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)

Summary

Since the concept of blockchain originated from a cryptocurrency, the best way to understand the true implementation of the blockchain technology is through a cryptocurrency application. In this chapter, we have covered all the concepts of cryptocurrency with the help of Bitcoin in order to understand how cryptocurrency functions in a decentralized network.

We started with the basics of Bitcoin and how they are set up to form a decentralized network. Then we dived into several concepts, such as keys, addresses, and wallets, used in Bitcoin. Bitcoin transactions were explored in depth since those are the events that bring value to the Bitcoin network. We also dived into the essence of blockchain, including mining and consensus of Bitcoin. Finally, we concluded the chapter by creating a simple cryptocurrency application.

This chapter serves as a reference because it elaborates...