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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Publisher's Note: This edition from 2018 is outdated and does not cover the latest insights on consensus algorithms, Ethereum 2.0, tokenization, and enterprise blockchains.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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Wallets

The wallet software is used to store private or public keys and Bitcoin address. It performs various functions, such as receiving and sending bitcoins. Nowadays, software usually offers both functionalities: Bitcoin client and wallet. On the disk, the Bitcoin core client wallets are stored as the Berkeley DB file:

$ file wallet.dat 
wallet.dat: Berkeley DB (B-tree, version 9, native byte-order)

Private keys are generated by randomly choosing a 256-bit number by wallet software. The rules of generation are predefined and were discussed in Chapter 4, Public Key Cryptography. Private keys are used by wallets to sign the outgoing transactions. Wallets do not store any coins, and there is no concept of wallets storing balance or coins for a user. In fact, in the Bitcoin network, coins do not exist; instead, only transaction information is stored on the blockchain (more precisely...