Book Image

Blockchain Quick Reference

By : Mariko Amekodommo, Brenn Hill, Samanyu Chopra, Paul Valencourt
Book Image

Blockchain Quick Reference

By: Mariko Amekodommo, Brenn Hill, Samanyu Chopra, Paul Valencourt

Overview of this book

Blockchain Quick Reference takes you through the electrifying world of blockchain technology and is designed for those who want to polish their existing knowledge regarding the various pillars of the blockchain ecosystem. This book is your go-to guide, teaching you how to apply principles and ideas for making your life and business better. You will cover the architecture, Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), tokens, smart contracts, and terminologies of the blockchain technology, before studying how they work. All you need is a curious mind to get started with blockchain technology. Once you have grasped the basics, you will explore components of Ethereum, such as ether tokens, transactions, and smart contracts, in order to build simple Dapps. You will then move on to learning why Solidity is used specifically for Ethereum-based projects, followed by exploring different types of blockchain with easy-to-follow examples. All this will help you tackle challenges and problems. By the end of this book, you will not only have solved current and future problems relating to blockchain technology but will also be able to build efficient decentralized applications.
Table of Contents (24 chapters)

Historical perspective – classical cryptography

Cryptography is the term for any method or technique used to secure information or communication, and specifically for the study of methods and protocols for secure communication. In the past, cryptography was used in reference to encryption, a term that refers to techniques used to encode information.

At its most basic, encryption might take the form of a substitution cipher, in which the letters or words in a message are substituted for others, based on a code shared in advance between the parties. The classic example is that of the Caesar Cipher, in which individual letters are indexed to their place in the alphabet and shifted forward a given number of characters. For example, the letter A might become the letter N, with a key of 13.

This specific form of the Caesar Cipher is known as ROT13, and it’s likely the...