Algorithms Blockchain Cryptocurrency

The convergence of Algorithms, Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ABC) has the potential to fundamentally disrupt the current world of work. This book investigates the effects of this on the worker, the organisation and the economy, by considering a future where the traditional power relationships between workers and firms no longer apply.

As we enter the Industrial Revolution 4.0, demands for an increasing degree of trust and privacy protection continue to be voiced. The development of blockchain technology is very important because it can help frictionless and transparent financial transactions and improve the business experience, which in turn has far-reaching effects for economic, psychological, educational and organizational improvements in the way we work, teach, learn and care for ourselves and each other. Blockchain is an eccentric technology, but at the same time, the least understood and most disruptive technology of the day. This book covers the latest technologies of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology and their applications. This book discusses the blockchain and cryptocurrencies related issues and also explains how to provide the security differently through an algorithm, framework, approaches, techniques and mechanisms. A comprehensive understanding of what blockchain is and how it works, as well as insights into how it will affect the future of your organization and industry as a whole and how to integrate blockchain technology into your business strategy. In addition, the book explores the blockchain and its with other technologies like Internet of Things, big data and artificial intelligence, etc.

This book seeks to generalize techniques and experiences in designing and analyzing cryptographic schemes for blockchain. It devotes three chapters to review the background and basic knowledge, four chapters to discuss specific types of cryptographic primitive design for blockchain, one chapter to discuss optimization tools and another chapter for blockchain regulation and economies. This book covers the systematic survey of research objects, as well as detailed reviews of cryptographic schemes, lectures and methodologies to practice cryptography. The main findings of this book are summarized as following, first, the practical design and analysis of cryptographic schemes for blockchain can address major problems in blockchain at algorithmic level. Then, some intrinsic deficiencies in some traditional cryptographic primitives, like centralized setup, impractical design, etc, prevent the successful application of these primitives in blockchain. However, huge efforts are being made to make these primitives practical and applicable for researchers. Finally, the formal and rigorous design and analysis of public key cryptographic algorithms is vital to blockchain. Design and Analysis of Cryptographic Algorithms in Blockchain is a useful textbook for graduate students and PhD students, or researches who wish to connect cryptography with blockchain for research and developing projects.

This book covers several important topics on current blockchain algorithms. The focus of this book is to provide an overview to the common reader - about three things: 1) Blockchain algorithms 2) Smart contracts and 3) Decentralized applications. The reader of this book should be aware of the key happenings in the cryptocurrency space. The book starts with a discussion of algorithms in the blockchain namely the validation algorithm, and the Merkle-tree algorithm, Elliptic curve cryptography algorithm, Zero-knowledge proof algorithm - which form the foundational structure for any blockchain. Further to the discussion of algorithms the book discusses smart contract platforms and decentralized applications which use these smart contracts. Important illustrations of the decentralized applications include the Ethereum naming service, the Bitcoin Lightning network, Constantinople and St.Petersburg updates of the Ethereum smart contract platform. We also discuss the hyperledger platform and its importance in developing several enterprise grade applications. Then we introduce the authors to recent developments in decentralized applications such as the DutchX protocol, the Etherisc protocol, central bank digital currencies and the Cosmos blockchain network.

This book introduces all the technical features that make up blockchain technology today. It starts with a thorough explanation of all technological concepts necessary to understand any discussions related to distributed ledgers and a short history of earlier implementations. It then discusses in detail how the Bitcoin network looks and what changes are coming in the near future, together with a range of altcoins that were created on the same base code. To get an even better idea, the book shortly explores how Bitcoin might be forked before going into detail on the Ethereum network and cryptocurrencies running on top of the network, smart contracts, and more. The book introduces the Hyperledger foundation and the tools offered to create private blockchain solutions. For those willing, it investigates directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) and several of its implementations, which could solve several of the problems other blockchain networks are still dealing with to this day. In Chapter 4, readers can find an overview of blockchain networks that can be used to build solutions of their own and the tools that can help them in the process.

Since the introduction of Bitcoin—the first widespread application driven by blockchain—the interest of the public and private sectors in blockchain has skyrocketed. In recent years, blockchain-based fabrics have been used to address challenges in diverse fields such as trade, food production, property rights, identity-management, aid delivery, health care, and fraud prevention. This widespread interest follows from fundamental concepts on which blockchains are built that together embed the notion of trust, upon which blockchains are built. 1. Blockchains provide data transparancy. Data in a blockchain is stored in the form of a ledger, which contains an ordered history of all the transactions. This facilitates oversight and auditing. 2. Blockchains ensure data integrity by using strong cryptographic primitives. This guarantees that transactions accepted by the blockchain are authenticated by its issuer, are immutable, and cannot be repudiated by the issuer. This ensures accountability. 3. Blockchains are decentralized, democratic, and resilient. They use consensus-based replication to decentralize the ledger among many independent participants. Thus, it can operate completely decentralized and does not require trust in a single authority. Additions to the chain are performed by consensus, in which all participants have a democratic voice in maintaining the integrity of the blockchain. Due to the usage of replication and consensus, blockchains are also highly resilient to malicious attacks even when a significant portion of the participants are malicious. It further increases the opportunity for fairness and equity through democratization. These fundamental concepts and the technologies behind them—a generic ledger-based data model, cryptographically ensured data integrity, and consensus-based replication—prove to be a powerful and inspiring combination, a catalyst to promote computational trust. In this book, we present an in-depth study of blockchain, unraveling its revolutionary promise to instill computational trust in society, all carefully tailored to a broad audience including students, researchers, and practitioners. We offer a comprehensive overview of theoretical limitations and practical usability of consensus protocols while examining the diverse landscape of how blockchains are manifested in their permissioned and permissionless forms.

This book presents practical as well as conceptual insights into the latest trends, tools, techniques and methodologies of blockchains for the Internet of Things. The decentralised Internet of Things (IoT) not only reduces infrastructure costs, but also provides a standardised peer-to-peer communication model for billions of transactions. However, there are significant security challenges associated with peer-to-peer communication. The decentralised concept of blockchain technology ensures transparent interactions between different parties, which are more secure and reliable thanks to distributed ledger and proof-of-work consensus algorithms. Blockchains allow trustless, peer-to-peer communication and have already proven their worth in the world of financial services. The blockchain can be implanted in IoT systems to deal with the issues of scale, trustworthiness and decentralisation, allowing billions of devices to share the same network without the need for additional resources. This book discusses the latest tools and methodology and concepts in the decentralised Internet of Things. Each chapter presents an in-depth investigation of the potential of blockchains in the Internet of Things, addressing the state-of-the-art in and future perspectives of the decentralised Internet of Things. Further, industry experts, researchers and academicians share their ideas and experiences relating to frontier technologies, breakthrough and innovative solutions and applications.

This book is the first to present the state of the art and provide technical focus on the latest advances in the foundations of blockchain systems. It is a collaborative work between specialists in cryptography, distributed systems, formal languages, and economics, and addresses hot topics in blockchains from a theoretical perspective: cryptographic primitives, consensus, formalization of blockchain properties, game theory applied to blockchains, and economical issues. This book reflects the expertise of the various authors, and is intended to benefit researchers, students, and engineers who seek an understanding of the theoretical foundations of blockchains.