Book Image

Learn Blockchain Programming with JavaScript

By : Eric Traub
Book Image

Learn Blockchain Programming with JavaScript

By: Eric Traub

Overview of this book

Learn Blockchain Programming with JavaScript begins by giving you a clear understanding of what blockchain technology is. You’ll then set up an environment to build your very own blockchain and you’ll add various functionalities to it. By adding functionalities to your blockchain such as the ability to mine new blocks, create transactions, and secure your blockchain through a proof-of-work you’ll gain an in-depth understanding of how blockchain technology functions. As you make your way through the chapters, you’ll learn how to build an API server to interact with your blockchain and how to host your blockchain on a decentralized network. You’ll also build a consensus algorithm and use it to verify data and keep the entire blockchain network synchronized. In the concluding chapters, you’ll finish building your blockchain prototype and gain a thorough understanding of why blockchain technology is so secure and valuable. By the end of this book, you'll understand how decentralized blockchain networks function and why decentralization is such an important feature for securing a blockchain.
Table of Contents (10 chapters)

Building a Blockchain

In the previous chapter, we learned about what a blockchain is and how it functions. In addition, we learned how to set up a project to build our blockchain. In this chapter, you will begin building the blockchain and all of its functionalities. First, let's create the blockchain data structure using a constructor function, and then we'll add a lot of different types of functionalities to our blockchain by adding different methods to its prototype.

We're then going to give the blockchain certain functionalities, such as creating new blocks and transactions, as well as the ability to hash data and blocks. We'll also give it the ability to do a proof of work and many other functionalities that a blockchain should be able to do. We'll then make sure that the blockchain is fully functional by testing the added functionalities as we progress...