Book Image

Mastering Blockchain - Fourth Edition

By : Imran Bashir
5 (3)
Book Image

Mastering Blockchain - Fourth Edition

5 (3)
By: Imran Bashir

Overview of this book

Blockchain is the backbone of cryptocurrencies, it has had a massive impact in many sectors, including finance, supply chains, healthcare, government, and media. It’s also being used for cutting edge technologies such as AI and IoT. This new edition is thoroughly revised to offer a practical approach to using Ethereum, Hyperledger, Fabric, and Corda with step-by-step tutorials and real-world use-cases to help you understand everything you need to know about blockchain development and implementation. With new chapters on Decentralized Finance and solving privacy, identity, and security issues, as well as bonus online content exploring alternative blockchains, this is an unmissable read for everyone who wants to gain a deep understanding of blockchain. The book doesn’t shy away from advanced topics and practical expertise, such as decentralized application (DApp) development using smart contracts and oracles, and emerging trends in the blockchain space. Throughout the book, you’ll explore blockchain solutions beyond cryptocurrencies, such as the IoT with blockchain, enterprise blockchains, and tokenization, and gain insight into the future scope of this fascinating and disruptive technology. By the end of this blockchain book, you will have gained a thorough comprehension of the various facets of blockchain and understand the potential of this technology in diverse real-world scenarios.
Table of Contents (24 chapters)
23
Index

Innovation in Bitcoin

Bitcoin has undergone many changes and is still evolving into a more and more robust and better system by addressing various weaknesses in the system. Performance has been a topic of hot debate among Bitcoin experts and enthusiasts for many years. As such, various proposals have been made in the last few years to improve Bitcoin performance, resulting in greater transaction speed, increased security, payment standardization, and overall performance improvement at the protocol level.

These improvement proposals are usually made in the form of Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs) or fundamentally new versions of Bitcoin protocols, resulting in new networks altogether. Some of the changes proposed can be implemented via a soft fork, but a few need a hard fork and, as a result, give birth to a new currency.

In the following sections, we will look at the various BIPs that can be proposed for improvement in Bitcoin. Then, we will discuss some advanced protocols that have...