Mastering Ethereum

Preface

This book is a collaboration between Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Dr. Gavin Wood. A series of fortunate coincidences brought these two authors together in an effort that galvanized hundreds of contributors to produce this book, in the best spirit of open source and the creative commons culture.

Gavin had been wishing to write a book that expanded on the Yellow Paper (his technical description of the Ethereum protocol) for some time, primarily to open it up to a wider audience than the original Greek-letter-infused document could possibly allow.

Plans were underway—a publisher had been found—when Gavin got talking to Andreas, whom he had known from the very beginning of his tenure with Ethereum as a notable personality in the space.

Andreas had recently published the first edition of his book Mastering Bitcoin (O’Reilly), which quickly became the authoritative technical guide to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Almost as soon as the book was published, his readers started asking him, “When will you write Mastering Ethereum?” Andreas was already considering his next project and found Ethereum to be a compelling technical subject.

Finally, in May 2016, Gavin and Andreas were both coincidentally in the same city at the same time. They met up for a coffee to chat about working on the book together. With both Andreas and Gavin being devotees of the open source paradigm, they both committed to making this a collaborative effort, released under a Creative Commons license. Thankfully, ...