Blockchain For Dummies

Introduction 1About This Book 1Foolish Assumptions 2Icons Used in This Book 2Beyond the Book 3Where to Go from Here 3Part 1: Getting Started with Blockchain 5Chapter 1: Introducing Blockchain 7Beginning at the Beginning: What Blockchains Are 7What blockchains do 8Why blockchains matter 9The Structure of Blockchains 10Blockchain Applications 11The Blockchain Life Cycle 11Consensus: The Driving Force of Blockchains 12Blockchains in Use 14Current blockchain uses 14Future blockchain applications 15Chapter 2: Picking a Blockchain 17Where Blockchains Add Substance 17Determining your needs 18Defining your goal 19Choosing a Solution 19Drawing a blockchain decision tree 21Making a plan 22Chapter 3: Getting Your Hands on Blockchain 25Diving into the Bitcoin Blockchain 25Creating your first Bitcoin wallet 26Creating a second Bitcoin wallet 27Generating a Bitcoin vanity address 27Transferring your vanity address 28Making an entry into the Bitcoin blockchain 29Reading a blockchain entry in Bitcoin 29Using Smart Contracts with Bitcoin 30Building your first smart bond 31Checking the status of your contract 33Building a Private Blockchain with Docker and Ethereum 34Preparing your computer 34Building your blockchain 36Part 2: Developing Your Knowledge 39Chapter 4: Beholding the Bitcoin Blockchain 41Getting a Brief History of the Bitcoin Blockchain 42Debunking Some Common Bitcoin Misconceptions 45Bitcoin: The New Wild West 47Fake sites 47No, you first! 47Get-rich-quick schemes 48Mining for Bitcoins 48Making Your First Paper Wallet 49Chapter 5: Encountering the Ethereum Blockchain 51Exploring the Brief History of Ethereum 52Ethereum: The Open-Source World Wide Computer 53Decentralized applications: Welcome to the future 54The power of decentralized autonomous organizations 54Hacking a Blockchain 57Understanding smart contracts 58Discovering the cryptocurrency Ether 58Getting Up and Running on Ethereum 59Mining for ether 59Setting up your Ethereum wallet 60Building Your First Decentralized Autonomous Organization 60Test net and congress 61Governance and voting 62Uncovering the Future of DAOs 63Putting money in a DAO 63Building smarter smart contracts 64Finding bugs in the system 64Chapter 6: Regarding the Ripple Blockchain 65Getting a Brief History of the Ripple Blockchain 66Ripple: It\'s All About Trust 67Seeing How Ripple Differs from Other Blockchains 68Unleashing the Full Power of Ripple 71Exercising Caution with Ripple 72Chapter 7: Finding the Factom Blockchain 75A Matter of Trust 76The purpose of the Factom blockchain: Publishing anything 77Incentives of federation 78Building on Factom 81Authenticating documents and building identities using APIs 81Getting to know the Factoid: Not a normal token 81Anchoring your application 82Publishing on Factom 82Building transparency in the mortgage industry 84Verifying physical documents: dLoc with Factom 86Chapter 8: Digging into DigiByte 89Getting Familiar with DigiByte: The Fast Blockchain 90Mining on DigiByte 91Signing Documents on DigiByte\'s DiguSign 94Earning DigiBytes While Gaming 95Part 3: Powerful Blockchain Platforms 97Chapter 9: Getting Your Hands on Hyperledger 99Getting to Know Hyperledger: Dreams of a Hyper Future 100Focusing on Fabric 101Building your system in Fabric 102Diving into chaincode development 102Investigating the Iroha Project 104Introducing Sumeragi: The new consensus algorithm 104Developing mobile apps 105Diving into Sawtooth Lake 106Exploring the consensus algorithm: Proof of Elapsed Time 107Deploying Sawtooth 107Chapter 10: Applying Microsoft Azure 109Bletchley: The Modular Blockchain Fabric 109Cryptlets for encrypting and authenticating 111Utility and Contract Cryptlets and CrytoDelegates 112Building in the Azure Ecosystem 113Getting Started with Chain on Azure 114Installing Chain\'s distributed ledger 115Creating your own private network 115Using financial services on Azure\'s Chain 116Deploying Blockchain Tools on Azure 116Exploring Ethereum on Azure 116Cortana: Your analytics machine learning tool 117Visualizing your data with Power BI 117Managing your access on Azure\'s Active Directory 118Chapter 11: Getting Busy on IBM Bluemix 119Business Blockchain on Bluemix 119Your isolated environment 120Bluemix use cases 121Watson\'s Smart Blockchain 122Building Your Starter Network on Big Blue 124Part 4: Industry Impacts 129Chapter 12: Financial Technology 131Hauling Out Your Crystal Ball: Future Banking Trends 131Moving money faster: Across borders and more 133Creating permanent history 134Going International: Global Financial Products 135Border-free payroll 136Faster and better trade 137Guaranteed payments 138Micropayments: The new nature of transactions 138Squeezing Out Fraud 139Chapter 13: Real Estate 141Eliminating Title Insurance 141Protected industries 142Consumers and Fannie Mae 144Mortgages in the Blockchain World 144Reducing your origination costs 145Knowing your last-known document 145Forecasting Regional Trends 146The United States and Europe: Infrastructure congestion 147China: First out of the gate 148The developing world: Roadblocks to blockchain 148Chapter 14: Insurance 151Precisely Tailoring Coverage 151Insuring the individual 152The new world of micro insurance 153Witnessing for You: The Internet of Things 154IoT projects in insurance 155Implications of actionable big data 155Taking Out the Third Party in Insurance 156Decentralized security 156Crowdfunded coverage 156The implications of DAO insurance 157Chapter 15: Government 159The Smart Cities of Asia 159Singapore satellite cities in India 161China\'s big data problem 162The Battle for the Financial Capital of the World 163London\'s early foresight 163The regulatory sandbox of Singapore 164The Dubai 2020 initiative 165Bitlicense regulatory framework: New York City 167Securing the World\'s Borders 168The Department of Homeland Security and the identity of things 168Passports of the future 169The new feeder document 169Chapter 16: Other Industries 171Lean Governments 171Singapore\'s Smart Nation project 172Estonia\'s e-Residency 173Better notarization in China 174The Trust Layer for the Internet 174Spam-free email 175Owning your identity 176Oracle of the Blockchain 176Trusted authorship 177Intellectual property rights 177Part 5: The Part of Tens 179Chapter 17: Ten Free Blockchain Resources 181Factom University 181Ethereum 101 182Build on Ripple 182Programmable Money by Ripple 182DigiKnow 183Blockchain University 183Bitcoin Core 183Blockchain Alliance 183Multichain Blog 184HiveMind 184Chapter 18: The Ten Rules to Never Break on the Blockchain 185Don\'t Use Cryptocurrency or Blockchains to Skirt the Law 185Keep Your Contracts as Simple as Possible 186Publish with Great Caution 187Back Up, Back Up, Back Up Your Private Keys 187Triple-Check the Address Before Sending Currency 189Take Care When Using Exchanges 189Beware Wi-Fi 190Identify Your Blockchain Dev 190Don\'t Get Suckered 190Don\'t Trade Tokens Unless You Know What You\'re Doing 191Chapter 19: Ten Top Blockchain Projects 193The R3 Consortium 193T ZERO: Overstocking the Stock Market 194Blockstream\'s Distributed Systems 195OpenBazaar\'s Blockchain 196Code Valley: Find Your Coder 196Bitfury\'s Digital Assets 197Any Coin Can ShapeShift 198Machine-Payable Apps on 21 198Anonymous Transactions on Dash 199ConsenSys: Decentralized Applications 200Index 201