Blockchain for Dummies
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Blockchain For Dummies® Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com Copyright © 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions . 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Table of Contents Cover Introduction About This Book Foolish Assumptions Icons Used in This Book Beyond the Book Where to Go from Here Part 1: Getting Started with Blockchain Chapter 1: Introducing Blockchain Beginning at the Beginning: What Blockchains Are The Structure of Blockchains Blockchain Applications The Blockchain Life Cycle Consensus: The Driving Force of Blockchains Blockchains in Use Chapter 2: Picking a Blockchain Where Blockchains Add Substance Choosing a Solution Chapter 3: Getting Your Hands on Blockchain Diving into the Bitcoin Blockchain Using Smart Contracts with Bitcoin Building a Private Blockchain with Docker and Ethereum Part 2: Developing Your Knowledge Chapter 4: Beholding the Bitcoin Blockchain Getting a Brief History of the Bitcoin Blockchain Debunking Some Common Bitcoin Misconceptions Bitcoin: The New Wild West Mining for Bitcoins Making Your First Paper Wallet Chapter 5: Encountering the Ethereum Blockchain Exploring the Brief History of Ethereum Ethereum: The Open-Source World Wide Computer Hacking a Blockchain Getting Up and Running on Ethereum Building Your First Decentralized Autonomous Organization Uncovering the Future of DAOs Chapter 6: Regarding the Ripple Blockchain Getting a Brief History of the Ripple Blockchain Ripple: It’s All About Trust Seeing How Ripple Differs from Other Blockchains Unleashing the Full Power of Ripple Exercising Caution with Ripple Chapter 7: Finding the Factom Blockchain A Matter of Trust Building on Factom Chapter 8: Digging into DigiByte Getting Familiar with DigiByte: The Fast Blockchain Mining on DigiByte Signing Documents on DigiByte’s DiguSign Earning DigiBytes While Gaming Part 3: Powerful Blockchain Platforms Chapter 9: Getting Your Hands on Hyperledger Getting to Know Hyperledger: Dreams of a Hyper Future Focusing on Fabric Investigating the Iroha Project Diving into Sawtooth Lake Chapter 10: Applying Microsoft Azure Bletchley: The Modular Blockchain Fabric Building in the Azure Ecosystem Getting Started with Chain on Azure Deploying Blockchain Tools on Azure Chapter 11: Getting Busy on IBM Bluemix Business Blockchain on Bluemix Watson’s Smart Blockchain Building Your Starter Network on Big Blue Part 4: Industry Impacts Chapter 12: Financial Technology Hauling Out Your Crystal Ball: Future Banking Trends Going International: Global Financial Products Squeezing Out Fraud Chapter 13: Real Estate Eliminating Title Insurance Mortgages in the Blockchain World Forecasting Regional Trends Chapter 14: Insurance Precisely Tailoring Coverage Witnessing for You: The Internet of Things Taking Out the Third Party in Insurance Chapter 15: Government The Smart Cities of Asia The Battle for the Financial Capital of the World Securing the World’s Borders Chapter 16: Other Industries Lean Governments The Trust Layer for the Internet Oracle of the Blockchain Part 5: The Part of Tens Chapter 17: Ten Free Blockchain Resources Factom University Ethereum 101 Build on Ripple Programmable Money by Ripple DigiKnow Blockchain University Bitcoin Core Blockchain Alliance Multichain Blog HiveMind Chapter 18: The Ten Rules to Never Break on the Blockchain Don’t Use Cryptocurrency or Blockchains to Skirt the Law Keep Your Contracts as Simple as Possible Publish with Great Caution Back Up, Back Up, Back Up Your Private Keys Triple-Check the Address Before Sending Currency Take Care When Using Exchanges Beware Wi-Fi Identify Your Blockchain Dev Don’t Get Suckered Don’t Trade Tokens Unless You Know What You’re Doing Chapter 19: Ten Top Blockchain Projects The R3 Consortium T ZERO: Overstocking the Stock Market Blockstream’s Distributed Systems OpenBazaar’s Blockchain Code Valley: Find Your Coder Bitfury’s Digital Assets Any Coin Can ShapeShift Machine-Payable Apps on 21 Anonymous Transactions on Dash ConsenSys: Decentralized Applications About the Author Advertisement Page Connect with Dummies End User License Agreement Guide Cover Table of Contents Begin Reading Introduction Welcome to Blockchain For Dummies! If you want to find out what blockchains are and the basics of how to use them, this is the book for you. Many people think blockchains are difficult to understand. They might also think that blockchains are just about cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, but they’re are so much more. Anyone can master the basics of blockchains. In this book, you find helpful advice for navigating the blockchain world and cryptocurrencies that run them. You also find practical step-by-step tutorials that will build your understanding of how blockchains work and where they add value. You don’t need a background in programming, economics, or world affairs to understand this book, but I do touch on all these subjects because blockchain technology intersects all of them. About This Book This book explains the basics of blockchains, smart contracts, and cryptocurrencies. You probably picked up this book because you’ve heard about blockchains, know they’re important, but have no idea what they are, how they work, or why you should care. This book answers all these questions in easy-to-understand terms. This book is a bit different than just about any other blockchain book on the market. It provides a survey of all the key blockchains in the public market, how they work, what they do, and something useful you can try with them today. This book also covers the landscape of blockchain technology and points out some of the key things to be aware of for your own blockchain projects. Here, you find out how to install an Ethereum wallet, create and execute a smart contract, make entries into Bitcoin and Factom, and earn cryptocurrencies. You don’t have to read the book cover to cover. Just flip to the subject that you’re interested in. Finally, within this book, you may note that some web addresses break across two lines of text. If you’re reading this book in print and want to visit one of these web pages, simply key in the web address exactly as it’s noted in the text, pretending as though the line break doesn’t exist. If you’re reading this as an e-book, you’ve got it easy — just click the web address to be taken directly to the web page. Foolish Assumptions I don’t make many assumptions about you and your experience with cryptocurrency, programing, and legal matters but I do assume the following: You have a computer and access to the Internet. You know the basics of how to use your computer and the Internet. You know how to navigate through menus within programs.