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Blockchain : From Concept to Execution, A Book Review - Cum - Analysis


Blockchain – the mysterious buzzword of the current times… let us now go just a bit deeper into this term, and place it in the proper perspective with respect to the modern Business World we all know so well. In the public understanding, this is a distributed ledger, in which an entry once made – cannot be altered. This simplistic definition is at the real core of the misunderstanding / debate around blockchain; it just doesn’t do justice to the term, creating a debate, at times even a passioned debate. This is why I went into reading about it – and picked up “Blockchain: From Concept To Execution”



WHAT  IS BLOCKCHAIN

In order that we understand & appreciate Blockchain and its implications, we need to first understand its salient features, or what makes Blockchain so different, and so special:
1.     It is simply a type of database which is running a distributed ledger system around the whole cloud of internet.
2.     It could be public, private; Permissioned or open; limited or otherwise – that depends on the specific use case
3.     Every node in the ledger carries a copy of the data
4.     No single point of failure
5.     No down time
6.     Data is immutable, and cant be altered once stored
7.     Data stored through hashing, which ensures the security and tamperproofness,  as even a small change will alter the resultant hash
8.     Each record in the database {block} points to a new block, thus creating a chain…

GOING DEEPER INTO BLOCKCHAIN, AND THE BOOK

Further to the above, each “block” {simply speaking, in layman’s language – entry} has, among other things – something called a hash, and a timestamp. Understanding these two are critical if we are to understand Blockchain Basics.  {Only weakness that I could spot for this book - A Hash is the, {Again, simply speaking; for understanding concept. This is not properly explained in the book} – end product of a computer algorithm that gives a standard output for any input put into it. There are many accepted algorithms for this; Blockchain uses one of the best known for hashing. The beauty of the concept is that even a very small change in input will produce a large change in output. Thus, data stored is encoded, and secure. And, as it has multiple copies on multiple nodes, tracing errors and attacks becomes easy, ensuring enhanced security.  The word timestamp is self-explanatory, and provides an additional authentication layer.

This is the advantage you get from reading this book… it explains everything in very simple terms, bringing you much closer to the technology everyone is talking about.  These are the things most books don’t explain – and this book does this in very simple terms. After reading this, you get a basic working knowledge of, and far more important – appreciation for the blockchain technology, what it is exactly – something not one mainstream news article has managed to do so far.

Having got a small glimpse of the hardcore basics, the book goes  on to look  one or two use-cases in order to appreciate the power of the blockchain;  as well as the basic actual tools and software solutions that are either in vogue or being developed – “the frameworks”. In computer programming, a software framework is an abstraction in which software providing generic functionality can be selectively changed by additional user-written code, thus providing application-specific software. {Wiki Definition}.  The best part is that this entire section – much of the book to be honest – gives actual use cases.

CONCLUSION

This is a new technology; a lot remains to be seen, invented, developed and/or discovered;  that is most significant point that comes through. Secondly, it is nothing less than an ecosystem; thirdly, specific use cases are there – this book helps us get an rough idea of the limits of this technology, what it can do – and thus by definition, what it cannot do yet, though that last part is my assumption. The book is an excellent resource for programmers, coders, enthusiasts as well as people wanting to know more – coding examples are also present; as are details of the frameworks….

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