# Ethereum > **Machine-Evolution Nexus:** [[articles/Digital Darwinism and the Invisible World of Machine Evolution|Digital Darwinism and the Invisible World of Machine Evolution]] places this node within the history and governance of substrate-independent evolution. **Domain:** Blockchain / Distributed Systems **Doc Type:** Canonical Wiki Node **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition Ethereum is a programmable blockchain network supporting smart contracts and decentralized applications. ## Nexus Context Its 2016 DAO fork produced two continuing chains, Ethereum and Ethereum Classic, making governance disagreement materially persistent as branching technical lineage. ## Evidence Boundary The fork is descent and selection among infrastructures, not a full Darwinian population process. Human voting, client software and economic coordination generated the split. ## Relationships [[wiki/The DAO|The DAO]], [[wiki/Hard Fork|Hard Fork]], [[wiki/Ethereum Classic|Ethereum Classic]], [[wiki/Blockchain|Blockchain]] ## Sources / Provenance - Ethereum.org fork timeline and Ethereum Foundation announcement.