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

Choosing an algorithm

Choosing a consensus algorithm depends on several factors. It is not only use case-dependent, but some trade-offs may also have to be made to create a system that meets all the requirements without compromising the core safety and liveness properties of the system.

We will discuss some of the main factors that can influence the choice of consensus algorithm. Note that these factors are different from the core safety and liveness properties discussed earlier, which are the fundamental requirements needed to be fulfilled by any consensus mechanism. Other factors that we are going to introduce here are use case-specific and impact the choice of consensus algorithm.

These factors include, but are not limited to finality, speed, performance, and scalability.

Finality

Finality refers to a concept where once a transaction has been completed, it cannot be reverted. In other words, if a transaction has been committed to the blockchain, it won't be...