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

Zcash


Zcash was launched on October 28, 2016. This is the first currency that uses a specific type of ZKPs known as Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Arguments of Knowledge (ZK-SNARKs) to provide complete privacy to the user. These proofs are concise and easy to verify; however, setting up the initial public parameters is a complicated process. The latter include two keys: the proving key and verifying key. The process requires sampling some random numbers to construct the public parameters. The issue is that these random numbers, also called toxic waste, must be destroyed after the parameter generation in order to prevent counterfeiting of Zcash.

For this purpose, the Zcash team came up with a multi-party computation protocol to generate the required public parameters collaboratively from independent locations to ensure that toxic waste is not created. Because these public parameters are required to be created by the Zcash team, it means that the participants in the ceremony are trusted...