Mastering Blockchain

Cover
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Table of Contents
Preface
Chapter 1: Blockchain 101
	The growth of blockchain technology
	Distributed systems
	The history of blockchain and Bitcoin
		Electronic cash
		Blockchain
			Blockchain defined
				Peer-to-peer
				Distributed ledger
				Cryptographically-secure
				Append-only
				Updateable via consensus
		Generic elements of a blockchain
			How blockchain works
			How blockchain accumulates blocks
		Benefits and limitations of blockchain
		Tiers of blockchain technology
		Features of a blockchain
	Types of blockchain
		Distributed ledgers
		Distributed Ledger Technology
		Public blockchains
		Private blockchains
			Semiprivate blockchains
			Sidechains
			Permissioned ledger
		Shared ledger
		Fully private and proprietary blockchains
		Tokenized blockchains
		Tokenless blockchains
	Consensus
		Consensus mechanism
		Types of consensus mechanisms
		Consensus in blockchain
	CAP theorem and blockchain
	Summary
Chapter 2: Decentralization
	Decentralization using blockchain
	Methods of decentralization
		Disintermediation
		Contest-driven decentralization
	Routes to decentralization
		How to decentralize
		The decentralization framework example
	Blockchain and full ecosystem decentralization
		Storage
		Communication
		Computing power and decentralization
	Smart contracts
	Decentralized Organizations
		Decentralized Autonomous Organizations
		Decentralized Autonomous Corporations
		Decentralized Autonomous Societies
		Decentralized Applications (DApps)
		Requirements of a Decentralized Application
		Operations of a DApp
			DApp examples
				KYC-Chain
				OpenBazaar
				Lazooz
	Platforms for decentralization
		Ethereum
		MaidSafe
		Lisk
	Summary
Chapter 3: Symmetric Cryptography
	Working with the OpenSSL command line
	Introduction
		Mathematics
			Set
			Group
			Field
			A finite field
			Order
			An abelian group
			Prime fields
			Ring
			A cyclic group
			Modular arithmetic
		Cryptography
		Confidentiality
		Integrity
		Authentication
			Entity authentication
			Data origin authentication
		Non-repudiation
		Accountability
	Cryptographic primitives
		Symmetric cryptography
			Stream ciphers
			Block ciphers
				Block encryption mode
				Electronic Code Book
				Cipher Block Chaining
				Counter mode
				Keystream generation mode
				Message authentication mode
				Cryptographic hash mode
		Data Encryption Standard
		Advanced Encryption Standard
			How AES works
	Summary
Chapter 4: Public Key Cryptography
	Asymmetric cryptography
		Integer factorization
		Discrete logarithm
		Elliptic curves
	Public and private keys
		RSA
			Encryption and decryption using RSA
			Elliptic Curve Cryptography
				Mathematics behind ECC
				Point addition
				Point doubling
		Discrete logarithm problem in ECC
			RSA using OpenSSL
			RSA public and private key pair
				Private key
				Public key
				Exploring the public key
			Encryption and decryption
				Encryption
				Decryption
			ECC using OpenSSL
				ECC private and public key pair
				Private key
				Private key generation
		Hash functions
			Compression of arbitrary messages into fixed-length digest
			Easy to compute
			Preimage resistance
			Second preimage resistance
			Collision resistance
			Message Digest
			Secure Hash Algorithms
				Design of Secure Hash Algorithms
				Design of SHA-256
				Design of SHA-3 (Keccak)
				OpenSSL example of hash functions
				Message Authentication Codes
				MACs using block ciphers
				Hash-based MACs
			Merkle trees
			Patricia trees
			Distributed Hash Tables
			Digital signatures
		RSA digital signature algorithm
			Sign then encrypt
			Encrypt then sign
		Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm
			How to generate a digital signature using OpenSSL
			ECDSA using OpenSSL
			Homomorphic encryption
			Signcryption
			Zero-Knowledge Proofs
			Blind signatures
			Encoding schemes
	Financial markets and trading
		Trading
		Exchanges
			Orders and order properties
			Order management and routing systems
			Components of a trade
			The underlying instrument
			General attributes
			Economics
			Sales
			Counterparty
		Trade life cycle
		Order anticipators
		Market manipulation
	Summary
Chapter 5: Introducing Bitcoin
	Bitcoin
		Bitcoin definition
		Bitcoin – a bird\'s-eye view
			Sending a payment to someone
	Digital keys and addresses
		Private keys in Bitcoin
		Public keys in Bitcoin
		Addresses in Bitcoin
			Base58Check encoding
			Vanity addresses
				Multisignature addresses
	Transactions
		The transaction life cycle
			Transaction fee
			Transaction pools
		The transaction data structure
			Metadata
			Inputs
			Outputs
			Verification
			The script language
			Commonly used opcodes
		Types of transactions
			Coinbase transactions
			Contracts
		Transaction verification
			Transaction malleability
	Blockchain
		The structure of a block
		The structure of a block header
		The genesis block
	Mining
		Tasks of the miners
		Mining rewards
		Proof of Work (PoW)
		The mining algorithm
		The hash rate
		Mining systems
			CPU
			GPU
			FPGA
			ASICs
		Mining pools
	Summary
Chapter 6: Bitcoin Network and Payments
	The Bitcoin network
	Wallets
		Non-deterministic wallets
		Deterministic wallets
		Hierarchical Deterministic wallets
		Brain wallets
		Paper wallets
		Hardware wallets
		Online wallets
		Mobile wallets
	Bitcoin payments
	Innovation in Bitcoin
		Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs)
		Advanced protocols
		Segregated Witness (SegWit)
		Bitcoin Cash
		Bitcoin Unlimited
		Bitcoin Gold
		Bitcoin investment and buying and selling bitcoins
	Summary
Chapter 7: Bitcoin Clients and APIs
	Bitcoin installation
		Types of Bitcoin Core clients
			Bitcoind
			Bitcoin-cli
			Bitcoin-qt
		Setting up a Bitcoin node
		Setting up the source code
		Setting up bitcoin.conf
		Starting up a node in testnet
		Starting up a node in regtest
		Experimenting with Bitcoin-cli
		Bitcoin programming and the command-line interface
	Summary
Chapter 8: Alternative Coins
	Theoretical foundations
		Alternatives to Proof of Work
			Proof of Storage
			Proof of Stake (PoS)
		Various stake types
			Proof of coinage
			Proof of Deposit (PoD)
			Proof of Burn
			Proof of Activity (PoA)
			Nonoutsourceable puzzles
		Difficulty adjustment and retargeting algorithms
			Kimoto Gravity Well
			Dark Gravity Wave
			DigiShield
			MIDAS
	Bitcoin limitations
		Privacy and anonymity
			Mixing protocols
			Third-party mixing protocols
			Inherent anonymity
		Extended protocols on top of Bitcoin
			Colored coins
			Counterparty
		Development of altcoins
			Consensus algorithms
			Hashing algorithms
			Difficulty adjustment algorithms
			Inter-block time
			Block rewards
			Reward halving rate
			Block size and transaction size
			Interest rate
			Coinage
			Total supply of coins
	Namecoin
		Trading Namecoins
		Obtaining Namecoins
		Generating Namecoin records
	Litecoin
	Primecoin
		Trading Primecoin
		Mining guide
	Zcash
		Trading Zcash
		Mining guide
			Address generation
			GPU mining
				Downloading and compiling nheqminer
		Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs)
		ERC20 tokens
	Summary
Chapter 9: Smart Contracts
	History
	Definition
	Ricardian contracts
		Smart contract templates
		Oracles
		Smart Oracles
		Deploying smart contracts on a blockchain
		The DAO
	Summary
Chapter 10: Ethereum 101
	Introduction
		The yellow paper
			Useful mathematical symbols
		Ethereum blockchain
	Ethereum – bird\'s eye view
	The Ethereum network
		Mainnet
		Testnet
		Private net
	Components of the Ethereum ecosystem
		Keys and addresses
		Accounts
			Types of accounts
		Transactions and messages
			Contract creation transaction
			Message call transaction
			Messages
			Calls
			Transaction validation and execution
			The transaction substate
			State storage in the Ethereum blockchain
			The world state
			The account state
			Transaction receipts
		Ether cryptocurrency / tokens (ETC and ETH)
		The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)
			Execution environment
			Machine state
			The iterator function
		Smart contracts
			Native contracts
	Summary
Chapter 11: Further Ethereum
	Programming languages
		Runtime bytecode
			Opcodes and their meaning
			Arithmetic operations
			Logical operations
			Cryptographic operations
			Environmental information
			Block information
			Stack, memory, storage, and flow operations
			Push operations
			Duplication operations
			Exchange operations
			Logging operations
			System operations
		Blocks and blockchain
			The genesis block
			The block validation mechanism
				Block finalization
			Block difficulty
			Gas
		Fee schedule
			Forks in the blockchain
			Nodes and miners
				The consensus mechanism
			Ethash
				CPU mining
				GPU mining
				Benchmarking
				Mining rigs
				Mining pools
			Wallets and client software
				Geth
				Eth
				Pyethapp
				Parity
				Light clients
				Installation
				Eth installation
				Mist browser
				Geth
				The geth console
				Funding the account with bitcoin
				Parity installation
				Creating accounts using the parity command line
			APIs, tools, and DApps
				Applications (DApps and DAOs) developed on Ethereum
				Tools
		Supporting protocols
			Whisper
			Swarm
		Scalability, security, and other challenges
		Trading and investment
	Summary
Chapter 12: Ethereum Development Environment
	Test networks
	Setting up a private net
		Network ID
		The genesis file
		Data directory
			Flags and their meaning
			Static nodes
	Starting up the private network
		Running Mist on private net
		Deploying contracts using Mist
		Block explorer for private net / local Ethereum block explorer
	Summary
Chapter 13: Development Tools and Frameworks
	Languages
		Compilers
			Solidity compiler (solc)
				Installation on Linux
				Installation on macOS
			Integrated Development Environments (IDEs)
				Remix
			Tools and libraries
				Node version 7
				EthereumJS
			Ganache
			MetaMask
			Truffle
				Installation
			Contract development and deployment
				Writing
				Testing
	Solidity language
		Types
			Value types
				Boolean
				Integers
				Address
			Literals
				Integer literals
				String literals
				Hexadecimal literals
			Enums
			Function types
				Internal functions
				External functions
			Reference types
				Arrays
				Structs
				Data location
				Mappings
			Global variables
			Control structures
				Events 
				Inheritance
				Libraries
				Functions
			Layout of a Solidity source code file
				Version pragma
				Import
				Comments
	Summary
Chapter 14: Introducing Web3
	Web3
		Contract deployment
		POST requests
		The HTML and JavaScript frontend
			Installing web3.js
				Example
				Creating a web3 object
				Checking availability by calling any web3 method
				Contract functions
		Development frameworks
			Truffle
				Initializing Truffle
				Interaction with the contract
				Another example
				An example project – Proof of Idea
			Oracles
			Deployment on decentralized storage using IPFS
				Installing IPFS
			Distributed ledgers
	Summary
Chapter 15: Hyperledger
	Projects under Hyperledger
		Fabric
		Sawtooth Lake
		Iroha
		Burrow
		Indy
		Explorer
		Cello
		Composer
		Quilt
	Hyperledger as a protocol
	The reference architecture
		Requirements and design goals of Hyperledger Fabric
			The modular approach
			Privacy and confidentiality
			Scalability
			Deterministic transactions
			Identity
			Auditability
			Interoperability
			Portability
			Rich data queries
	Fabric
		Hyperledger Fabric
			Membership services
			Blockchain services
			Consensus services
			Distributed ledger
				The peer to peer protocol
				Ledger storage
				Chaincode services
				Components of the fabric
				Peers
				Orderer nodes
				Clients
				Channels
				World state database
				Transactions
				Membership Service Provider (MSP)
				Smart contracts
				Crypto service provider
				Applications on blockchain
				Chaincode implementation
				The application model
				Consensus in Hyperledger Fabric
				The transaction life cycle in Hyperledger Fabric
		Sawtooth Lake
			PoET
			Transaction families
			Consensus in Sawtooth
			The development environment – Sawtooth Lake
		Corda
			Architecture
				State objects
				Transactions
				Consensus
				Flows
			Components
				Nodes
				The permissioning service
				Network map service
				Notary service
				Oracle service
				Transactions
				Vaults
				CorDapp
			The development environment – Corda
	Summary
Chapter 16: Alternative Blockchains
	Blockchains
		Kadena
		Ripple
			Transactions
				Payments related
				Order related
				Account and security-related
			Interledger
				Application layer
				Transport layer
				Interledger layer
				Ledger layer
		Stellar
		Rootstock
			Sidechain
			Drivechain
		Quorum
			Transaction manager
			Crypto Enclave
			QuorumChain
			Network manager
		Tezos
		Storj
		MaidSafe
		BigchainDB
		MultiChain
		Tendermint
			Tendermint Core
			Tendermint Socket Protocol (TMSP)
	Platforms and frameworks
		Eris
	Summary
Chapter 17: Blockchain – Outside of Currencies
	Internet of Things
		Physical object layer
		Device layer
		Network layer
		Management layer
		Application layer
		IoT blockchain experiment
			First node setup
			Raspberry Pi node setup
				Installing Node.js
			Circuit
		Government
			Border control
			Voting
			Citizen identification (ID cards)
			Miscellaneous
		Health
		Finance
			Insurance
			Post-trade settlement
			Financial crime prevention
		Media
	Summary
Chapter 18: Scalability and Other Challenges
	Scalability
		Network plane
		Consensus plane
		Storage plane
		View plane
		Block size increase
		Block interval reduction
		Invertible Bloom Lookup Tables
		Sharding
		State channels
		Private blockchain
		Proof of Stake
		Sidechains
			Subchains
			Tree chains (trees)
			Block propagation
			Bitcoin-NG
			Plasma
	Privacy
		Indistinguishability Obfuscation
		Homomorphic encryption
		Zero-Knowledge Proofs
		State channels
		Secure multiparty computation
		Usage of hardware to provide confidentiality
		CoinJoin
		Confidential transactions
		MimbleWimble
		Security
			Smart contract security
				Formal verification and analysis
				Oyente tool
	Summary
Chapter 19: Current Landscape and What\'s Next
	Emerging trends
		Application-specific blockchains (ASBCs)
		Enterprise-grade blockchains
		Private blockchains
		Start-ups
		Strong research interest
		Standardization
		Enhancements
		Real-world implementations
		Consortia
		Answers to technical challenges
		Convergence
		Education of blockchain technology
		Employment
		Cryptoeconomics
		Research in cryptography
		New programming languages
		Hardware research and development
		Research in formal methods and security
		Alternatives to blockchains
		Interoperability efforts
		Blockchain as a Service
		Efforts to reduce electricity consumption
	Other challenges
		Regulation
		Dark side
	Blockchain research
		Smart contracts
		Centralization issues
		Limitations in cryptographic functions
		Consensus algorithms
		Scalability
		Code obfuscation
	Notable projects
		Zcash on Ethereum
		CollCo
		Cello
		Qtum
		Bitcoin-NG
		Solidus
		Hawk
		Town-Crier
		SETLCoin
		TEEChan
		Falcon
		Bletchley
		Casper
	Miscellaneous tools
		Solidity extension for Microsoft Visual Studio
		MetaMask
		Stratis
		Embark
		DAPPLE
		Meteor
		uPort
		INFURA
	Convergence with other industries
	Future
	Summary
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Index