Book Image

Mastering Blockchain - Third Edition

By : Imran Bashir
Book Image

Mastering Blockchain - Third Edition

By: Imran Bashir

Overview of this book

Blockchain is the backbone of cryptocurrencies, with applications in finance, government, media, and other industries. With a legacy of providing technologists with executable insights, this new edition of Mastering Blockchain is thoroughly revised and updated to the latest blockchain research with four new chapters on consensus algorithms, Serenity (the update that will introduce Ethereum 2.0), tokenization, and enterprise blockchains. This book covers the basics, including blockchain’s technical underpinnings, cryptography and consensus protocols. It also provides you with expert knowledge on decentralization, decentralized application development on Ethereum, Bitcoin, alternative coins, smart contracts, alternative blockchains, and Hyperledger. Further, you will explore blockchain solutions beyond cryptocurrencies such as the Internet of Things with blockchain, enterprise blockchains, tokenization using blockchain, and consider the future scope of this fascinating and disruptive technology. By the end of this book, you will have gained a thorough comprehension of the various facets of blockchain and understand their potential in diverse real-world scenarios.
Table of Contents (24 chapters)
23
Index

Blocks and blockchain

Blocks are the main building structure of a blockchain. Ethereum blocks consist of various elements, which are described as follows:

  • The block header
  • The transactions list
  • The list of headers of ommers or uncles

An uncle block is a block that is the child of a parent but does not have any child block. Ommers or uncles are valid, but stale, blocks that are not part of the main chain but contribute to security of the chain. They also earn a reward for their participation but do not become part of the canonical truth.

The transaction list is simply a list of all transactions included in the block. Also, the list of headers of uncles is also included in the block.

Block header: Block headers are the most critical and detailed components of an Ethereum block. The header contains various elements, which are described in detail here:

  • Parent hash: This is the Keccak 256-bit hash of the parent (previous) block...