Blockchain in Action

by Bina Ramamurthy

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.

Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.

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 The Road ahead

352 pages, Paperback

Published November 3, 2020

Reviews

[Robert Muller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blockchain in Action is one of the best tech books I've read recently. Explanations are clear and thorough, there are lots of code examples (most of which compile, not all), and the author uses (emphasizes) good software engineering practices and provides many examples of how to use such practices. The focus of the book is on Ethereum smart contract and dapp programming, design, testing, and deployment; don't expect to learn how to create your own blockchain nodes on different blockchains or things like that. The book does mention other blockchains as useful alternatives but there is no detail on them. I feel much more confident in my understanding of smart contracts and their uses after reading this book.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Good solid technical overview with lots of projects. Heavy on UML and TDD.

[Alexandre Manoel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good to get into the theme