Blockchain And Smart Contracts: Design Thinking And Programming For Fintech


Book Description

Innovative as it is, the blockchain technology is getting more and more attention and an increasing number of applications have emerged. This book elaborates on both the design thinking ideas and technical details in blockchain and smart contracts to help readers delve into the conceptual framework and understand why blockchain is designed as such and how it makes the current system decentralised yet effective. Having this understanding lays the ground for further analysis of blockchain-based solutions and innovative fintech applications.Topics covered in this book include blockchain structure, blockchain ecosystem, design thinking for blockchain, smart contract, fintech and financial services, solution-based problem solving, fintech valuation, and current issues faced such as privacy protection and solution selection, with the aid of real-life examples and hands-on exercises.Blockchain and Smart Contracts serves as a valuable guide for researchers and practitioners who have interests in the blockchain, smart contract, fintech innovation and applications, design thinking, and technical details. This book is particularly written for anyone who has no technical background and is searching for an initiation into the deep end of blockchain. Those with business, finance and economic interests will find this interesting and easy to digest.




Hands-On Smart Contract Development with Solidity and Ethereum


Book Description

Ready to dive into smart contract development for the blockchain? With this practical guide, experienced engineers and beginners alike will quickly learn the entire process for building smart contracts for Ethereum--the open source blockchain-based distributed computing platform. You'llget up to speed with the fundamentals and quickly move into builder mode. Kevin Solorio, Randall Kanna, and Dave Hoover show you how to create and test your own smart contract, create a frontend for users to interact with, and more. It's the perfect resource for people who want to break into the smart contract field but don't know where to start. In four parts, this book helps you: Explore smart contract fundamentals, including the Ethereum protocol, Solidity programming language, and the Ethereum Virtual Machine Dive into smart contract development using Solidity and gain experience with Truffle framework tools for deploying and testing your contracts Use Web3 to connect your smart contracts to an applicationso users can easily interact with the blockchain Examine smart contract security along with free online resources for smart contract security auditing




Fundamentals of Smart Contract Security


Book Description

Written by security experts at the forefront of this dynamic industry, this book teaches state-of-the-art smart contract security principles and practices. Smart contracts are an innovative application of blockchain technology. Acting as decentralized custodians of digital assets, they allow us to transfer value and information more effectively by reducing the need to trust a third party. By eliminating the need for intermediaries, smart contracts have the potential to massively scale the world economy and unleash the potential for faster and more efficient solutions than traditional systems could ever provide. But there's one catch: while blockchains are secure, smart contracts are not. Security vulnerabilities in smart contracts have led to over $250 million USD in value to be lost or stolen. For smart contract technology to achieve its full potential, these security vulnerabilities need to be addressed. Written by security experts at the forefront of this dynamic industry, this book teaches state-of-the-art smart contract security principles and practices. Help us secure the future of blockchain technology and join us at the forefront today!




The Cambridge Handbook of Smart Contracts, Blockchain Technology and Digital Platforms


Book Description

The product of a unique collaboration between academic scholars, legal practitioners, and technology experts, this Handbook is the first of its kind to analyze the ongoing evolution of smart contracts, based upon blockchain technology, from the perspective of existing legal frameworks - namely, contract law. The book's coverage ranges across many areas of smart contracts and electronic or digital platforms to illuminate the impact of new, and often disruptive, technologies on the law. With a mix of scholarly commentary and practical application, chapter authors provide expert insights on the core issues involving the use of smart contracts, concluding that smart contracts cannot supplant contract law and the courts, but leaving open the question of whether there is a need for specialized regulations to prevent abuse. This book should be read by anyone interested in the disruptive effect of new technologies on the law generally, and contract law in particular.




Smart Contracts and Comparative Law


Book Description

The book analyzes the most relevant developments in the relation between contracts and technology, from automatically concluded contracts to today's revolutionary "smart contracts" developed through blockchain, which are beginning to and will increasingly disrupt many economic and social relations. First of all, the author offers a broad analysis of the peculiarities and evolution of the relation between contracts and technology. The main features and elements of electronic contracts are then examined in depth to highlight the specific rules applicable to them in the international comparative legal framework. In turn, the book provides a detailed explanation of the technology, economic and social dynamics, and legal issues concerning blockchain and smart contracts. The analysis focuses on the question of the legal nature of smart contracts, the issues posed by their development and the first legal solutions adopted in some countries. The comparative approach pursued makes it possible to focus attention on the first solutions adopted until now in various systems, with particular regard to the circulation of models and ideas and to the specificities of their local variations, in terms of e.g. applicable law and jurisdiction. In reviewing the characteristics of distributed ledger technologies, and in particular of the blockchain technology on which smart contracts are based, above all the peculiarities of the latter are taken into consideration, especially automatic execution and resistance to tampering, which simultaneously present significant opportunities and complex legal issues. A comprehensive framework is then provided to reconcile smart contracts with comparative contract law, in order to define the scope and specificities of their binding force, legal effectiveness and regulation in various legal systems. Lastly, with specific reference to the elements, pathologies and contractual remedies for smart contracts, the book examines the peculiarities of their application and the main issues that emerge in comparative contract law in order to promote their harmonized use, in keeping with the transnational nature of such a revolutionary tool.




Legal Tech, Smart Contracts and Blockchain


Book Description

There is a broad consensus amongst law firms and in-house legal departments that next generation “Legal Tech” – particularly in the form of Blockchain-based technologies and Smart Contracts – will have a profound impact on the future operations of all legal service providers. Legal Tech startups are already revolutionizing the legal industry by increasing the speed and efficiency of traditional legal services or replacing them altogether with new technologies. This on-going process of disruption within the legal profession offers significant opportunities for all business. However, it also poses a number of challenges for practitioners, trade associations, technology vendors, and regulators who often struggle to keep up with the technologies, resulting in a widening regulatory “gap.” Many uncertainties remain regarding the scope, direction, and effects of these new technologies and their integration with existing practices and legacy systems. Adding to the challenges is the growing need for easy-to-use contracting solutions, on the one hand, and for protecting the users of such solutions, on the other. To respond to the challenges and to provide better legal communications, systems, and services Legal Tech scholars and practitioners have found allies in the emerging field of Legal Design. This collection brings together leading scholars and practitioners working on these issues from diverse jurisdictions. The aim is to introduce Blockchain and Smart Contract technologies, and to examine their on-going impact on the legal profession, business and regulators.




Beginning Ethereum Smart Contracts Programming


Book Description

Use this book to write an Ethereum Blockchain Smart Contract, test it, deploy it, and create a web application to interact with your smart contract. Beginning Ethereum Smart Contracts Programming is your fastest and most efficient means of getting started if you are unsure where to begin and how to connect to the Ethereum Blockchain. The book begins with a foundational discussion of blockchain and the motivation behind it. From there, you will get up close and personal with the Ethereum Blockchain, learning how to use an Ethereum client (geth) to connect to the Ethereum Blockchain to perform transactions such as sending Ethers to another account. You will learn about smart contracts without having to wade through tons of documentation. Author Lee’s “learn-by-doing” approach will allow you to be productive and feel confident in your ability in no time. The last part of this book covers tokens, a topic that has taken the cryptocurrency market by storm. Sample code in Python, Solidity, and JavaScript is provided in the book and online. What You'll LearnUnderstand the basic premise of blockchain and “record keeping” in a peer-to-peer network Experience blockchain in action by creating your own blockchain using Python Know the foundation of smart contracts programming and how to deploy and test smart contracts Work on a case study to illustrate the use of blockchain Be familiar with tokens, and how to create and launch your own ICO digital token Write smart contracts that transact using tokens Who This Book Is For Those who want to get started quickly with Ethereum Smart Contracts programming. Basic programming knowledge and an understanding of Python or JavaScript is recommended.




Smart Contracts


Book Description

This book brings together a series of contributions by leading scholars and practitioners to examine the main features of smart contracts, as well as the response of key stakeholders in technology, business, government and the law. It explores how this new technology interfaces with the goals and content of contract law, introducing and evaluating several mechanisms to improve the 'observability' and reduce the costs of verifying contractual obligations and performance. It also outlines various 'design patterns' that ensure that end users are protected from themselves, prevent cognitive accidents, and translate expectations and values into more user-oriented agreements. Furthermore, the chapters map the new risks associated with smart contracts, particularly for consumers, and consider how they might be alleviated. The book also discusses the challenge of integrating data protection and privacy concerns into the design of these agreements and the broad range of legal knowledge and skills required. The case for using smart contracts goes beyond 'contracts' narrowly defined, and they are increasingly used to disrupt traditional models of business organisation. The book discusses so-called decentralised autonomous organisations and decentralised finance as illustrations of this trend. This book is designed for those interested in looking to deepen their understanding of this game-changing new legal technology.




Mastering Ethereum


Book Description

Ethereum represents the gateway to a worldwide, decentralized computing paradigm. This platform enables you to run decentralized applications (DApps) and smart contracts that have no central points of failure or control, integrate with a payment network, and operate on an open blockchain. With this practical guide, Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Gavin Wood provide everything you need to know about building smart contracts and DApps on Ethereum and other virtual-machine blockchains. Discover why IBM, Microsoft, NASDAQ, and hundreds of other organizations are experimenting with Ethereum. This essential guide shows you how to develop the skills necessary to be an innovator in this growing and exciting new industry. Run an Ethereum client, create and transmit basic transactions, and program smart contracts Learn the essentials of public key cryptography, hashes, and digital signatures Understand how "wallets" hold digital keys that control funds and smart contracts Interact with Ethereum clients programmatically using JavaScript libraries and Remote Procedure Call interfaces Learn security best practices, design patterns, and anti-patterns with real-world examples Create tokens that represent assets, shares, votes, or access control rights Build decentralized applications using multiple peer-to-peer (P2P) components




Building Games with Ethereum Smart Contracts


Book Description

Learn how to take your existing knowledge of Ethereum and Solidity to the next level. Hone your development skills and become more familiar with the syntax of the Solidity language by working through well-tested, well-documented intermediate-level sample projects. You will begin by covering the basics of Ethereum, Solidity, and gaming theory. From there, you will move onto sample projects that use smart contract engineering to create fun casino-style games that you can deploy and test on your friends and colleagues with real ether. All games are provably fair and auditable, so that players know the house won’t always win! Ideal for any reader with exposure to Ethereum, the techniques this book teaches are applicable to game developers, software engineers, web developers, and cryptocurrency enthusiasts. What You'll Learn Use various features and best practices for smart contract programming in Ethereum and Solidity Develop and deploy games of chance, similar to the kind you’d find in a casino Create fun, easy projects with Ethereum lntegrate the Ethereum blockchain into games Who This Book Is For Entry-level programmers with some exposure to Ethereum; game developers, Blockchain and cryptocurrency enthusiasts looking to add Ethereum and Solidity development to their skill set; software engineers and Web developers