Book Image

Ethereum Smart Contract Development

By : Mayukh Mukhopadhyay
Book Image

Ethereum Smart Contract Development

By: Mayukh Mukhopadhyay

Overview of this book

Ethereum is a public, blockchain-based distributed computing platform featuring smart contract functionality. This book is your one-stop guide to blockchain and Ethereum smart contract development. We start by introducing you to the basics of blockchain. You'll learn about hash functions, Merkle trees, forking, mining, and much more. Then you'll learn about Ethereum and smart contracts, and we'll cover Ethereum virtual machine (EVM) in detail. Next, you'll get acquainted with DApps and DAOs and see how they work. We'll also delve into the mechanisms of advanced smart contracts, taking a practical approach. You'll also learn how to develop your own cryptocurrency from scratch in order to understand the business behind ICO. Further on, you'll get to know the key concepts of the Solidity programming language, enabling you to build decentralized blockchain-based applications. We'll also look at enterprise use cases, where you'll build a decentralized microblogging site. At the end of this book, we discuss blockchain-as-a-service, the dark web marketplace, and various advanced topics so you can get well versed with the blockchain principles and ecosystem.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Title Page
Dedication
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Preface
Index

What makes a contract "smart"?


Long before blockchains and the internet, in the analog era, we had mechanical devices that basically executed smart contracts. These were vending machines, as depicted in Figure 5.1. Once you pay a certain amount in a certain currency, you get to choose the product code. Once the code is confirmed, then the product comes out of the machine. If you do not pay, the product does not come out. If you delay more than the waiting-time threshold after paying, or there is any mechanical malfunction and your session expires, the product does not come out:

Figure 5.1: Vending machine

We can see that the concept of smart contracts existed way before blockchains and the internet. So, even before defining a smart contract, we must address the myths surrounding it. The myth that tops the list is whether a smart contract is intelligent. The answer is no, it is smart and dumb, but not intelligent. To understand this subtle concept, let us use the analogy of a smartphone. Does...