A Developer's Guide to Ethereum

Book excerpt: Blockchain technology has certainly been hyped over the past few years, but when you strip all of that away, what can actually do with it? This book is a collection of articles that provide an introduction to Ethereum, an open source platform that's based based on blockchain. It enables developers to build and deploy decentralized applications that can be relied on to work without fraud, censorship or interference from third parties. We start off by explaining what blockchain is and how it works, and also look at some potential practical applications for blockchain technology. We then move on to looking at the Ethereum platform specifically. Far more than just a cryptocurrency or smart contracts platform, Ethereum is becoming an entire ecosystem for building decentralized applications. This book contains: Blockchain: What It Is, How It Works, Why It's So Popular by Bruno Skvorc What is a Bitcoin Node? Mining versus Validation by Bruno Skvorc How the Lightning Network Helps Blockchains Scale by Bruno Skvorc The Top Nine Uses for Blockchain by Mateja Kendel Introduction to Ethereum: A Cryptocurrency with a Difference by Bruno Skvorc A Deep Dive into Cryptography by Bruno Skvorc 3 Bitcoin Alternatives Compared: Ethereum, Cardano and NEO by David Attard Compiling and Smart Contracts: ABI Explained by Mislav Javor Ethereum Wallets: Send and Receive Ether with MyEtherWallet by Bruno Skvorc Ethereum: How Transaction Costs are Calculated by Bruno Skvorc Proof of Stake vs Proof of Work by Bruno Skvorc Ethereum's Casper: Ghostbusting Proof of Stake Problems by Tonino Jankov Decentralized Storage and Publication with IPFS and Swarm by Tonino Jankov Ethereum Messaging: Explaining Whisper and Status.im by Tonino Jankov Ethereum: Internal Transactions & Token Transfers Explained by Bruno Skvorc BigchainDB: Blockchain and Data Storage by Chris Ward This book is for anyone interested in using the Ethereum platform for development. No prior knowledge of blockchain is assumed.