Foundations of Blockchain: The pathway to cryptocurrencies and decentralized blockchain applications

Learn the foundations of blockchain technology – its core concepts and algorithmic solutions across cryptography, peer-to-peer technology, and game theory.

Key Features

• Learn the core concepts and foundations of the blockchain and cryptocurrencies
• Understand the protocols and algorithms behind decentralized applications
• Master how to architect, build, and optimize blockchain applications

Book Description

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.

What you will learn

• The core concepts and technical foundations of blockchain
• The algorithmic principles and solutions that make up blockchain and cryptocurrencies
• Blockchain cryptography explained in detail
• How to realize blockchain projects with hands-on Python code
• How to architect the blockchain and blockchain applications
• Decentralized application development with MultiChain, NEO, and Ethereum
• Optimizing and enhancing blockchain performance and security
• Classical blockchain use cases and how to implement them

Who this book is for

This book is for anyone who wants to dive into blockchain technology from first principles and build a foundational knowledge of blockchain. Familiarity with Python will be helpful if you want to follow how the blockchain protocols are implemented. For readers who are blockchain application developers, most of the applications used in this book can be executed on any platform.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. A Bit of Cryptography
3. Cryptography in Blockchain
4. Networking in Blockchain
5. Cryptocurrency
6. Diving into Blockchain – Proof of Existence
7. Diving into Blockchain – Proof of Ownership
8. Blockchain Projects
9. Blockchain Optimizations and Enhancements
10. Blockchain Security
11. When shouldn’t we use blockchain?
12. Blockchain Use Cases