The most popular use of blockchain is to create a cryptocurrency. As the word crypto is in cryptocurrency, you would expect that you need to master cryptography in order to become a blockchain programmer. That is not true. You only need to know two things about cryptography:
- Private key and public key (asymmetric cryptography)
- Hashing
These two have been explained in the previous part of this chapter. You don't need to know how to design a hashing algorithm or private key and public key algorithm. You only need to get an intuitive understanding of how they work and the implications of these technologies.
The implication of private keys and public keys is that it enables decentralized accounts. In a normal application, you have a username and password. These two fields enable someone to access their account. But having a private key and public key enables someone...