik many questions about the use of a separate blockchain to enforce consensus rules on smart contract execution and the implications of a Turing-complete language. Andreas continued to follow Ethereum's progress with great interest but was in the early stages of writing his book "Mastering Bitcoin" and did not participate directly in Ethereum until much later.
+In fact, both of the authors of this book commented on this early draft. Andreas M. Antonopoulos, received a copy in his role as a host of the "Let's Talk Bitcoin" podcast. Andreas was intrigued by the idea and asked Vitalik many questions about the use of a separate blockchain to enforce consensus rules on smart contract execution and the implications of a Turing-complete language. Andreas continued to follow Ethereum's progress with great interest but was in the early stages of writing his book "Mastering Bitcoin" and did not participate directly in Ethereum until much later.
 
 The other author of this book however, Dr. Gavin Wood, was one of the first people to reach out to Vitalik and offer to help with his C++ programming skills and became Ethereum's co-founder, co-designer and CTO.
 
@@ -62,9 +62,9 @@ Perhaps a reference to the "Smart Contract" chapter can be added here, showing t
 
 What are smart contracts? Neither contracts nor smart. They are PROGRAMS.
 
-Those programs allow automated execution, upon certain actions, of different operations that can move funds (Ether) or change the state of the network in custom defined structures. By leveraging those capabilities a conjunction of collaborating smart contracts can allow the creation of new tokens with different issuing policies, enforce certain conditions on agreements between parties, and even function as a platform for distributed games, among other things.
+These programs allow automated execution, upon certain actions, of different operations that can move funds (Ether) or change the state of the network in custom defined structures. By leveraging these capabilities, a conjunction of collaborating smart contracts can allow the creation of new tokens with different issuing policies, enforce certain conditions on agreements between parties, and even function as a platform for distributed games.
 
-Programmers perspective - what is diferent about Ethereum compared to other platforms
+Programmers perspective - what is different about Ethereum compared to other platforms
 
 Ethereum offers programing languages, development frameworks and execution platforms that are very familiar. Solidity is the main language being used and the most popular, but there are other alternatives in existence and being developed.
 
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ Solidity is a programming language for smart contracts and it was influenced by
 Relationship to high level languages
 
 === Dev culture
-Culture is innovate quickly, break things.
+Culture is to innovate quickly, break things.
 
 
 === Why learn Ethereum