Introducing E and S
Chapter 1: Bridging the Blockchain Knowledge Gap
Blockchain Roll Call!
What Ethereum Does
Three Parts of a Blockchain
Ethereum Assumes Many Chains
This Is a Scam, Just Like Bitcoin!
Ether as a Currency and Commodity
Gresham’s Law
The Path to Better Money
Cryptoeconomics and Security
Back to the Good Old Days
Cryptochaos
The Power Is in the Protocol
You Can Build Trustless Systems
What Smart Contracts (Really) Do
Objects and Methods for Value
Just Add Commerce
Content Creation
Where’s the Data?
What Is Mining?
Ether and Electricity Prices
Going Inside the EVM
The Mist Browser
Browser vs. Wallet or Keychain
Solidity Is Kind of Like JavaScript, But …
What Ethereum Is Good For
A Critical Take
State of Smart Contract Development Today
Deciding Where You Fit In
A Note to New Programmers
Ethereum Is Free and Open Source
The EVM Is Here to Stay
What You Can Build Today
Private and Public Chains
The Promise of Decentralized Databases
What’s Next: New Ways of Working
Summary
Chapter 2: The Mist Browser
Wallets as a Computing Metaphor
Your Address Is What?
Where Is My Ether?
The Bank Teller Metaphor
In Cryptocurrency, You Hold Your Own Assets
Unrestricted
Visualizing Ethereum Transactions
Breaking with Banking History
How Encryption Leads to Trust
System Requirements
More about Eth.guide and This Book
Tools for Developers
CLI Nodes
Recommended: Using Parity with Geth
Finally, into the Mist!
Downloading and Installing Mist
Configuring Mist
Finding Your New Address
Sending and Receiving Ether
Understanding Ethereum Account Types
Backing Up and Restoring Your Keys
Using Paper Wallets
Using Mobile Wallets
Working with Messages and Transactions
So, What Is a Blockchain?
Paying for Transactions
Understanding Denominations
Getting Ether
Anonymity in Cryptocurrency
Blockchain Explorers
Summary
Chapter 3: The EVM
The Central Bank Network of Yesterday
What are Virtual Machines, Exactly?
The Role of the Ethereum Protocol in Banking
Anyone Can Make a Banking Platform
What the EVM Does
EVM Applications Are Called Smart Contracts
The Name “Smart Contracts”
The EVM Runs Bytecode
Understanding State Machines
Digital vs. Analog
“State-ments”
Data’s Role in State
How the Guts of the EVM Work
The EVM Constantly Checks for Transactions
Creating a Common Machine Narrative of What Happened
Cryptographic Hashing
What Hash Functions (or Hash Algorithms) Do
Blocks: The History of State Changes
Understanding Block Time
Unrestricted
The Drawbacks of Short Blocks
“Solo Node” Blockchain
Distributed Security
Mining’s Place in the State Transition Function
Renting Time on the EVM
Hello, Gas
Why Is Gas So Important?
Why Isn’t Gas Priced in Ether?
Fees as Regulation
Working with Gas
Gas Specifics
How Gas Relates to Scaling the System
Accounts, Transactions, and Messages
Externally Owned Accounts
Contract Accounts
Transactions and Messages
Characteristics of Transactions
Characteristics of Messages
Estimating Gas Fees for Operations
Opcodes in the EVM
Summary
Chapter 4: Solidity Programming
Primer
Global Banking Made (Almost) Real
Extra-Large Infrastructure
Worldwide Currency?
Complementary Currency
The Promise of Solidity
Browser Compiler
Learning to Program the EVM
Easy Deployment
The Case for Writing Business Logic in Solidity
Code, Deploy, Relax
Design Rationale
Writing Loops in Solidity
Expressiveness and Security
The Importance of Formal Proofs
Historical Impact of a Shared Global Resource
How Attackers Bring Down Communities
Hypothetical Attack Written in Solidity
Automated Proofs to the Rescue?
Determinism in Practice
Lost in Translation
Testing, Testing, Testing
Command Line Optional!
Unrestricted
Formatting Solidity Files
Tips for Reading Code
Statements and Expressions in Solidity
What Is an Expression?
What Is a Statement?
Functions, Public and Private
Value Types
Booleans
Signed and Unsigned Integers
Addresses
Members of Addresses
Address-Related Keywords
Less-Common Value Types
Complex (Reference) Types
Global Special Variables, Units, and Functions
Block and Transaction Properties
Operators Cheat Sheet
Global Functions
Exceptions and Inheritance
Summary
Chapter 5: Smart Contracts and Tokens
EVM as Back End
Smart Contracts to Dapps
Assets Backed by Anything
Bartering with Fiat Currency
Ether as Glass Beads
Cryptocurrency Is a Measure of Time
Asset Ownership and Civilization
Coins are Collectibles
The Function of Collectibles in Human Systems
Early Counterfeiting
Jewelry and Art as Money
The Step Toward Banknotes
Platforms for High-Value Digital Collectibles
Tokens Are a Category of Smart Contract
Tokens as Social Contracts
Tokens Are a Great First App
Creating a Token on the Testnet
Getting Test Ether from the Faucet
Registering Your Tokens
Deploying Your First Contract
Same House, Different Address
Playing with Contracts
Summary
Unrestricted
Chapter 6: Mining Ether
What’s the Point?
Ether’s Source
Defining Mining
Versions of the Truth
Difficulty, Self-Regulation, and the Race for Profit
How Proof of Work Helps Regulate Block Time
What’s Going on with the DAG and Nonce?
All This for Faster Blocks?
Making Fast Blocks Work
How Ethereum Uses Stale Blocks
Uncle Rules and Rewards
The Difficulty Bomb
Miner’s Winning Payout Structure
Limits on Ancestry
The Block Processing Play by Play
Evaluating the Ancestry of Blocks and Transactions
How Ethereum and Bitcoin Use Trees
Merkle-Patricia Trees
Contents of an Ethereum Block Header
Forking
Mining Tutorial
Installing Geth on macOS
Installing Geth on Windows
Getting Comfortable with the Command Line
Installing Geth on Ubuntu 14.04
Executing Commands in the EVM via the Geth Console
Launching Geth with Flags
Fire Up Your Miner!
Mining on the Testnet
GPU Mining Rigs
Mining on a Pool with Multiple GPUs
Summary
Chapter 7: Cryptoeconomics Survey
How We Got Here
New Technologies Create New Economies
Rules of the Game
Why Is Cryptoeconomics Useful?
Understanding Hashing vs. Encryption
Encryption
Hashing
Why the Speed of Blocks Matters
Ether Issuance Scheme
Common Attack Scenarios
Social Proof Between Machines
Unrestricted
Security as the Network Scales
More About Cryptoeconomics
Summary
Chapter 8: Dapp Deployment
Seven Ways to Think About Smart Contracts
Dapp Contract Data Models
How an EVM Back End Talks to a JS Front End
JSON-RPC
Web 3 Is Here (Almost)
Experimenting with the JavaScript API
Using Geth for Dapp Deployment
Using Meteor with the EVM
Install Web3.js to Build an Ethereum-Enabled Web Application
Executing Contracts in the Console
How Contracts Expose an Interface
Recommendations for Prototyping
Third-Party Deployment Libraries
Summary
Chapter 9: Creating Private Chains
Private and Permissioned Chains
Setting Up a Local Private Chain
Optional Flags to Use with New Chains
Private Blockchains in Production Usage
Summary
Chapter 10: Use Cases
Chains Everywhere
The Internet of Ethereum Things
Retail and E-Commerce
Community and Government Financing
Human and Organizational Behavior
Financial and Insurance Applications
Inventory and Accounting Systems
Software Development
Gaming, Gambling, and Investing
Summary
Chapter 11: Advanced Concepts
Who Is Leading Software Developers Toward Decentralization?
Vitalik’s Best Technical Blog Posts
The Ethereum Release Schedule
Whisper (Messaging)
Swarm (Content Addressing)
What the Future Holds
Other Interesting Innovations
Full Ethereum Roadmap
Frontier Release (2015)
Unrestricted
Homestead Release (2016)
Metropolis (2017)
Serenity (2018)
Summary
Index
Unrestricted
