Blockchain in Action (Book)

There’s a lot more to the blockchain than mining Bitcoin. This secure system for registering and verifying ownership and identity is perfect for supply chain logistics, health records, and other sensitive data management tasks. Blockchain in Action unlocks the full potential of this revolutionary technology, showing you how to build your own decentralized apps for secure applications including digital democracy, private auctions, and electronic record management.

Summary
There’s a lot more to the blockchain than mining Bitcoin. This secure system for registering and verifying ownership and identity is perfect for supply chain logistics, health records, and other sensitive data management tasks. Blockchain in Action unlocks the full potential of this revolutionary technology, showing you how to build your own decentralized apps for secure applications including digital democracy, private auctions, and electronic record management.

About the technology
Blockchain is more than just the tech behind Bitcoin—much more! Combining impenetrable security, decentralized transactions, and independently verifiable supply chains, blockchain applications have transformed currency, digital identity, and logistics. Platforms such as Ethereum and Hyperledger make it easy to get started by using familiar programming languages.

About the book
Blockchain in Action teaches you how to design and build blockchain-based decentralized apps, and is written in a clear, jargon-free style. First, you’ll get an overview of how blockchain works. Next, you’ll code your first smart contract using Ethereum and Solidity, adding a web interface, trust validation, and other features until your app is ready for deployment. The only thing you need to get started is standard hardware and open source software.

What's inside

Blockchain compared with other distributed systems
Development in Solidity
Identity, privacy, and security
On-chain and off-chain data and operations

About the reader
For programmers who know JavaScript.

About the author
Bina Ramamurthy has thirty years of experience teaching distributed systems, data science, peer-to-peer networking, and blockchain.

Table of Contents

PART 1 - GETTING STARTED WITH BLOCKCHAIN PROGRAMMING

1 Blockchain basics

2 Smart contracts

3 Techniques for trust and integrity

4 From smart contracts to Dapps

PART 2 - TECHNIQUES FOR END-TO-END DAPP DEVELOPMENT

5 Security and privacy

6 On-chain and off-chain data

7 Web3 and a channel Dapp

8 Going public with Infura

PART 3 - A ROADMAP AND THE ROAD AHEAD

9 Tokenization of assets

10 Testing smart contracts

11 A roadmap to Dapp development

12 Blockchain: The Road ahead

Bina Ramamurthy holds a Ph.D. in fault-tolerant distributed systems, and has thirty years of experience teaching cryptography, peer-to-peer networking, and distributed systems. She is the instructor and content creator for the University of Buffalo four-course specialization on blockchain technology on the Coursera MOOC platform, and the recipient of the 2019 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence.