Book Image

Foundations of Blockchain

By : Koshik Raj
Book Image

Foundations of Blockchain

By: Koshik Raj

Overview of this book

Blockchain technology is a combination of three popular concepts: cryptography, peer-to-peer networking, and game theory. This book is for anyone who wants to dive into blockchain from first principles and learn how decentralized applications and cryptocurrencies really work. This book begins with an overview of blockchain technology, including key definitions, its purposes and characteristics, so you can assess the full potential of blockchain. All essential aspects of cryptography are then presented, as the backbone of blockchain. For readers who want to study the underlying algorithms of blockchain, you’ll see Python implementations throughout. You’ll then learn how blockchain architecture can create decentralized applications. You’ll see how blockchain achieves decentralization through peer-to-peer networking, and how a simple blockchain can be built in a P2P network. You’ll learn how these elements can implement a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin, and the wider applications of blockchain work through smart contracts. Blockchain optimization techniques, and blockchain security strategies are then presented. To complete this foundation, we consider blockchain applications in the financial and non-financial sectors, and also analyze the future of blockchain. A study of blockchain use cases includes supply chains, payment systems, crowdfunding, and DAOs, which rounds out your foundation in blockchain technology.
Table of Contents (14 chapters)

Threats of quantum computing

Quantum computing is an area of computing that deals with quantum theory. We know that every single outcome of any kind of computation is represented in 0s and 1s known as bits. Quantum computing, on the other hand, uses Qubits (quantum bits) instead of bits, that exhibits several states simultaneously rather than being mutually exclusive. This technological advancement could greatly influence performance in existing computing systems.

The performance benefits gained by quantum computing can be used to solve complex computing problems, including cryptographic algorithms that could only be broken by brute-force attacks. We are already aware that blockchain technology achieves most of the functionalities with the help of cryptographic primitives. Hashing and asymmetric cryptography are the main two primitives used in the blockchain technology, as discussed...