Book Image

The Essential Guide to Web3

By : Vijay Krishnan
3 (1)
Book Image

The Essential Guide to Web3

3 (1)
By: Vijay Krishnan

Overview of this book

Web3, the new blockchain-based web, is often hailed as the future of the internet. Driven by technologies such as cryptocurrencies, NFTs, DAOs, decentralized finance, and more, Web3’s aim is to give individuals more control over the web communities they belong to. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced developer, this book will help you master the intricacies of Web3 and its revolutionary technologies. Beginning with a concise introduction to blockchain and the Ethereum ecosystem, this book quickly immerses you in real-world blockchain applications. You’ll work on carefully crafted hands-on exercises that are designed for beginners as well as users with prior exposure. The chapters show you how to build and deploy smart contracts, while mastering security controls and discovering best practices for writing secure code. As you progress, you’ll explore tokenization and gain proficiency in minting both fungible and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) with the help of step-by-step instructions. The concluding chapters cover advanced topics, including oracles, Layer 2 (L2) networks, rollups, zero knowledge proofs, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). By the end of this Web3 book, you’ll be well-versed in the Web3 ecosystem and have the skills to build powerful and secure decentralized applications.
Table of Contents (25 chapters)
Free Chapter
1
Part 1 – Introduction to Web3
5
Part 2 – All about Smart Contracts
9
Part 3 – Writing Your DApps for Web3
12
Part 4 – Fungible Tokens
15
Part 5 – Non-Fungible Tokens
18
Part 6 – Web3 Advanced Topics

Understanding smart contract security

As a beginner in Solidity and smart contract development, it is crucial to understand and follow basic security requirements. Smart contracts are self-executing agreements with the terms directly written into code, and once deployed on the blockchain, they are immutable. Ensuring the security of smart contracts is vital to prevent hacks, exploits, and loss of funds.

Several high-profile hacks and failures have occurred in the world of smart contracts, primarily due to vulnerabilities in the Solidity code. Here are some notable incidents:

  • The DAO Hack (2016): The Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) was a decentralized venture capital fund built on Ethereum. In June 2016, an attacker exploited a reentrancy vulnerability in the DAO’s smart contract, siphoning about 3.6 million ether (worth around $50 million at that time). This ultimately led to a controversial hard fork, creating Ethereum Classic.
  • Parity Wallet Hack...