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Foundations of Blockchain

By : Koshik Raj

Foundations of Blockchain

By: Koshik Raj

Overview of this book

Blockchain technology is a combination of three popular concepts: cryptography, peer-to-peer networking, and game theory. This book is for anyone who wants to dive into blockchain from first principles and learn how decentralized applications and cryptocurrencies really work. This book begins with an overview of blockchain technology, including key definitions, its purposes and characteristics, so you can assess the full potential of blockchain. All essential aspects of cryptography are then presented, as the backbone of blockchain. For readers who want to study the underlying algorithms of blockchain, you’ll see Python implementations throughout. You’ll then learn how blockchain architecture can create decentralized applications. You’ll see how blockchain achieves decentralization through peer-to-peer networking, and how a simple blockchain can be built in a P2P network. You’ll learn how these elements can implement a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin, and the wider applications of blockchain work through smart contracts. Blockchain optimization techniques, and blockchain security strategies are then presented. To complete this foundation, we consider blockchain applications in the financial and non-financial sectors, and also analyze the future of blockchain. A study of blockchain use cases includes supply chains, payment systems, crowdfunding, and DAOs, which rounds out your foundation in blockchain technology.

Preface

Preface

Who this book is for

What this book covers

To get the most out of this book

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Free Chapter

Introduction

Introduction

What blockchain is

What blockchain isn't

Blockchain definitions

How are blockchains different from databases?

History of blockchain

The motivations behind blockchain

Characteristics of blockchain

Background of DLT

The different types of blockchain

Overview of blocks

Influence of Moore's law on blockchain technology

Summary

A Bit of Cryptography

A Bit of Cryptography

Cryptography in blockchain

Classical cryptography

Cryptographic primitives

Symmetric key cryptography

Asymmetric key cryptography

Cryptographic hashing

Encoding schemes

Summary

Cryptography in Blockchain

Cryptography in Blockchain

Hashing in blockchain

Digital signatures in blockchain

Summary

Networking in Blockchain

Networking in Blockchain

Peer-to-peer (P2P) networking

Network discovery

Block synchronization

Building a simple blockchain in a P2P network

Summary

Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency

Bitcoin basics

Keys and addresses

Transactions

Mining and consensus

Blockchain

Blockchain networks

Bitcoin hard forks and altcoins

A simple cryptocurrency application

Summary

Diving into Blockchain - Proof of Existence

Diving into Blockchain - Proof of Existence

MultiChain blockchain platform

Setting up a blockchain environment

Getting started with MultiChain

Proof of Existence architecture

Building the Proof of Existence application

Summary

Diving into Blockchain - Proof of Ownership

Diving into Blockchain - Proof of Ownership

Digital assets and identity

Proof of ownership

Smart contracts

Choosing the smart contract platform

NEO blockchain

Ethereum blockchain

Summary

Blockchain Projects

Blockchain Projects

Categorizing the blockchain projects

Financial blockchain projects

Non-financial blockchain projects

Links for the projects

Summary

Blockchain Optimizations and Enhancements

Blockchain Optimizations and Enhancements

Blockchain optimizations

Blockchain enhancements

Summary

Blockchain Security

Blockchain Security

Transaction security model

Decentralized security model

Attacks on the blockchain

Threats of quantum computing

Summary

When Shouldn't We Use Blockchain?

When Shouldn't We Use Blockchain?

Distributed databases versus distributed ledger technology (DLT)

What can we store on a blockchain?

Centralized versus decentralized application architecture

Properties of blockchain

Decision models for blockchain

Summary

Blockchain Use Cases

Blockchain Use Cases

Tracking provenance in the supply chain

Financial system

Crowdfunding

Non-profit autonomous organizations

Summary

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Summary

After we were introduced to the core concepts of blockchain in the earlier chapters of this book, in this chapter, we have dived into blockchain by creating a blockchain application to implement an existing use case. Throughout this chapter, we've carefully analyzed a blockchain use case and proposed an architecture to build a simple blockchain application using the MultiChain platform. The MultiChain platform's simplicity, along with other features that we discussed, allowed us to create and deploy the application with minimal effort. Getting familiar with the MultiChain platform has provided us with sufficient insights on architecting and developing a simple blockchain use case. This should serve as a foundation and motivate us to build and deploy blockchain applications within any other blockchain platforms.

Now that we have a strong background in blockchain...

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