"This book is a comprehensive text addressing tax, securities, regulatory and other issues that are essential to practicing in this multidisciplinary space. It surveys legal issues related to blockchain, distributed ledger technology and smart contracts, which is an interdisciplinary area of law requiring expertise in tax, securities, anti-money laundering and FINTRAC regulations, class actions, estate planning, commercial transactions and others. "--
Learn about cryptography and cryptocurrencies, so you can build highly secure, decentralized applications and conduct trusted in-app transactions. Key Features Get to grips with the underlying technical principles and implementations of blockchain Build powerful applications using Ethereum to secure transactions and create smart contracts Explore cryptography, mine cryptocurrencies, and solve scalability issues with this comprehensive guide Book Description A blockchain is a distributed ledger that is replicated across multiple nodes and enables immutable, transparent and cryptographically secure record-keeping of transactions. The blockchain technology is the backbone of cryptocurrencies, and it has applications in finance, government, media and almost all other industries. Mastering Blockchain, Second Edition has been thoroughly updated and revised to provide a detailed description of this leading technology and its implementation in the real world. This book begins with the technical foundations of blockchain technology, teaching you the fundamentals of distributed systems, cryptography and how it keeps data secure. You will learn about the mechanisms behind cryptocurrencies and how to develop applications using Ethereum, a decentralized virtual machine. You will also explore different other blockchain solutions and get an introduction to business blockchain frameworks under Hyperledger, a collaborative effort for the advancement of blockchain technologies hosted by the Linux Foundation. You will also be shown how to implement blockchain solutions beyond currencies, Internet of Things with blockchain, blockchain scalability, and the future scope of this fascinating and powerful technology. What you will learn Master the theoretical and technical foundations of the blockchain technology Understand the concept of decentralization, its impact, and its relationship with blockchain technology Master how cryptography is used to secure data - with practical examples Grasp the inner workings of blockchain and the mechanisms behind bitcoin and alternative cryptocurrencies Understand the theoretical foundations of smart contracts Learn how Ethereum blockchain works and how to develop decentralized applications using Solidity and relevant development frameworks Identify and examine applications of the blockchain technology - beyond currencies Investigate alternative blockchain solutions including Hyperledger, Corda, and many more Explore research topics and the future scope of blockchain technology Who this book is for This book will appeal to those who wish to build fast, highly secure, transactional applications. It targets people who are familiar with the concept of blockchain and are comfortable with a programming language.
Blockchain is no longer just about bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general. Instead, it can be seen as a disruptive, revolutionary technology which will have major impacts on multiple aspects of our lives. The revolutionary power of such technology compares with the revolution sparked by the World Wide Web and the Internet in general. Just as the Internet is a means of sharing information, so blockchain technologies can be seen as a way to introduce the next level: sharing value. Blockchain and Web 3.0 fills the gap in our understanding of blockchain technologies by hosting a discussion of the new technologies in a variety of disciplinary settings. Indeed, this volume explains how such technologies are disruptive and comparatively examines the social, economic, technological and legal consequences of these disruptions. Such a comparative perspective has previously been underemphasized in the debate about blockchain, which has subsequently led to weaknesses in our understanding of decentralized technologies. Underlining the risks and opportunities offered by the advent of blockchain technologies and the rise of Web 3.0, this book will appeal to researchers and academics interested in fields such as sociology and social policy, cyberculture, new media and privacy and data protection.
An in-depth and authoritative treatment of one of the most pressing topics of our time In Blockchain and Web3: Building the Cryptocurrency, Privacy, and Security Foundations of the Metaverse, two tech and finance experts deliver a comprehensive and accessible guide to the present and future of blockchain technology and how it will form the foundation of a new, better internet. To support a concept as bold as the Metaverse, we need several orders of magnitude more powerful computing capability, accessible at much lower latencies, across a multitude of devices and screens. You’ll discover how blockchain can accelerate data flow, exchange, and transactions to create and transfer value around the world and, at the same time, how it can be used to protect user data privacy and security with decentralized web infrastructures. The book also includes: Discussions of how sovereign governments are entering the blockchain fray and how their entry, especially with CBDC digital currency, shapes the conversations around Web3 Explorations of whether we will ever realize the holy grail of blockchain tech: interoperability to compete with Big Tech platforms Discussion of new security and privacy issues rising from the intersection of Blockchain, Web3 and Metaverse.A fascinating and eye-opening treatment of the past, present, and future of blockchain and the role it will play on the internet and metaverse, Blockchain and Web3 is a truly original and engaging discussion of a timely and critical topic.
“Blockchains will matter crucially; this book, beautifully and clearly written for a wide audience, powerfully demonstrates how.” —Lawrence Lessig “Attempts to do for blockchain what the likes of Lawrence Lessig and Tim Wu did for the Internet and cyberspace—explain how a new technology will upend the current legal and social order... Blockchain and the Law is not just a theoretical guide. It’s also a moral one.” —Fortune Bitcoin has been hailed as an Internet marvel and decried as the preferred transaction vehicle for criminals. It has left nearly everyone without a computer science degree confused: how do you “mine” money from ones and zeros? The answer lies in a technology called blockchain. A general-purpose tool for creating secure, decentralized, peer-to-peer applications, blockchain technology has been compared to the Internet in both form and impact. Blockchains are being used to create “smart contracts,” to expedite payments, to make financial instruments, to organize the exchange of data and information, and to facilitate interactions between humans and machines. But by cutting out the middlemen, they run the risk of undermining governmental authorities’ ability to supervise activities in banking, commerce, and the law. As this essential book makes clear, the technology cannot be harnessed productively without new rules and new approaches to legal thinking. “If you...don’t ‘get’ crypto, this is the book-length treatment for you.” —Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution “De Filippi and Wright stress that because blockchain is essentially autonomous, it is inflexible, which leaves it vulnerable, once it has been set in motion, to the sort of unforeseen consequences that laws and regulations are best able to address.” —James Ryerson, New York Times Book Review
Dive into Bitcoin technology with this hands-on guide from one of the leading teachers on Bitcoin and Bitcoin programming. Author Jimmy Song shows Python programmers and developers how to program a Bitcoin library from scratch. You’ll learn how to work with the basics, including the math, blocks, network, and transactions behind this popular cryptocurrency and its blockchain payment system. By the end of the book, you'll understand how this cryptocurrency works under the hood by coding all the components necessary for a Bitcoin library. Learn how to create transactions, get the data you need from peers, and send transactions over the network. Whether you’re exploring Bitcoin applications for your company or considering a new career path, this practical book will get you started. Parse, validate, and create bitcoin transactions Learn Script, the smart contract language behind Bitcoin Do exercises in each chapter to build a Bitcoin library from scratch Understand how proof-of-work secures the blockchain Program Bitcoin using Python 3 Understand how simplified payment verification and light wallets work Work with public-key cryptography and cryptographic primitives
Ready to dive into smart contract development for the blockchain? With this practical guide, experienced engineers and beginners alike will quickly learn the entire process for building smart contracts for Ethereum--the open source blockchain-based distributed computing platform. You'llget up to speed with the fundamentals and quickly move into builder mode. Kevin Solorio, Randall Kanna, and Dave Hoover show you how to create and test your own smart contract, create a frontend for users to interact with, and more. It's the perfect resource for people who want to break into the smart contract field but don't know where to start. In four parts, this book helps you: Explore smart contract fundamentals, including the Ethereum protocol, Solidity programming language, and the Ethereum Virtual Machine Dive into smart contract development using Solidity and gain experience with Truffle framework tools for deploying and testing your contracts Use Web3 to connect your smart contracts to an applicationso users can easily interact with the blockchain Examine smart contract security along with free online resources for smart contract security auditing
Unravel the mysteries of blockchains Blockchain technologies are disrupting some of the world’s biggest industries. Blockchain For Dummies provides a fast way to catch up with the essentials of this quickly evolving tech. Written by an author involved in founding and analyzing blockchain solutions, this book serves to help those who need to understand what a blockchain can do (and can't do). This revised edition walks you through how a blockchainsecurely records data across independent networks. It offers a tour of some of the world’s best-known blockchains, including those that power Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. It also provides a glance at how blockchain solutions are affecting the worlds of finance, supply chain management, insurance, and governments. Get a clear picture of what a blockchain can do Learn how blockchains rule cryptocurrency and smart contracts Discover current blockchains and how each of them work Test blockchain apps Blockchain has become the critical buzzword in the world of financial technology and transaction security — and now you can make sense of it with the help of this essential guide.
Develop a deeper understanding of what's under the hood of blockchain with this technical reference guide on one of the most disruptive modern technologies Key Features Updated with four new chapters on consensus algorithms, Ethereum 2.0, tokenization, and enterprise blockchains Learn about key elements of blockchain theory such as decentralization, cryptography, and consensus protocols Get to grips with Solidity, Web3, cryptocurrencies, smart contract development and solve scalability, security and privacy issues Discover the architecture of different distributed ledger platforms including Ethereum, Bitcoin, Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperledger Sawtooth, Corda and Quorum Book Description Blockchain is the backbone of cryptocurrencies, with applications in finance, government, media, and other industries. With a legacy of providing technologists with executable insights, this new edition of Mastering Blockchain is thoroughly revised and updated to the latest blockchain research with four new chapters on consensus algorithms, Serenity (the update that will introduce Ethereum 2.0), tokenization, and enterprise blockchains. This book covers the basics, including blockchain's technical underpinnings, cryptography and consensus protocols. It also provides you with expert knowledge on decentralization, decentralized application development on Ethereum, Bitcoin, alternative coins, smart contracts, alternative blockchains, and Hyperledger. Further, you will explore blockchain solutions beyond cryptocurrencies such as the Internet of Things with blockchain, enterprise blockchains, tokenization using blockchain, and consider the future scope of this fascinating and disruptive technology. By the end of this book, you will have gained a thorough comprehension of the various facets of blockchain and understand their potential in diverse real-world scenarios. What you will learn Grasp the mechanisms behind Bitcoin, Ethereum, and alternative cryptocurrencies Understand cryptography and its usage in blockchain Understand the theoretical foundations of smart contracts Develop decentralized applications using Solidity, Remix, Truffle, Ganache and Drizzle Identify and examine applications of blockchain beyond cryptocurrencies Understand the architecture and development of Ethereum 2.0 Explore research topics and the future scope of blockchain Who this book is for If you are a technologist, business executive, a student or an enthusiast who wishes to explore the fascinating world of blockchain technology, smart contracts, decentralized applications and distributed systems then this book is for you. Basic familiarity with a beginner-level command of a programming language would be a plus.
An experimental new Internet-based form of money is created that anyone can generate at home; people build frightening firetrap computers full of video cards, putting out so much heat that one operator is hospitalised with heatstroke and brain damage. A young physics student starts a revolutionary new marketplace immune to State coercion; he ends up ordering hits on people because they might threaten his great experiment, and is jailed for life without parole. Fully automated contractual systems are proposed to make business and the law work better; the contracts people actually write are unregulated penny stock offerings whose fine print literally states that you are buying nothing of any value. The biggest crowdfunding in history attracts $150 million on the promise that it will embody “the steadfast iron will of unstoppable code”; upon release it is immediately hacked, and $50 million is stolen. How did we get here? David Gerard covers the origins and history of Bitcoin to the present day, the other cryptocurrencies it spawned including Ethereum, the ICO craze and the 2017 crypto bubble, and the attempts to apply blockchains and smart contracts to business. Plus a case study on blockchains in the music industry. Bitcoin and blockchains are not a technology story, but a psychology story. Remember: if it sounds too good to be true, it almost certainly is. “A sober riposte to all the upbeat forecasts about cryptocurrency” — New York Review of Books “A very convincing takedown of the whole phenomenon” — BBC News
