Blockchain technology is a distributed ledger with applications in industries such as finance, government, and media. This Learning Path is your guide to building blockchain networks using Ethereum, JavaScript, and Solidity. You will get started by understanding the technical foundations of blockchain technology, including distributed systems, cryptography and how this digital ledger keeps data secure. Further into the chapters, you’ll gain insights into developing applications using Ethereum and Hyperledger. As you build on your knowledge of Ether security, mining , smart contracts, and Solidity, you’ll learn how to create robust and secure applications that run exactly as programmed without being affected by fraud, censorship, or third-party interference. Toward the concluding chapters, you’ll explore how blockchain solutions can be implemented in applications such as IoT apps, in addition to its use in currencies. The book will also highlight how you can increase blockchain scalability and even discusses the future scope of this fascinating and powerful technology. By the end of this Learning Path, you'll be equipped with the skills you need to tackle pain points encountered in the blockchain life cycle and confidently design and deploy decentralized applications. This Learning Path includes content from the following Packt products:
- Mastering Blockchain - Second Edition by Imran Bashir
- Building Blockchain Projects by Narayan Prusty
This Learning Path is designed for blockchain developers who want to build decentralized applications and smart contracts from scratch using Hyperledger. Basic familiarity with any programming language will be useful to get started with this course
Chapter 1, Blockchain 101, introduces the basic concepts of distributed computing on which blockchain technology is based. It also covers history, definitions, features, types, and benefits of blockchains along with various consensus mechanisms that are at the core of the blockchain technology.
Chapter 2, Decentralization, covers the concept of decentralization and its relationship with blockchain technology. Various methods and platforms that can be used to decentralize a process or a system have also been introduced.
Chapter 3, Understanding How Ethereum Works, explains how Ethereum works.
Chapter 4, Smart Contracts, provides an in-depth discussion on smart contracts. Topics such as history, the definition of smart contracts, Ricardian contracts, Oracles, and the theoretical aspects of smart contracts are presented in this chapter.
Chapter 5, Symmetric Cryptography, introduces the theoretical foundations of symmetric cryptography, which is necessary to understand how various security services such as confidentiality and integrity are provided.
Chapter 6, Public Key Cryptography, introduces concepts such as public and private keys, digital signatures and hash functions with practical examples. Finally, an introduction to financial markets is also included as there are many interesting use cases for blockchain technology in the financial sector.
Chapter 7, Getting Started with web3.js, introduces web3js and how to import and connect to geth. It also explains how to use it in Node.js or client-side JavaScript.
Chapter 8, Introducing Bitcoin, covers Bitcoin, the first and largest blockchain. It introduces technical concepts related to bitcoin cryptocurrency in detail.
Chapter 9, Building a Wallet Service, explains how to build a wallet service that users can use to create and manage Ethereum Wallets easily, even offline. We will specifically use the LightWallet library to achieve this.
Chapter 10, Alternative Coins, introduces alternative cryptocurrencies that were introduced after the invention of Bitcoin. It also presents examples of different altcoins, their properties, and how they have been developed and implemented.
Chapter 11, Development Tools and Frameworks, provides a detailed practical introduction to the Solidity programming language and different relevant tools and frameworks that are used for Ethereum development.
Chapter 12, Building a Betting App, explains how to use Oraclize to make HTTP requests from Ethereum smart contracts to access data from the World Wide Web. We will also learn how to access files stored in IPFS, use the strings library to work with strings, and more.
Chapter 13, Hyperledger, presents a discussion about the Hyperledger project from the Linux Foundation, which includes different blockchain projects introduced by its members.
Chapter 14, Alternative Blockchains, introduces alternative blockchain solutions and platforms. It provides technical details and features of alternative blockchains and relevant platforms.
Chapter 15, Blockchain - Outside of Currencies, provides a practical and detailed introduction to applications of blockchain technology in fields others than cryptocurrencies, including Internet of Things, government, media, and finance.
Chapter 16, Scalability and Other Challenges, is dedicated to a discussion of the challenges faced by blockchain technology and how to address them.
Chapter 17, Building a Consortium Blockchain, will discuss consortium blockchain.
Chapter 18, Current Landscape and What's Next, is aimed at providing information about the current landscape, projects, and research efforts related to blockchain technology. Also, some predictions based on the current state of blockchain technology have been made.
You require Windows 7 SP1+, 8, 10 or Mac OS X 10.8+, examples in this book have been developed on Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS (Xenial) and macOS version 10.13.2. As such, it is recommended to use Ubuntu or any other Unix like system. However, any appropriate operating system, either Windows or Linux, can be used, but examples, especially those related to installation, may need to be changed accordingly.
Examples related to cryptography have been developed using the OpenSSL 1.0.2g 1 Mar 2016 command-line tool.
Ethereum Solidity examples have been developed using Remix IDE, available online at https:/ / remix. ethereum. org
Ethereum Byzantine release is used to develop Ethereum-related examples. At the time of writing, this is the latest version available and can be downloaded from https:/ / www. ethereum. org/ .
Examples related to IoT have been developed using a Raspberry Pi kit by Vilros, but any aapropriate latest model or kit can be used. Specifically, Raspberry Pi 3 Model B V 1.2 has been used to build the hardware example of IoT. Node.js V8.9.3 and npm V5.5.1 have been used to download related packages and run Node js server for IoT examples.
The Truffle framework has been used in some examples of smart contract deployment, and is available at http://truffleframework.com/. Any latest version available via npm should be appropriate.
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We also have other code bundles from our rich catalogue of books and videos available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/. Check them out!
We also provide you with a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. The color images will help you better understand the changes in the output. You can download this file from https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/9781838823191_ColorImages.pdf
There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.
CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "The input() method is used to get an input from the user."
A block of code is set as follows:
pragma solidity ^0.4.0;
contract TestStruct {
struct Trade
{
uint tradeid;
uint quantity;
uint price;
string trader;
}
//This struct can be initialized and used as below
Trade tStruct = Trade({tradeid:123, quantity:1, price:1,
trader:"equinox"});
}
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