Book Image

Mastering Blockchain

Book Image

Mastering Blockchain

Overview of this book

Blockchain is a distributed database that enables permanent, transparent, and secure storage of data. The blockchain technology is the backbone of cryptocurrency – in fact, it’s the shared public ledger upon which the entire Bitcoin network relies – and it’s gaining popularity with people who work in finance, government, and the arts. Blockhchain technology uses cryptography to keep data secure. This book gives a detailed description of this leading technology and its implementation in the real world. This book begins with the technical foundations of blockchain, teaching you the fundamentals of cryptography and how it keeps data secure. You will learn about the mechanisms behind cryptocurrencies and how to develop applications using Ethereum, a decentralized virtual machine. You will explore different blockchain solutions and get an exclusive preview into Hyperledger, an upcoming blockchain solution from IBM and the Linux Foundation. You will also be shown how to implement blockchain beyond currencies, scability with blockchain, and the future scope of this fascinating and powerful technology.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
Mastering Blockchain
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Customer Feedback
Preface

Fabric


In order to understand various projects under incubation in Hyperledger project, it is important to understand the foundations of Hyperledger first. A few terminologies that are specific to Hyperledger needs some clarification before readers are introduced to more in-depth material. First there is the concept of Fabric.

Fabric can be defined as a collection of components providing a foundation layer that can be used to deliver a blockchain network. There are various types and capabilities of a fabric network, but all fabrics share common attributes such as immutability and are consensus driven. Some fabrics can provide modular approach towards building blockchain networks. In this case the blockchain network can have multiple pluggable modules to perform various function on the network. For example, consensus algorithms can be a pluggable module in a blockchain network where, depending on the requirements of the network, an appropriate consensus algorithm can be chosen and plugged...