Mastering Blockchain : a deep dive into distributed ledgers, consensus protocols, smart contracts, DApps, cryptocurrencies, Ethereum, and more

Cover
Copyright
Packt Page
Contributors
Table of Contents
Preface
Chapter 1: Blockchain 101
	The growth of blockchain technology
		Progress toward maturity
		Increasing interest
	Distributed systems
	The history of blockchain and Bitcoin
		The events that led to blockchain
		Electronic cash
	Blockchain
		Blockchain defined
		Blockchain architecture
		Generic elements of a blockchain
		Benefits, features, and limitations of blockchain
		Types of blockchain
	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
		Decentralization framework example
	Blockchain and full ecosystem decentralization
		Storage
		Communication
		Computing power and decentralization
	Pertinent terminology
		Smart contracts
		Autonomous agents
		Decentralized organizations
		Decentralized autonomous organizations
		Decentralized autonomous corporations
		Decentralized autonomous societies
		Decentralized applications
	Platforms for decentralization
		Ethereum
		MaidSafe
		Lisk
		EOS
	Innovative trends
		Decentralized web
		Decentralized identity
		Decentralized finance (DeFi)
	Summary
Chapter 3: Symmetric Cryptography
	Working with the OpenSSL command line
	Introduction
		Cryptography
	Cryptographic primitives
		Keyless primitives
		Symmetric cryptography
		Data Encryption Standard (DES)
	Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)
		How AES works
		An OpenSSL example of how to encrypt and decrypt using AES
	Summary
Chapter 4: Public Key Cryptography
	Mathematics
		Modular arithmetic
		Sets
		Fields
		Finite fields
		Prime fields
		Groups
		Abelian groups
		Rings
		Cyclic groups
		Order
	Asymmetric cryptography
		Integer factorization
		Discrete logarithm
		Elliptic curves
		Public and private keys
		RSA
		Elliptic curve cryptography
		Digital signatures
	Cryptographic constructs and blockchain technology
		Homomorphic encryption
		Signcryption
		Secret sharing
		Commitment schemes
		Zero-knowledge proofs
		Different types of digital signatures
		Encoding schemes
		Applications of cryptographic hash functions
	Summary
Chapter 5: Consensus Algorithms
	Introducing the consensus problem
		The Byzantine generals problem
		Fault tolerance
		State machine replication
		FLP impossibility
		Lower bounds on the number of processors to solve consensus
	Analysis and design
		Model
		Processes
		Timing assumptions
	Classification
	Algorithms
		CFT algorithms
		BFT algorithms
	Choosing an algorithm
		Finality
		Speed, performance, and scalability
	Summary
Chapter 6: Introducing Bitcoin
	Bitcoin — an overview
		The beginnings of Bitcoin
		Egalitarianism versus authoritarianism
		Bitcoin definition
		Bitcoin — A user's perspective
	Cryptographic keys
		Private keys in Bitcoin
		Public keys in Bitcoin
		Addresses in Bitcoin
	Transactions
		The transaction lifecycle
		The transaction data structure
		Types of scripts
		Coinbase transactions
		Transaction validation
		Transaction bugs
	Blockchain
		The genesis block
	Mining
		Tasks of the miners
		Mining rewards
		Proof of Work
		The mining algorithm
		The hash rate
		Mining systems
		Mining pools
	Summary
Chapter 7: The Bitcoin Network and Payments
	The Bitcoin network
		Full client and SPV client
		Bloom filters
	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
	Advanced protocols
		Segregated Witness
		Bitcoin Cash
		Bitcoin Unlimited
		Bitcoin Gold
	Bitcoin investment and buying and selling Bitcoin
	Summary
Chapter 8: Bitcoin Clients and APIs
	Bitcoin client installation
		Types of clients and tools
		Setting up a Bitcoin node
		Setting up the source code
		Setting up bitcoin.conf
		Starting up a node in the testnet
		Starting up a node in regtest
	Experimenting further with bitcoin-cli
		Using the Bitcoin command-line tool – bitcoin-cli
		Using the JSON RPC interface
		Using the HTTP REST interface
	Bitcoin programming
	Summary
Chapter 9: Alternative Coins
	Introducing altcoins
	Theoretical foundations
		Alternatives to Proof of Work
		Proof of Storage
		Proof of Stake (PoS)
		Proof of Activity (PoA)
		Non-outsourceable puzzles
	Difficulty adjustment and retargeting algorithms
		Kimoto Gravity Well
		Dark Gravity Wave
		DigiShield
		MIDAS
	Bitcoin limitations
		Privacy and 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
		Token versus cryptocurrency
	Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs)
		ERC20 standard
	Summary
Chapter 10: Smart Contracts
	History
	Definition
	Ricardian contracts
	Smart contract templates
	Oracles
		Software and network-assisted proofs
		Hardware device-assisted proofs
		Types of blockchain oracles
		Blockchain oracle services
	Deploying smart contracts
	The DAO
	Summary
Chapter 11: Ethereum 101
	Ethereum – an overview
		The yellow paper
		Ethereum – a user's perspective
	The Ethereum network
		The mainnet
		Testnets
		Private nets
	Components of the Ethereum ecosystem
		Keys and addresses
		Accounts
		Transactions and messages
		Ether cryptocurrency/tokens (ETC and ETH)
	The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)
		Execution environment
		The machine state
		The iterator function
	Smart contracts
		Native contracts
	Summary
Chapter 12: Further Ethereum
	Blocks and blockchain
		The genesis block
		The block validation mechanism
		Block finalization
		Block difficulty mechanism
		Gas
		Fee schedule
	Wallets and client software
		Wallets
		Geth
		Eth
		Parity
		Trinity
		Light clients
		Installation and usage
		MetaMask
	Nodes and miners
		The consensus mechanism
		Forks in the blockchain
		Ethash
	APIs, tools, and DApps
		Applications (DApps and DAOs) developed on Ethereum
		Tools
		Geth JSON RPC API
	Supporting protocols
		Whisper
		Swarm
	Programming languages
		Runtime bytecode
		Opcodes
	Summary
Chapter 13: Ethereum Development Environment
	Overview
	Test networks
	Components of a private network
		Network ID
		The genesis file
		Data directory
	Starting up the private network
	Mining on the private network
	Remix IDE
	MetaMask
	Using MetaMask and Remix IDE to deploy a smart contract
		Adding a custom network to MetaMask and connecting Remix IDE with MetaMask
		Importing accounts into MetaMask using keystore files
		Deploying a contract with MetaMask
		Interacting with a contract through MetaMask using Remix IDE
	Summary
Chapter 14: Development Tools and Frameworks
	Languages
	Compilers
		The Solidity compiler
	Tools and libraries
		Node.js
		Ganache
	Frameworks
		Truffle
		Drizzle
		Embark
		Brownie
		Waffle
		Etherlime
		OpenZeppelin
	Contract development and deployment
		Writing smart contracts
		Testing smart contracts
		Deploying smart contracts
	The layout of a Solidity source code file
		Version pragma
		Import
		Comments
	The Solidity language
		Variables
		Data types
		Control structures
		Events
		Inheritance
		Libraries
		Functions
		Error handling
	Summary
Chapter 15: Introducing Web3
	Exploring Web3 with Geth
	Contract deployment
		POST requests
	Interacting with contracts via frontends
		The HTML and JavaScript frontend
		Interacting with contracts via a web frontend
	Development frameworks
		Using Truffle to develop a decentralized application
		Using Truffle to test and deploy smart contracts
		Deployment on decentralized storage using IPFS
	Summary
Chapter 16: Serenity
	Ethereum 2.0—an overview
		Goals
		Main features
		Roadmap of Ethereum
	Development phases
		Phase 0
		Phase 1
		Phase 2
		Phase 3
	Architecture
	Summary
Chapter 17: Hyperledger
	Projects under Hyperledger
		Distributed ledgers
		Libraries
		Tools
		Domain-specific
	Hyperledger reference architecture
		Hyperledger design principles
	Hyperledger Fabric
		Membership services
		Blockchain services
		Smart contract services
		APIs and CLIs
		Components
		Applications on blockchain
		Consensus in Hyperledger Fabric
		The transaction lifecycle in Hyperledger Fabric
		Fabric 2.0
	Hyperledger Sawtooth
		Core features
		Consensus in Sawtooth
		Transaction lifecycle
		Components
	Setting up a Sawtooth development environment
		Prerequisites
		Setting up a Sawtooth network
	Summary
Chapter 18: Tokenization
	Tokenization on a blockchain
		Advantages of tokenization
		Disadvantages of tokenization
	Types of tokens
		Fungible tokens
		Non-fungible tokens
		Stable tokens
		Security tokens
	Process of tokenization
	Token offerings
		Initial coin offerings
		Security token offerings
		Initial exchange offerings
		Equity token offerings
		Decentralized autonomous initial coin offering
		Other token offerings
	Token standards
		ERC-20
		ERC-223
		ERC-777
		ERC-721
		ERC-884
		ERC-1400
		ERC-1404
	Trading and finance
		Financial markets
		Trading
		Exchanges
		Orders and order properties
		Components of a trade
		Trade lifecycle
	DeFi
		Trading tokens
		Regulation
	Building an ERC-20 token
		Pre requisites
		Building the Solidity contract
		Deploying the contract on the Remix JavaScript virtual machine
		Adding tokens in MetaMask
	Emerging concepts
		Tokenomics/token economics
		Token engineering
		Token taxonomy
	Summary
Chapter 19: Blockchain – Outside of Currencies
	The Internet of Things
		Internet of Things architecture
		Benefits of IoT and blockchain convergence
		Implementing blockchain-based IoT in practice
	Government
		Border control
		Voting
		Citizen identification (ID cards)
	Health
	Finance
		Insurance
		Post-trade settlement
		Financial crime prevention
		Payments
		Cross-border payments
		Peer-to-peer loans
	Media
	Summary
Chapter 20: Enterprise Blockchain
	Enterprise solutions and blockchain
		Success factors
	Limiting factors
		Slow performance
		Lack of access governance
		Lack of privacy
		Probabilistic consensus
		Transaction fees
	Requirements
		Privacy
		Performance
		Access governance
		Further requirements
	Enterprise blockchain versus public blockchain
	Use cases of enterprise blockchains
	Enterprise blockchain architecture
		Network layer
		Protocol layer
		Privacy layer
		Governance layer
		Integration layer
		Application layer
		Security, performance, scalability, monitoring
	Designing enterprise blockchain solutions
		TOGAF
		Architecture development method
	Blockchain in the cloud
	Currently available enterprise blockchains
		Corda
		Quorum
		Fabric
		Autonity
		Comparison of main platforms
	Enterprise blockchain challenges
		Interoperability
		Lack of standardization
		Compliance
		Business challenges
	Corda
		Architecture
		CorDapps
		Components
		Corda development environment
	Quorum
		Architecture
		Privacy manager
		Cryptography used in Quorum
		Privacy
		Access control with permissioning
		Performance
		Pluggable consensus
	Setting up Quorum with IBFT
		Quorum Wizard
		Cakeshop
		Running a private transaction
		Further investigation
	Other Quorum projects
		Remix plugin
		Pluggable architecture
	Summary
Chapter 21: Scalability and Other Challenges
	Scalability
		Blockchain planes
		Methods for improving scalability
	Privacy
		Anonymity
		Confidentiality
		Techniques to achieve privacy
	Security
		Formal verification
		Smart contract security
	Other challenges
		Interoperability
		Lack of standardization
		Post-quantum resistance
		Compliance and regulation
	Summary
Chapter 22: Current Landscape and What's Next
	Emerging trends
		New implementations of blockchain technology
		Technology improvements
		Ongoing research and study
		Innovative blockchain applications
		Some debatable ideas
	Areas to address
		Regulation
		Illegal activity
		Privacy or transparency
	Blockchain research topics
		Smart contracts
		Cryptographic function limitations
		Consensus algorithms
		Scalability
		Code obfuscation
	Blockchain and AI
	The future of blockchain
	Summary
Index