book

Building Ethereum Dapps

by Roberto Infante

March 2019

Intermediate to advanced

504 pages

17h

English

Manning Publications

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1.1. What is a Dapp?1.2. Good and bad Dapps1.3. A five-minute Dapp implementationSummary
2.1. A deeper look at decentralized applications2.2. What technologies make Dapps viable?2.3. Ethereum’s history and governanceSummary
3.1. Connecting to Ethereum through the wallet3.2. Smart contracts: The brain of Dapps3.3. Connecting to Ethereum with geth3.4. Managing accounts with geth3.5. Revisiting SimpleCoin’s contractSummary
4.1. Deploying a contract onto the network4.2. Interacting with the contract4.3. Nodeless deployment through MetaMaskSummary
5.1. EVM contract languages5.2. High-level contract structure5.3. Solidity language essentials5.4. Time to improve and refactor SimpleCoinSummary
6.1. Introducing SimpleCrowdsale, a crowdsale contract6.2. Extending functionality with inheritanceSummary
7.1. Making a contract abstract7.2. Allowing multiple contract implementations with interfaces7.3. Real-world crowdsale contracts7.4. Recap of Solidity’s object-oriented features7.5. Libraries7.6. Making SimpleCoin ERC20 compliantSummary
8.1. Revisiting deployment through geth’s interactive console8.2. Interacting with SimpleCoin through geth’s console8.3. Simplifying command-based deployment with Node.js8.4. Deploying on a private network8.5. Making development more efficient by deploying on mock networks8.6. Smoother interaction with SimpleCoin through a web UISummary
9.1. The core components9.2. A bird’s-eye view of the full ecosystem9.3. Decentralized address resolution with ENS9.4. Decentralized content storage9.5. Accessing external data through oracles9.6. Dapp frameworks and IDEsSummary
10.1. Installing Mocha10.2. Setting up SimpleCoin in Mocha10.3. Writing unit tests for SimpleCoinSummary
11.1. Setting up Truffle11.2. Moving SimpleCoin under TruffleSummary
12.1. Defining the requirements of a voting Dapp12.2. The development plan12.3. Starting the Truffle project12.4. Implementing the voting contract12.5. Compiling and deploying SimpleVoting12.6. Writing unit tests12.7. Creating a web UI12.8. Food for thoughtSummary
13.1. Event logging13.2. Designing an upgradeable library13.3. Designing an upgradeable contractSummary
14.1. Understanding general security weak spots14.2. Understanding risks associated with external calls14.3. How to perform external calls more safely14.4. Avoiding known security attacks14.5. General security guidelinesSummary
15.1. Evolution of Ethereum15.2. Alternative Ethereum implementations15.3. Beyond the Ethereum blockchainSummary

Overview

Building Ethereum Dapps introduces you to decentralized applications based on the Ethereum blockchain platform. In this book, you'll learn the principles of Dapps development by rolling up your sleeves and actually building a few!

About the Technology

Imagine unbreakably secure applications that handle personal and business transactions without any central agency controlling the process. Decentralized applications, or Dapps, do just this, shifting power to users. The Ethereum blockchain platform provides the tools you need to build Dapps, including an innovative “smart contracts” model and Solidity, a Dapp-aware JavaScript-like programming language.

About the Book

Building Ethereum Dapps teaches Dapps development on the Ethereum blockchain platform. You’ll begin with a mental model of how Dapps operate, and then dive into designing and implementing smart contracts in Ethereum’s Solidity language. You’ll explore Ethereum smart contract development tools, like Truffle and Web3, and pick up best practices for design and security. Practical exercises throughout give you valuable hands-on experience.

What's Inside

Ethereum’s key components
Implementing smart contracts in Solidity
Communicating with a smart contract in Web3
Developing Dapps with Truffle
Best practices for design and security improvement

About the Reader

For developers with intermediate experience in JavaScript or an OO language. Familiarity with blockchain concepts is helpful.

About the Author
Roberto Infante is a software development consultant who specializes in finance. He currently works on financial risk management systems and on blockchain technology.

We interviewed Roberto as a part of our Six Questions series. Check it out here.

Quotes
Blockchain is about interoperability, and Roberto understands this innately. He arms you with the tools of experts while keeping you aware of the bigger picture.
- From the Foreword by Thomas Bertani, CEO of Oraclize

An excellent and singular resource for learning blockchain development.
- James Nyika, Vocanter

Amazing visuals! They make hard concepts intuitive, simple, and fun.
- Tanya Fesenko, Motiion

Finally, a guide that takes readers on the exciting journey of learning blockchain. This book is proof that writing Dapps is not hard.
- Rahul Rai, Telstra