Book Image

Advanced Blockchain Development

By : Imran Bashir, Narayan Prusty
Book Image

Advanced Blockchain Development

By: Imran Bashir, Narayan Prusty

Overview of this book

Blockchain technology is a distributed ledger with applications in industries such as finance, government, and media. This Learning Path is your guide to building blockchain networks using Ethereum, JavaScript, and Solidity. You will get started by understanding the technical foundations of blockchain technology, including distributed systems, cryptography and how this digital ledger keeps data secure. Further into the chapters, you’ll gain insights into developing applications using Ethereum and Hyperledger. As you build on your knowledge of Ether security, mining, smart contracts, and Solidity, you’ll learn how to create robust and secure applications that run exactly as programmed without being affected by fraud, censorship, or third-party interference. Toward the concluding chapters, you’ll explore how blockchain solutions can be implemented in applications such as IoT apps, in addition to its use in currencies. This Learning Path also highlights how you can increase blockchain scalability, and discusses the future scope of this fascinating and powerful technology. By the end of this Learning Path, you'll be equipped with the skills you need to tackle pain points encountered in the blockchain life cycle and confidently design and deploy decentralized applications.
Table of Contents (25 chapters)
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
About Packt
Contributors
Preface
15
Blockchain - Outside of Currencies
16
Scalability and Other Challenges
Index

Languages


Smart contracts can be programmed in a variety of languages for Ethereum blockchain. There are five languages that can be used in order to write contracts:

  • Mutan: This is a Go-style language, which was deprecated in early 2015 and is no longer used.
  • LLL: This is a Low-level Lisp-like Language, hence the name LLL. This is also not used anymore.
  • Serpent: This is a simple and clean Python-like language. It is not used for contract development anymore and not supported by the community anymore.
  • Solidity: This language has now become almost a standard for contract writing for Ethereum. This language is the focus of this chapter and is discussed in detail in later sections.
  • Vyper: This language is a Python-like experimental language that is being developed to bring security, simplicity, and auditability to smart contract development.

Compilers

Compilers are used to convert high-level contract source code into the format that the Ethereum execution environment understands. The Solidity compiler...