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Mastering Blockchain - Second Edition

By : Imran Bashir, Ankur Daharwal, Pranav Burnwal

4.6 (10)

Buy this Book

Mastering Blockchain

4.6 (10)

By: Imran Bashir, Ankur Daharwal, Pranav Burnwal

Buy this Book

Overview of this book

Publisher's Note: This edition from 2018 is outdated and does not cover the latest insights on consensus algorithms, Ethereum 2.0, tokenization, and enterprise blockchains. A new and updated edition of this book that includes all the newest developments and improvements in Blockchain including the above topics is now available. A blockchain is a distributed ledger that is replicated across multiple nodes and enables immutable, transparent and cryptographically secure record-keeping of transactions. The blockchain technology is the backbone of cryptocurrencies, and it has applications in finance, government, media and almost all other industries. Mastering Blockchain, Second Edition has been thoroughly updated and revised to provide a detailed description of this leading technology and its implementation in the real world. This book begins with the technical foundations of blockchain technology, teaching you the fundamentals of distributed systems, 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 also explore different other blockchain solutions and get an introduction to business blockchain frameworks under Hyperledger, a collaborative effort for the advancement of blockchain technologies hosted by the Linux Foundation. You will also be shown how to implement blockchain solutions beyond currencies, Internet of Things with blockchain, blockchain scalability, and the future scope of this fascinating and powerful technology.

Preface

Who this book is for

What this book covers

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Free Chapter

Blockchain 101

The growth of blockchain technology

Distributed systems

The history of blockchain and Bitcoin

Types of blockchain

Consensus

CAP theorem and blockchain

Summary

Decentralization

Decentralization using blockchain

Methods of decentralization

Routes to decentralization

Blockchain and full ecosystem decentralization

Smart contracts

Decentralized Organizations

Platforms for decentralization

Summary

Symmetric Cryptography

Working with the OpenSSL command line

Introduction

Cryptographic primitives

Summary

Public Key Cryptography

Asymmetric cryptography

Public and private keys

Financial markets and trading

Summary

Introducing Bitcoin

Bitcoin

Digital keys and addresses

Transactions

Blockchain

Mining

Summary

Bitcoin Network and Payments

The Bitcoin network

Wallets

Bitcoin payments

Innovation in Bitcoin

Summary

Bitcoin Clients and APIs

Bitcoin installation

Summary

Alternative Coins

Theoretical foundations

Bitcoin limitations

Namecoin

Litecoin

Primecoin

Zcash

Summary

Smart Contracts

History

Definition

Ricardian contracts

Summary

Ethereum 101

Introduction

Ethereum – bird's eye view

The Ethereum network

Components of the Ethereum ecosystem

Summary

Further Ethereum

Programming languages

Summary

Ethereum Development Environment

Test networks

Setting up a private net

Starting up the private network

Summary

Development Tools and Frameworks

Languages

Solidity language

Summary

Introducing Web3

Web3

Summary

Hyperledger

Projects under Hyperledger

Hyperledger as a protocol

The reference architecture

Fabric

Summary

Alternative Blockchains

Blockchains

Platforms and frameworks

Summary

Blockchain – Outside of Currencies

Internet of Things

Summary

Scalability and Other Challenges

Scalability

Privacy

Summary

Current Landscape and What's Next

Emerging trends

Other challenges

Blockchain research

Notable projects

Miscellaneous tools

Convergence with other industries

Future

Summary

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Introducing Bitcoin

Bitcoin is the first application of blockchain technology. In this chapter, you will be introduced to Bitcoin technology in detail.

Bitcoin has started a revolution with the introduction of the very first fully decentralized digital currency, and the one that has proven to be extremely secure and stable from a network and protocol point of view. As a currency bitcoin is quite unstable and highly volatile, albeit valuable. We will explain this later in the chapter. This has also sparked a great interest in academic and industrial research and introduced many new research areas.

Since its introduction in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin has gained massive popularity, and it is currently the most successful digital currency in the world with billions of dollars invested in it. The current market cap, at the time of writing, for this currency is $149, 984, 293...