Blockchain Basics: A Non-Technical Introduction in 25 Steps

  • 7h 6m 23s
  • Daniel Drescher
  • Gildan Media
  • 2020

In 25 concise steps, you will learn the basics of blockchain technology. No mathematical formulas, program code, or computer science jargon are used. No previous knowledge in computer science, mathematics, programming, or cryptography is required. Terminology is explained through analogies and metaphors.

This audiobook bridges the gap that exists between purely technical guides about the blockchain and purely business-focused guides. It does so by explaining both the technical concepts that make up the blockchain and their role in business-relevant applications.

What you'll learn: what the blockchain is; why it is needed and what problem it solves; why there is so much excitement about the blockchain and its potential; major components and their purpose; how various components of the blockchain work and interact; limitations, why they exist, and what has been done to overcome them; and major application scenarios.

Who this audiobook is for: everyone who wants to get a general idea of what blockchain technology is, how it works, and how it will potentially change the financial system as we know it.

In this Audiobook

  • Step 1 - Thinking in Layers and Aspects: Analyzing Systems by Separating Them into Layers and Aspects
  • Step 2 - Seeing the Big Picture: Software Architecture and its Relation to the Blockchain
  • Step 3 - Recognizing the Potential: How Peer-to-Peer Systems May Change the World
  • Step 4 - Discovering the Core Problem: How to Herd a Group of Independent Computers
  • Step 5 - Disambiguating the Term: Four Ways to Define the Blockchain
  • Step 6 - Understanding the Nature of Ownership: Why We Know What We Own
  • Step 7 - Spending Money Twice: Exploiting a Vulnerability of Distributed Peer-to-Peer Systems
  • Step 8 - Planning the Blockchain: The Basic Concepts of Managing Ownership with the Blockchain
  • Step 9 - Documenting Ownership: Using the Course of History as Evidence for the Current State of Ownership
  • Step 10 - Hashing Data: Identifying Data from Their Digital Fingerprint
  • Step 11 - Hashing in the Real World: A Tale of Comparing Data and Creating Computational Puzzles
  • Step 12 - Identifying and Protecting User Accounts: A Gentle Introduction to Cryptography
  • Step 13 - Authorizing Transactions: Utilizing the Digital Equivalent to Handwritten Signatures
  • Step 14 - Storing Transaction Data: Building and Maintaining a History of Transaction Data
  • Step 15 - Using the Data Store: Chaining Blocks of Data
  • Step 16 - Protecting the Data Store: Discovering the Power of Immutability
  • Step 17 - Distributing the Data Store Among Peers: When Computers Gossip
  • Step 18 - Verifying and Adding Transactions: Ruling a Group of Computers with Carrot and Stick
  • Step 19 - Choosing a Transaction History: Let Computers Vote with Their Feet
  • Step 20 - Paying for Integrity: Neither Integrity nor the Creation of Trust is without Costs
  • Step 21 - Bringing the Pieces Together: More Than Just the Sum of its Pieces
  • Step 22 - Seeing the Limitations: Even a Perfect Machine Has Limitations
  • Step 23 - Reinventing the Blockchain: The Emergence of Four Different Kinds of Blockchain
  • Step 24 - Using the Blockchain: A Tool with Thousands of Applications
  • Step 25 - Summarizing and Going Further: Further Developments, Alternatives, and the Future of the Blockchain
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