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

Blockchain


Blockchain is a public ledger of a timestamped, ordered, and immutable list of all transactions on the Bitcoin network. Each block is identified by a hash in the chain and is linked to its previous block by referencing the previous block's hash.

In the following table structure of a block is presented, followed by a detailed diagram that provides a detailed view of the blockchain structure.

The structure of a block

The following table shows the structure of a block:

Field

Size

Description

Block size

4 bytes

This is the size of the block.

Block header

80 bytes

This includes fields from the block header described in the next section.

Transaction counter

Variable

This field contains the total number of transactions in the block, including the coinbase transaction. Size ranges from 1-9 bytes

Transactions

Variable

All transactions in the block.

The structure of a block header

The following table depicts the structure of a block header:

Field

Size

Description

Version

4 bytes

The block version number that dictates...