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

Security

Blockchains are generally secure and make use of asymmetric and symmetric cryptography, as required throughout the blockchain network, to ensure that the core layer of the blockchain is secure. However, there still are few caveats that can result in compromising the security of the blockchain.

There are a few examples of transaction malleability, eclipse attacks, and the possibility of double-spending in Bitcoin that, in certain scenarios, have been shown to work by various researchers. Transaction malleability opens up the possibility of double withdrawal or deposit by allowing a hacker to change a transaction's unique ID before the Bitcoin network can confirm it, resulting in a scenario where it would seem that transactions did not occur. BIP 62 is one of the proposals, along with SegWit, that has suggested solutions to solve this issue. It should be noted that this is a problem only in the case of unconfirmed transactions; that is, scenarios where operational...