Blockchain Resources

blockchain-resources.md

Blockchain Resources

Pre-requisites

• Cryptography : Study about hashing, one-way hashes, elliptic curves and popular ones like sha256, etc. (just a basic idea)
• Data Structure : Merkle trees, Merkle patricia trees
• Distributed Systems and Networking : UDP features and uses, Pub-sub protocols, Gossip protocols, DNS and service discovery

Resources for BlockChain

After getting comfortable with pre-requisites, move on in the following order :

1. Read the Bitcoin White Paper

• Read about HashCash by Adam Back (overall idea and need for this)
• Read about B-Money by Wei Dai

2. Read the Ethereum White Paper

• Advanced (not required for beginners) : The Ethereum Yellow Paper
• Dumbed down version of the yellow paper (for non-technical folks) : Ethereum Biedge Paper

3. Lecture slides "Blockchain-based Systems Engineering" - here. This will give a good understanding of the topics studied in the White Papers.

4. Read upon Proof-of-Work and Proof-Of-Stake comparisons from the web / youtube.

5. Ethereum docs for Ethereum specific components.

6. Ethereum EVM Illustrated for an overview diagram representation of Ethereum Concepts and EVM workings. ( See Appendix for Geth implementation and Solidity ABI )

Web3 Resources

1. Defining the web3 stack - Nader Dabit

2. The Web3 Stack - Alchmey Blog

3. Practice and Learn

   • Alchemy University
   • Speed Run Ethereum
   • Pointer

Advanced Blockchain Concepts

1. The Merge (Ethereum Hard Fork) blog by libp2p

2. GossipSub - Ethereum 2.0

3. Combining GHOST and Casper - Ethereum 2.0

4. Protocol Labs Research publications