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

Scalability


This problem has been a focus of intense debate, rigorous research, and media attention for the last few years.

This is the single most important problem that could mean the difference between wider adaptability of blockchains or limited private use only by consortiums. As a result of substantial research in this area, many solutions have been proposed, which are discussed in the following section.

From a theoretical perspective, the general approach toward tackling the scalability issue generally revolves around protocol-level enhancements. For example, a commonly mentioned solution to Bitcoin scalability is to increase its block size. Other proposals include off-chain solutions that offload certain processing to off-chain networks, for example, off-chain state networks. Based on the aforementioned solutions, generally, the proposals can be divided into two categories: on-chain solutions that are based on the idea of changing fundamental protocols on which the blockchain operates...