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

Summary

This chapter started with some general concepts, including blocks, block structure, gas, and messages, which were introduced and discussed in detail. The later sections of the chapter introduced the practical installation and management of Ethereum wallets and clients. The two most commonly-used clients, Geth and OpenEthereum, were discussed. We also explored an introduction of programming languages for programming smart contracts in Ethereum.

Supporting protocols and topics related to challenges faced by Ethereum were also presented. Ethereum is under continuous development, and new improvements are being made by a dedicated community of developers on a regular basis. Ethereum improvement proposals, available at https://github.com/ethereum/EIPs, are also an indication of the magnitude of research and the keen interest exhibited by the community in this technology.

In the next chapter, we will explore Ethereum smart contract development, along with the relevant tools...