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

Programming languages

Code for smart contracts in Ethereum is written in high-level languages such as Serpent, Low-level Lisp-like Language (LLL), Solidity, or Vyper, and is converted into the bytecode that the EVM understands for it to be executed.

Solidity is one of the high-level languages that has been developed for Ethereum. It uses JavaScript-like syntax to write code for smart contracts. Once the code is written, it is compiled into bytecode that's understandable by the EVM using the Solidity compiler called solc.

Official Solidity documentation is available at http://solidity.readthedocs.io/en/latest/.

LLL is another language that is used to write smart contract code.

Serpent is a Python-like, high-level language that can be used to write smart contracts for Ethereum.

Vyper is a newer language that has been developed from scratch to achieve a secure, simple, and auditable language.

More information regarding Vyper is available...