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

Routes to decentralization


Even though there were systems that pre-existed blockchain and Bitcoin, including BitTorrent and the Gnutella file sharing system, which to a certain degree could be classified as decentralized. However, with the advent of blockchain technology, many initiatives are now being taken to leverage this new technology for achieving decentralization. The Bitcoin blockchain is typically the first choice for many, as it has proven to be the most resilient and secure blockchain and has a market cap of nearly $145 billion at the time of this writing. Alternatively, other blockchains, such as Ethereum, serve as the tool of choice for many developers for building decentralized applications. As compared to Bitcoin, Ethereum has become a more prominent choice because of the flexibility it allows for programming any business logic into the blockchain by using smart contracts.

How to decentralize

Arvind Narayanan and others have proposed a framework in their book, Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency...