Book Image

Blockchain for Business 2019

By : Peter Lipovyanov
Book Image

Blockchain for Business 2019

By: Peter Lipovyanov

Overview of this book

Blockchain for Business 2019 is a comprehensive guide that enables you to bring in various blockchain functionalities to extend your existing business models and make correct fully-informed decisions. You will learn how decentralized applications are transforming numerous business sectors that are expected to play a huge role in the future. You will see how large corporations are already implementing blockchain technology now. You will then learn about the various blockchain services, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Hyperledger, and others to understand their use cases in a variety of business domains. You will develop a solid fundamental understanding of blockchain architecture. Moving ahead, you will get to grips with the inner workings of blockchain, with detailed explanations of mining, decentralized consensus, cryptography, smart contracts, and many other important concepts. You will delve into a realistic view of the current state of blockchain technology, along with its issues, limitations, and potential solutions that can take it to the next level. By the end of this book, you will all be well versed in the latest innovations and developments in the emerging blockchain space.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)

Money – an abstraction of value

Now, let's consider the concept of money as an abstraction of value.

Money is as old as human civilization, and civilization itself is reliant on possessing ways through which they can exchange, account for, and transfer value. What once started as barter trade (trading goods for goods) was replaced with using standardized token money.

Gold and silver were the first universally accepted natural choices for money. Actually, they fit the bill so well that they were the primary form of money across the globe for centuries, and have been instilled in human culture. When we say gold, the first thing that comes to mind is value or wealth.

After this came paper money, a more user-friendly way to carry and move around value, as compared to precious metals. China was the first to adopt it, in the seventh century. However, the western world didn...