If you are reading this line, I want to congratulate you because you have already overcome the most difficult hurdle in the pursuit of the understanding blockchain, and specifically, Ethereum smart contracts. This hurdle is the overwhelming hype surrounding this promising yet premature technology and trying to know what is really going on under the hood.

I am a software developer, and through my book, which you are viewing in your electronic device or physically holding in your hand, we will together embark on a fascinating journey through this enigmatic and revolutionary technology.

The chapters in this book have been arranged in an incremental fashion. We start with a gentle introduction to blockchain using the familiar bitcoin, and quickly dive into the world of Ethereum and the major players in its ecosystem.

Then we proceed to do some hands-on coding of a typical "Hello World" smart contract. We then take on the subject of decentralized autonomous organizations, decentralized applications, and smart contract optimization. We also analyze two famous multi-million-dollar hacks that recently occurred in the Ethereum community, along with the preventive measures employed to avoid them in future.

We then move on to the intricacies of the solidity programming language and web3.js library.

The final chapters mainly deal with the development of standardized tokens, the concept of initial coin offering, potential enterprise use cases of smart contracts, designing a decentralized micro-blogging platform, and surfing the dark web marketplace.

We conclude the book by providing primers on advanced topics with promising future prospects such as graph-based DLTs and quantum secured blockchains.

At the onset, I want to have a clear understanding between us. Even though I am the author of this book and it is my sole responsibility to present the facts as accurately as possible in this book, in no possible way do I consider myself as the sole authority on this subject.

As my reader, I want you to realize that I am just another overenthusiastic fellow learner who will try to assist you with your pursuit of knowledge by introducing the optimal amount of information required to kick-start your journey. And I will make you aware of the hurdles and pitfalls I faced along the way so that you can learn from my mistakes.

Enough said. Let's start our journey to blockchain and get our hands dirty with Ethereum Smart Contract Development.

Happy reading!