book

Blockchain in Action

by Bina Ramamurthy

October 2020

Intermediate to advanced

352 pages

9h 51m

English

Manning Publications

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PrefaceAcknowledgmentsAbout this bookWho should read this bookHow this book is organized: A roadmapAbout the codeliveBook discussion forumOther online resourcesAbout the authorAbout the cover illustration
1.1 From Bitcoin to blockchain1.2 What is a blockchain?1.3 Blockchain programming1.3.1 Decentralized infrastructure1.3.2 Distributed ledger technology1.3.3 Disintermediation protocol1.3.4 Trust enabler1.4 Motivating scenarios1.4.1 Automatic and consistent data collection1.4.2 Timely information sharing1.4.3 Verifiable compliance1.4.4 Auditable actions for provenance1.4.5 Guidance for governance1.4.6 Attribution of actions1.4.7 Pandemic management1.5 Retrospective1.6 Summary
2.1 The concept of a smart contract2.1.1 Bitcoin transactions versus smart contract transactions2.1.2 What does a smart contract do?2.2 Design of a smart contract2.2.1 A use case diagram for the counter2.2.2 Data assets, peer participants, roles, rules, and transactions2.2.3 From class diagram to contract diagram2.3 Development of a smart contract code2.3.1 Solidity language2.3.2 Smart contract code for Counter2.4 Deploying and testing the smart contract2.4.1 The Remix IDE2.4.2 Deployment and testing2.4.3 Key takeaways2.5 What makes a blockchain contract smart?2.6 Decentralized airline system use case2.6.1 ASK definition2.6.2 Sequence of operations2.7 Airlines smart contract2.7.1 Peer participants, data assets, roles, rules, and transactions2.7.2 Airlines smart contract code2.7.3 ASK smart contract deployment and testing2.8 Smart contract design considerations2.9 Best practices2.10 Summary
3.1 Essentials of trust and integrity3.1.1 Trust3.1.2 Integrity3.2 Digital democracy problem3.2.1 Designing a solution3.2.2 Use case diagram3.2.3 Incremental development of code3.2.4 Users, assets, and transactions3.2.5 Finite state machine diagram3.2.6 Trust intermediation3.2.7 Defining and using modifiers3.2.8 Contract diagram including modifiers3.2.9 Putting it all together3.3 Testing3.3.1 Positive tests3.3.2 Negative tests3.4 Using modifiers, require(), and revert()3.5 Assert() declarations3.6 Best practices3.7 Retrospective3.8 Summary

4.1 Dapp development using Truffle4.1.1 The development process4.1.2 Installing Truffle4.1.3 Building the Dapp stack4.2 Install Ganache test chain4.3 Develop the smart contract4.3.1 Create a project folder4.3.2 Add smart contract and compile4.3.3 Configure blockchain network4.3.4 Deploy the smart contract4.4 Develop and configure the web application4.4.1 Develop ballot-app4.4.2 Launch the ballot-app4.4.3 Install MetaMask wallet4.4.4 Interact with Ballot-Dapp4.4.5 Connect web client to smart contract4.5 Retrospective4.6 Best practices4.7 Summary
5.1 Cryptography basics5.1.1 Symmetric key cryptography5.1.2 Asymmetric key cryptography5.2 The relevance of public-key cryptography to blockchain5.2.1 Generating Ethereum addresses5.2.2 Transaction signing5.2.3 Deploying smart contracts on Ropsten5.2.4 Using the private key in mnemonic form5.2.5 Populating a blockchain wallet5.2.6 Deploying and transacting on Ropsten5.3 Hashing basics5.3.1 Digital signing of documents5.3.2 Hashed data on distributed ledger5.3.3 Hashes in Ethereum block header5.3.4 Solidity hashing functions5.4 Application of hashing5.4.1 Blind auction design5.4.2 Blind auction smart contract5.4.3 Privacy and security aspects5.4.4 Testing the BlindAuction contract5.4.5 Test plan5.5 Retrospective5.6 Best practices5.7 Summary
6.1 On-chain data6.2 Blind auction use case6.2.1 On-chain event data6.2.2 Blind auction with events6.2.3 Testing with the web UI6.2.4 Accessing on-chain data using the web3 API6.3 Off-chain data: External data sources6.4 ASK airline system6.4.1 ASK concept6.4.2 Airlines smart contract6.4.3 ASK on-chain data6.4.4 ASK off-chain data6.4.5 ASK Dapp development process6.4.6 ASK web user interface6.4.7 Putting it all together6.4.8 Interacting with ASK Dapp6.5 Retrospective6.6 Best practices6.7 Summary
7.1 Web3 API7.1.1 Web3 in Dapp stack7.1.2 Web3 packages7.2 The channel concept7.3 Micropayment channel7.4 Micropayment channel use case7.4.1 Traditional banking solution7.4.2 Users and roles7.4.3 On-chain and off-chain operations7.4.4 MPC smart contract (MPC-contract)7.4.5 MPC application development (MPC-app)7.4.6 MPC sequence diagram7.4.7 Demonstration of MPC execution7.4.8 Accessing the web3 provider7.4.9 Extensions of MPC7.4.10 The relevance of the micropayment channel7.4.11 Other web3 packages of interest7.5 Retrospective7.6 Best practices7.7 Summary
8.1 Nodes and networks8.2 Infura blockchain infrastructure8.3 Going public with Infura8.3.1 Blockchain node as a service8.4 End-to-end process for public deployment8.4.1 Account generation and management8.4.2 Choosing a network and importing accounts8.4.3 Collecting ether from faucets8.4.4 Creating blockchain nodes on Infura8.4.5 Installing HDWalletProvider8.4.6 Configuring and deploying the smart contract8.4.7 Configuring and deploying the web application8.5 Deploying BlindAuction-Dapp on Infura8.5.1 Setting up the blind auction environment8.5.2 Decentralized participants8.5.3 Configure and deploy the beneficiary account8.5.4 Configure and deploy bidders8.5.5 Interact with deployed blind auction Dapp8.6 Deploying MPC-Dapp on Infura8.6.1 Setting up the MPC environment8.6.2 Configure and deploy the organizer8.6.3 Configure and deploy the worker8.7 Retrospective8.8 Best practices8.9 Summary
9.1 Ethereum standards9.1.1 Ethereum improvement proposal9.1.2 ERC20 token standard9.1.3 Fungible and non-fungible tokens9.2 RES4: Non-fungible real estate token9.2.1 Use case diagram9.2.2 Contract diagram9.2.3 RES4 ERC721-compliant token9.2.4 RES4 Dapp9.2.5 Interaction with RES4 Dapp9.3 Retrospective9.4 Best practices9.5 Summary
10.1 Importance of testing smart contracts10.1.1 Types of testing10.1.2 Language choice for test programs10.2 Testing counter smart contract10.2.1 Writing counter test script10.2.2 Positive and negative tests10.2.3 Running the test script10.3 Testing ballot smart contract10.3.1 Writing the ballot test script10.3.2 Executing the ballot test script10.3.3 Describe() and it() test functions10.4 Recap writing of test script10.5 The blind auction test script10.5.1 Analysis of describe() and it() code10.5.2 Executing the blind auction test script10.5.3 Full auction run10.6 Retrospective10.7 Best practices10.8 Summary
11.1 Motivating scenario: Educational credentialing11.2 The roadmap11.3 Problem description11.3.1 Context for the DCC application11.3.2 Design choices11.4 Analysis and design11.4.1 Operation flow and finite state machine11.4.2 Contract diagram11.5 Developing the smart contract11.5.1 Data structures11.5.2 Events11.5.3 Modifiers11.5.4 Functions11.6 Local deployment11.7 Automated testing using truffle11.8 Developing the web application11.8.1 UI design11.8.2 Coding the app.js11.9 Testing the DCC-Dapp11.10 Public deployment11.10.1 Deployment on Ropsten-Infura11.10.2 Create web-client for distribution11.11 Retrospective11.12 Best practicesSummary
12.1 Decentralized identity12.2 Self-managed identity12.3 Consensus and integrity12.3.1 Proof of work12.3.2 Proof of stake12.3.3 Byzantine fault-tolerant consensus12.4 Scalability12.5 Scalability solutions12.5.1 Side channel12.5.2 Block size12.5.3 Network speed12.6 Privacy12.7 Public, private, and permissioned networks12.8 Confidentiality12.8.1 Open information12.8.2 A solution12.9 Security12.10 Securing it with cryptocurrency12.11 Accessing off-chain data (Oracles)12.12 From foundations to practical systems12.13 Looking ahead12.14 Best practices12.15 Retrospective12.16 Summary
A.1 Problem analysis and designA.2 Behavioral diagramsA.2.1 Use case diagramsA.2.2 Finite state machine diagramsA.3 Structural diagramsA.3.1 Class diagramsA.3.2 Classes and relationshipsA.4 Interaction diagrams