Book Image

Foundations of Blockchain

By : Koshik Raj
Book Image

Foundations of Blockchain

By: Koshik Raj

Overview of this book

Blockchain technology is a combination of three popular concepts: cryptography, peer-to-peer networking, and game theory. This book is for anyone who wants to dive into blockchain from first principles and learn how decentralized applications and cryptocurrencies really work. This book begins with an overview of blockchain technology, including key definitions, its purposes and characteristics, so you can assess the full potential of blockchain. All essential aspects of cryptography are then presented, as the backbone of blockchain. For readers who want to study the underlying algorithms of blockchain, you’ll see Python implementations throughout. You’ll then learn how blockchain architecture can create decentralized applications. You’ll see how blockchain achieves decentralization through peer-to-peer networking, and how a simple blockchain can be built in a P2P network. You’ll learn how these elements can implement a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin, and the wider applications of blockchain work through smart contracts. Blockchain optimization techniques, and blockchain security strategies are then presented. To complete this foundation, we consider blockchain applications in the financial and non-financial sectors, and also analyze the future of blockchain. A study of blockchain use cases includes supply chains, payment systems, crowdfunding, and DAOs, which rounds out your foundation in blockchain technology.
Table of Contents (14 chapters)

Distributed databases versus distributed ledger technology (DLT)

The first question that pops up when we think of implementing blockchain is, how is blockchain-powered ledger technology different from traditional databases? Traditional databases are centralized, and most blockchain platforms use databases to store transactions locally on each node. So, the actual comparison should be between the DLT-powered by blockchain and the distributed databases, and this is what we'll focus on in this section.

Although databases are distributed in the case of distributed databases, there is still centralization involved as the databases are managed by a central trusted entity, whereas the ledger in a DLT is maintained by trustless nodes in the network. So, distributed databases don't guarantee decentralization and still promote a centralized architecture with a trusted authority...