Ask HN: Resources to learn blockchain and smart contracts?

526 pointsnepger218y ago116 comments

What resources are available to get into these two and related topics?

Would be also better if there are papers/books that introduces to these concepts (and toy implementation)?

116 comments

The book "Mastering Bitcoin" really helped me to understand the blockchain and bitcoin properly. It's available free online here~

http://chimera.labs.oreilly.com/books/1234000001802/index.ht...

The author is putting out a similar book called "Mastering Ethereum" in February, also through O'Reilly.

djb_hackernews8y ago

I just read the preface and have to ask... is this heavy on marketing, cheerleading and kool-aid? First the author makes it sound like the Nakamoto paper was sent from the heavens and then this:

> I became obsessed and enthralled, spending 12 or more hours each day glued to a screen, reading, writing, coding, and learning as much as I could. I emerged from this state of fugue, more than 20 pounds lighter from lack of consistent meals, determined to dedicate myself to working on bitcoin.

To me, this seems a little dramatic for what should be a technical topic.

zeroxfe8y ago

Ignore that -- the meat is in the inner content. Very technical, and gets into all the gory details of nearly all aspects of Bitcoin.

AlexCoventry8y ago

> is this heavy on marketing, cheerleading and kool-aid?

I haven't looked at the book, but the author is, a bit. Here's a somewhat banana-pants talk he recently gave. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyK4P7ZdOK8

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kevmo8y ago

That's what prefaces often sound like. It's the author introducing themself and their claim to authority that will make you take their following content seriously. This author is just explaining why they cared so much as to write a book.

skavish8y ago

there is no marketing etc in this book. it is by far the best book on the topic. it covers only bitcoin, i.e. no etherium/smartcontracts etc, but it does that really well. and in fact all the other blockchains are more or less the same

mariusmg8y ago

It's the Hollywood version of the events.

mi_lk8y ago

Skip intro, jump right in the technical chapters, it really goes into necessary details as an introductory book.

arkj8y ago

The preface maybe a bit dramatic but the contents are really good for a beginner.

cooervo8y ago

Once again the autistic, asocial programmer clise gets autoconfirmed.

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mtrn8y ago

This book helped me understand the basics of bitcoin as well. Great read.

alfiedotwtf8y ago

Ditto. This book is excellent, and is in it's second print

adventured8y ago

I second this. It's good both as an introductory book for someone new to blockchain and for someone with more experience looking to round out their knowledge.

lamby8y ago

Is this available in Mobi/Kindle format?

apo8y ago

I recently published an intermediate-level e-book on Bitcoin:

http://bitzuma.com/owning-bitcoin/

This is the book I wish had existed when I started learning about Bitcoin in 2011. It's a technical deep-dive for a non-expert audience. Only knowledge of high school algebra and a willingness to learn are assumed. Every technical term comes with a definition. Over 300 figures help visual learners understand complex technical topics. Hundreds of footnotes provide jumping-off points and links to online demos. Cross-links allow you to quickly review prior material in later chapters.

There are eight chapters:

1. Bitcoin from Scratch (the view from 20,000 feet of Bitcoin and its subsystems)

2. Authentication (elliptic curve cryptography)

3. Authorization (Script, transactions, and contracts)

4. Network (block chain, consensus, hard/soft forks, governance, segwit, Lightning Network)

5. Privacy (what can and can't be discovered about users of a public block chain)

6. Security (what to protect and why)

7. Wallets (software for using Bitcoin)

8. Bitcoin in Practice (a complete system for using Bitcoin based on the content in the first seven chapters)

MattSayar8y ago

Would you consider putting this on Google Play as well? I have a lot of Play credit I'd like to use on your book

apo8y ago

I wanted to, but Google Play Books has been closed to new publishers for some time.

tommynicholas8y ago

Compiled these resources while building my first smart contract. I can't promise they're the best, but I can promise I built something that works following these resources + learned a ton:

https://blankslate.io/?note=48627

(if you want just tutorials: http://truffleframework.com/tutorials/)

rwieruch8y ago

Checkout what https://twitter.com/iam_preethi is tweeting about these topics. Really liked her last article about Etherum: https://medium.com/@preethikasireddy/how-does-ethereum-work-...

throwaway6138348y ago

Could someone offer a quick explanation as to what kinds of things there even _are_ to learn about blockchains? I mean from a conceptual user perspective of "let's use blockchain for my next product", not from a Bitcoin-dev perspective of "how do we fix this thing in our blockchain implementation".

zeroxfe8y ago

The key concepts to think about when trying to decide whether you need to use a blockchain are:

  - consensus between trustless systems
  - failure tolerance between trustless systems
  - immutability of data
  - verifiable audit trails
  - cryptographically secured ownership of data/resource/etc.

For each of these areas there are more specific considerations, e.g.:

  - access control (public, private, federated)
  - type of consensus (proof-of-work, proof-of-stake, etc.)
  - type of data (ledger, map, log) and implementation

With blockchains, there are now huge classes of problems that can be dealt with, that were impossible or impractical with traditional databases (where trust is required between multiple parties.)

indigochill8y ago

Disclaimer: I've mostly absorbed this stuff through osmosis and lazy web searching, but I thought I'd take a shot with my understanding and someone can correct me if I'm mistaken.

Blockchains are designed to solve a certain set of problems. Understanding those problems and their relation to your product will help you determine whether a blockchain is a reasonable solution.

1. Do you need a distributed ledger? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_ledger)

2. Do you need proof of work? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof-of-work_system)

3. Does your distributed ledger need to record things such that one block follows the next, as opposed to blocks of data being saved independently of each other? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain)

If the answer to all of the above is yes, using a blockchain probably makes sense. Otherwise, you probably want to use something other than a blockchain (for instance, if you just need a distributed ledger, just use a distributed ledger. No need to chain each block together unless that's actually useful for your product).

throwaway6138348y ago

Those are in line with my understanding too, but I'm asking what is there to learn about blockchain technology, not what the use cases are. (That's actually also a question I have, but a separate question to me.)

To me a blockchain is just a tree, where the "parent pointers" are just hashes of the parent nodes rather than their addresses. And I guess to pick one as the "correct" one, you just choose the one with (say) the longest chain. End of story? What else _is_ there to learn about this that people are looking for? (Btw, isn't this just a Merkle tree, which has been around since at least 1979? What's so revolutionary or even different in a blockchain?)

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y78y ago

Not all blockchains use proof of work.

A better single question would be: do you need a distributed ledger with immutability guarantees (i.e. security against an adversary that might want to tamper with the history of your ledger).

xxs8y ago

The answer to point 2 (proof of work) is irrelevant with regard to block chains. Those are separate class of problems.

acoravos8y ago

Here's a piece demystifying what a blockchain can be used for (vs. not) with intro references: https://blog.andreacoravos.com/myth-busting-can-a-blockchain.... It's written using healthcare use-cases as frame of reference, but applies to most industry implementations.

throwaway6138348y ago

So (as I said in a sibling comment) my question wasn't "what can it be used for", but rather "what concepts are there to learn about it that could help me decide what to use it for".

But regarding the topic of what it can be used for... yes, I see people talking about doing healthcare with blockchain, or BP using blockchain, or archeology using blockchain, and people asking about how to learn to use blockchain for their next random startup ideas, and I start wondering if I'm going crazy. To me it seems basically like asking "could linked lists revolutionize healthcare?", or "could Dijkstra's algorithm help end global warming?" which sounds like a completely nuts question to ask. Am I just missing a huge, fundamental part of the picture? The whole thing just doesn't make sense to me.

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jashmenn8y ago

I just started a new site for teaching this!

I've found that smart contracts have a lot of jargon that can be opaque, but the concepts are familiar to web developers (and not that hard to learn).

For example, in traditional webdev we use our browser to connect to an app server, which is connected to a centralized database.

In Ethereum dev, every node has a copy of the entire database. To write distributed apps, you read from your local copy. That is, for a JavaScript DApp, you use the web3 JavaScript library to connect to a local node you have running on your own machine.

Writes are little more involved, because you need the network to agree that your writes are valid. So to perform writes, you submit a transaction to the network.

The result is reads are free and writes cost money.

Solidity is tricky, but not that bad if you're careful. If you know JavaScript already, you can totally learn to program smart contracts.

In any case, my site is here. I'll be making the first course free shortly: https://www.newline.co/

animesh8y ago

This article was on HN a few days ago. “Learn Blockchains by Building One” @van_flymen https://hackernoon.com/learn-blockchains-by-building-one-117...

submeta8y ago

That's an excellent article. And a very hands-down approach using code examples in Python.

roro56788y ago

What I am currently attending : https://www.coursera.org/learn/cryptocurrency/home/welcome

kochthesecond8y ago

Would also like to recommend this course. The lectures are good, the tasks are ok. It assumes familiarity with cryptographic hash functions and signatures, allowing to keep the focus on bitcoin. In some places it delves into some interesting variations of implementations, like Zcash.

dnt404-18y ago

I quickly checked the syllabus, however didn't find smart contracts? Do they go into that in some of the videos? How much time do you think this course takes?

david_vc8y ago

No smart contracts - it's a Bitcoin course. Some of the authors also released a tutorial on Solidity and smart contracts, which you can find on Andrew Miller's webpage.

The Coursera class took around 20 hours end to end.

elorm8y ago

Here you go

https://github.com/xel/blockchain-stuff

dnt404-18y ago

that's quite a good resource :)

vjdhama8y ago

There's this course by the people who wrote `Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies`

It covers the basics pretty well.

http://bitcoinbook.cs.princeton.edu/

socrates10248y ago

I'd definitely recommend this book, it's great! Comes with decent video lectures and such too. (disclosure: am a coauthor)

Also, this course page has some useful links and lecture notes/slides (mostly geared towards graduate students and research) http://soc1024.ece.illinois.edu/teaching/ece598am/fall2016/

supermdguy8y ago

I read the book, and it was incredible. It went in depth into the data structures of bitcoin, while also providing high level overviews of various cryptocurrency ideas. It really helped me to understand exactly what cryptocurrency is and how it works.

Asdfbla8y ago

I can second this. It's a book written by capable people who do some research in the area too and they don't unecessarily hype the technology like so many resources you find about cryptocurrencies.

rainloft8y ago

CS 251: Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies at Stanford https://crypto.stanford.edu/cs251/

panzerboy8y ago

Can this course be also followed online? If yes, how? I can see the list of lectures, but not the actual contents.

dnt404-18y ago

Did you do it via self-study? How was the experience?

pors8y ago

I agree with the recommendation of "Mastering Bitcoin".

I recently also started diving into blockchain related tech, and I blog about it here: http://decentralized.blog/

So far mostly about IPFS, but soon more on the working of the different blockchains out there.

coolandsmartrr8y ago

Thanks for your dissection of IPFS, really useful to understand! Looking forward to more

ym7058y ago

If you're interested in Ethereum Smart Contracts I wrote: http://ethereumdev.io/

sghiassy8y ago

Clearly written articles, thx!

I’m n00b in Smart Contracts but they seem like interfaces to reading/writing to a data store.

If I didn’t totally botch what they are. Then I don’t really get why they’re “smart”. The pitfalls of regular programming, seem to apply to contracts. Seems like I could easily code a bug in a smart contract and have it t deployed to the network?? Or did I miss something?

taternuts8y ago

You didn't miss anything, it's very easy to deploy a bug in a smart contract and why anyone using it for anything important should have their contracts be audited by a third party professional(s).

elsurudo8y ago

It's really just a marketing name.

corbinpage8y ago

These videos by Jordan Leigh are really great for Ethereum concepts and development.

http://decypher.tv/series/ethereum-development

mvleming8y ago

I second this. Really great videos that balance breath vs depth well and that are easily digestible. The guy is also enjoyable to listen to.

I am not associated with Jordan Leigh nor Decyper.TV in any way except as a customer.

aaron_h8y ago

I've posted all my research on the subject here: https://www.insp3ct.re/blog/blockchain-security-reference-gu.... It's focused on the security side of blockchain & cryptocurrencies, but it starts out with a solid primer on how the technology works. I also did a conference talk at DerbyCon on the subject, which is included in the blog post. Should be really good to get you started.

ttyprintk8y ago

Mastering Bitcoin, Second Edition

https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook

hcaw8y ago

I second this, it's a very good resource. Mastering Ethereum should be out early next year too.

nikivi8y ago

For blockchains :

https://learn-anything.xyz/databases/distributed-databases/b...

For smart contracts :

https://learn-anything.xyz/distributed-computing/ethereum/sm...

musgrove8y ago

I manage a website and Facebook page dedicated to resources: http://blockchainsaw.com and http://facebook.com/bitcoinresources. The FB page is updated a lot throughout the day and contains more than Bitcoin stuff.

acoravos8y ago

If blockchain concepts are new for you, here are my favorite starting places to learn:

Why Bitcoin Matters (2011, NYT) - https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/01/21/why-bitcoin-matters/...

What is blockchain, really? An intro for regular people. (2017, Medium) - https://medium.com/@wen_xs/what-is-blockchain-really-an-intr...

Re: “Smart contracts” - here’s a few 101 pieces on ethereum:

A Beginner’s Guide to Ethereum (2017, Coinbase blog) - https://blog.coinbase.com/a-beginners-guide-to-ethereum-46dd...

Ethereum is the Forefront of Digital Currency (2017, Coinbase blog) - https://blog.coinbase.com/ethereum-is-the-forefront-of-digit...

Dan Romero has compiled an excellent "reading list" for digital currencies: https://medium.com/@dwr/digital-currency-reading-list-6219f1...

And here's a 101 for developing a decentralized app (dApp): https://medium.com/@AndreaCoravos/dapps-101-how-do-i-start-d...

AdrienChey8y ago

As a quick and visual introduction, I would recommend the great "Ever wonder how Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) actually work?" youtube video from 3Blue1Brown https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBC-nXj3Ng4&t=3s

notindexed8y ago

http://lopp.net/bitcoin.html

statoshi8y ago

This is my site; I've probably spent at least 100 hours curating this list over the years :-)

earlybike8y ago

Also an important question: How to get quickly tokens for a ETH test network to be able to do anything. Last time I tried I wasn't successful because all these places where you could get some free tokens didn't work and the only thing possible was to mine them yourself which still took a day or two.

Cakez0r8y ago

The metamask testnet faucet worked for me - https://faucet.metamask.io/

earlybike8y ago

Thanks, this worked.

tree_of_item8y ago

For a test network, can't you just modify the code to give yourself however many coins you want? Why would you need to mine?

crypt1d8y ago

I assume OP is referring to the test nets which are already running publicly, not one u would run locally:

https://testnet.etherscan.io/

hdhzy8y ago

Contracts page on Bitcoin Wiki [0] is classic, unfortunately to understand most of it one has to know how script and various extensions (lock time etc.) work. Generally I'd advise reverse engineering how Bitcoin works, something like this [1] in JavaScript. There is also high level description of some contract types [2] but it's basically the same content as on Bitcoin Wiki.

[0]: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Contract

[1]: https://curiosity-driven.org/low-level-bitcoin

[2]: https://curiosity-driven.org/bitcoin-contracts

gtrubetskoy8y ago

Start out with Bitcoin, and make sure you understand it well. For example it has its own stack-based language (mini smart contracts of sorts), you need to understand how that works, the different types of payments such as P2SH, etc.

The O'Reilly book is good, you should also look at code in your preferred language, ideally the C++ in which Bitcoin core is written.

Last but absolutely not least - you should buy some Bitcoin and send it to someone, or buy something with it. I'd also recommend going through the trouble of running Bitcoin-Qt and downloading the whole blockchain (which takes several days and requires lots of disk space).

Once you understand all this, the smart contracts thing will be a lot clearer, and you might even have a different opinion on it.

MoBattah8y ago

....advising learning bitcoin....smart contracts...don't think these two belong in the same sentence.

Cakez0r8y ago

> For example it has its own stack-based language

You can create "smart contracts" with bitcoin.

narulakeshav8y ago

I recently created a platform that has my hand-picked resources for bitcoin, cryptocurrency, blockchain: https://symphosis.com

It has resources for other concepts like Design, UX, JavaScript, Startups, etc.

wayoflife8y ago

For explanation of both, watch this Video: https://anders.com/blockchain/ and then click on the "fork on github" link ;)

arcaster8y ago

Most of the grit of blockchain work is in the flows and practices used to build apps / dapps around existing blockchains. There aren't any books that you can read or comprehensive Medium blogs that cover this content.

Core blockchain dev, i.e. at a protocol level requires serious chops, not the kind of thing you can just pick up in a few months.

I'd recommend brushing up on broad blockchain concepts and not just intensely studying a single chain / platform. If you want to get into the industry your best bet is to find a company willing to hire you and let you learn hands on.

arkj8y ago

Check out hyperledger and solidity.

https://github.com/hyperledger/hyperledger/blob/master/hyper...

https://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/solidity/

I found this visual tutorial on blockchain helpful.

https://youtu.be/_160oMzblY8

Shrugs8y ago

I second the references to "Mastering Bitcoin", and also add my blog post "Getting up to Speed on Ethereum" [1] that takes you from "I kinda understand bitcoin" to "I understand ethereum at a deep level and know about the big projects being built on top of it" over a few days.

[1] https://medium.com/@mattcondon/getting-up-to-speed-on-ethere...

ablaba8y ago

“Tutorial: Blockchains and Databases” at the 43rd International Conference on Very Large Data Bases (VLDB) in Munich on 29 August 2017: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7lNUaak0bK1ZDhkak05VHA0d00...

josheth8y ago

W3kit let’s you interact with smart contracts and deploy your own Ethereum node with ease. This way you can focus on writing and testing smart contracts and not the underlying infrastructure.

The blog also has tutorials to get you started and teach Ethereum concepts.

https://blog.w3k.it

samlewis8y ago

If you're interested in the nitty gritty of the mechanics of Bitcoin, check out my blog post: http://www.samlewis.me/2017/06/a-peek-under-bitcoins-hood/

jc1238y ago

Solid material at "stackoverflow":

https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com

https://ethereum.stackexchange.com

b0ba1lle8y ago

If you're looking for a toy implementation, I just released https://github.com/robinmonjo/coincoin

It focuses on Blockchain and Digital Transactions

dabockster8y ago

Related, how does the blockchain structure look on paper? As in a data structure? What fields does it have?

I have a project idea, but I want to build the data structure from scratch as opposed to cargo culting something on top of Ethereum.

mbrock8y ago

It looks basically just like a Git repository. Mining is like competing for a chance to merge a bunch of other people's commits (because you get a "commit fee" for each of them). And you always want to merge into the longest repository, because otherwise you're receiving those commit fees in a fork that's unlikely to be cared about.

gkrypt8y ago

I have listed various different products, tools, and resources. If anyone is interested do checkout https://cryptostack.xyz

agreen8y ago

Intro:

1. https://medium.freecodecamp.org/explain-bitcoin-like-im-five...

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIxwTx7o_B4

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBC-nXj3Ng4

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_160oMzblY8

5. https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/244-the-quiet-master-of-...

6. http://investorfieldguide.com/hashpower/

Build Your Own Blockchain:

1. https://dev.to/aunyks/lets-build-the-tiniest-blockchain

2. https://hackernoon.com/learn-blockchains-by-building-one-117...

3. https://github.com/jamesob/tinychain

Resource List for an Advanced Understanding (Multidisciplinary Approach):

1. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UiMS4Br7LkTIRdEOPjCukOxG...

---

Additionally, here is some advice from Balaji Srinivasan (source: https://www.producthunt.com/live/balaji-s-srinivasan):

1. First, I'd master database and cryptography fundamentals, with something like Dan Boneh's course for the latter

2. Then, I'd read the Bitcoin.org and Ethereum documentation

3. Then, you should write short Python or Go scripts to do things like printing out the blockchain, formatting and signing a transaction by hand, managing private keys, that type of thing. This will give you a feel for the raw data structures.

4. After doing all this, I'd take a look at application libraries like Ryan Shea and Muneeb Ali's new blockstack.org

The reason I'd do it in this order is that you would learn fundamentals first before proceeding to the cutting edge.

felipesabino8y ago

I compiled some of the resources I used to start understanding it.

It it a bit focused on ethereum, but I guess it is useful for starting to understand blockchain and smart contracts in general regardless

---

Watching

- "GOTO 2017 • Blockchain: The Slowest (and most Fascinating) Database in the World • Stefan Tilkov” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li3rfBAP_fE

Explains how the blockchain works and walks through most of the technical terms you will need to know

- "Ethereum Vs. Bitcoin: What Sets Them Apart? | CNBC” https://youtu.be/0UBk1e5qnr4

Uses the blockchain explanation to give you an idea of how the smart contract idea differs Ethereum from Bitcoin

- "Vitalik Buterin explains Ethereum" https://youtu.be/TDGq4aeevgY

3 minute macro explanation of what is Ethereum from its inventor Vitalik Buterin

- "DEVCON1: Ethereum for Dummies - Dr. Gavin Wood” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_LK0t_qaPo

Ethereum's CTO Dr. Gavin Wood explains in a very macro way the Ethereum concept with an idea of how the “Global Computer” works and what is the “Ethereum Virtual Machine”

- Devcon2: Ethereum in 25 Minutes https://youtu.be/66SaEDzlmP4

Vitalik Buterin give and overview of the Ethereum protocol and shows what is an Ethereum transaction, what is Gas (and how computation time is actually paid for miners), how the state machine works and what you can do with it

- DEVCON1: Ethereum in the Enterprise Environment - Taylor Gerring https://youtu.be/HXNWhXuMNpw

Expose core concepts about the blockchain and the Ethereum platform that are valuable to enterprise and how companies can leverage that using web technologies

---

Reading

- Coinbase - A beginner’s guide to Ethereum https://blog.coinbase.com/a-beginners-guide-to-ethereum-46dd...

- Fat Protocols http://www.usv.com/blog/fat-protocols

- The difference between App Coins and Protocol Tokens https://blog.0xproject.com/the-difference-between-app-coins-...

- What’s the Difference Between an ‘ICO’ and a ‘Token Launch’? Coins vs. Tokens (What is a SNGLS token?) https://medium.com/@SingularDTV/whats-the-difference-between...

---

Source of links, links and more links

- /r/ethereum - getting started https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/61y5ix/welcome_to...

- The Quiet Master of Cryptocurrency — Nick Szabo (Scroll to "Selected Links from the Episode”) https://tim.blog/2017/06/04/nick-szabo/

- What The Fuck Is Ethereum? ("I am a total nerd" option) http://whatthefuckisethereum.com/#nerd

---

Extra reading

- Money, blockchains, and social scalability http://unenumerated.blogspot.com.br/2017/02/money-blockchain...

- Does your dapp need a token? https://medium.com/@simondlr/does-your-dapp-need-a-token-394...

- Ethereum documentation http://www.ethdocs.org/en/latest/index.html

- Ethereum Wiki - FAQ https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/FAQ

mbrock8y ago

Great list!

mmurthy8y ago

I started this a few months ago where you can learn smart contract development by doing projects: https://www.zastrin.com

grk8y ago

If you want to stay updated on current news, I can recommend the http://blockchainweekly.net/ newsletter.

theylon8y ago

Blockgeeks is great for beginner material and to understand the basics. https://blockgeeks.com/

swe4458y ago

Check out the blockstack stuff. They have a to-do list tutorial available. Decentralized app development is kinda an etherem vs blockstack situation right now.

tonymarks8y ago

Preethi Kasireddy has done a pretty good job with her blog: https://www.hashhack.it

thisisit8y ago

https://blockchaintechblog.com/

earlybike8y ago

Similar question: Which tutorial enables me to write and deploy my first smart contract in Solidity within 120 minutes?

tommynicholas8y ago

http://truffleframework.com/tutorials/

Not sure the Ethereum network can even deploy in 120 minutes these days, but you'll certainly have it built in that time :)

dvcoolster8y ago

I loved Decypher.tv for getting going with Ethereum Smart Contracts as well as other requirements for a complete DApp

coralreef8y ago

Seems expensive, currently $60 USD. Worth it?

gnazarkin8y ago

Yep. I went through all of them and they are great

harrisreynolds8y ago

We recently launched a site to help people go from zero to hero with Blockchain technology. Feel free to sign up for the weekly newsletter here:

http://www.theblockchainhq.com/newsletter/

We plan on covering "Getting started with Blockchain development" very soon as there it still an opportunity here to make this much easier.

markatkinson8y ago

Might be worth learning about DAG, Tangle and IOTA too, here is their latest whitepaper: https://iota.org/IOTA_Whitepaper.pdf

andrewfromx8y ago

shameless plug, but walk thru this example: https://simplecoin.life/ico

MoBattah8y ago

Does this end after /ico12?

andrewfromx8y ago

yeah, it's not finished. Working on https://github.com/andrewarrow/simplecoin.life code and then I'll fix the rest of the site

1 more reply

thebestia298y ago

It will be excellent to learn of that subject would be fabulous, if they had tutorials or videos pass lin link would be a good contribution

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

116 comments

aerovistae8y ago

The book "Mastering Bitcoin" really helped me to understand the blockchain and bitcoin properly. It's available free online here~

http://chimera.labs.oreilly.com/books/1234000001802/index.ht...

The author is putting out a similar book called "Mastering Ethereum" in February, also through O'Reilly.

djb_hackernews8y ago

I just read the preface and have to ask... is this heavy on marketing, cheerleading and kool-aid? First the author makes it sound like the Nakamoto paper was sent from the heavens and then this:

To me, this seems a little dramatic for what should be a technical topic.

zeroxfe8y ago

Ignore that -- the meat is in the inner content. Very technical, and gets into all the gory details of nearly all aspects of Bitcoin.

AlexCoventry8y ago

> is this heavy on marketing, cheerleading and kool-aid?

I haven't looked at the book, but the author is, a bit. Here's a somewhat banana-pants talk he recently gave. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyK4P7ZdOK8

1 more reply

kevmo8y ago

skavish8y ago

mariusmg8y ago

It's the Hollywood version of the events.

mi_lk8y ago

Skip intro, jump right in the technical chapters, it really goes into necessary details as an introductory book.

arkj8y ago

The preface maybe a bit dramatic but the contents are really good for a beginner.

cooervo8y ago

Once again the autistic, asocial programmer clise gets autoconfirmed.

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mtrn8y ago

This book helped me understand the basics of bitcoin as well. Great read.

alfiedotwtf8y ago

Ditto. This book is excellent, and is in it's second print

adventured8y ago

I second this. It's good both as an introductory book for someone new to blockchain and for someone with more experience looking to round out their knowledge.

lamby8y ago

Is this available in Mobi/Kindle format?

apo8y ago

I recently published an intermediate-level e-book on Bitcoin:

http://bitzuma.com/owning-bitcoin/

There are eight chapters:

1. Bitcoin from Scratch (the view from 20,000 feet of Bitcoin and its subsystems)

2. Authentication (elliptic curve cryptography)

3. Authorization (Script, transactions, and contracts)

4. Network (block chain, consensus, hard/soft forks, governance, segwit, Lightning Network)

5. Privacy (what can and can't be discovered about users of a public block chain)

6. Security (what to protect and why)

7. Wallets (software for using Bitcoin)

8. Bitcoin in Practice (a complete system for using Bitcoin based on the content in the first seven chapters)

MattSayar8y ago

Would you consider putting this on Google Play as well? I have a lot of Play credit I'd like to use on your book

apo8y ago

I wanted to, but Google Play Books has been closed to new publishers for some time.

tommynicholas8y ago

Compiled these resources while building my first smart contract. I can't promise they're the best, but I can promise I built something that works following these resources + learned a ton:

https://blankslate.io/?note=48627

(if you want just tutorials: http://truffleframework.com/tutorials/)

rwieruch8y ago

Checkout what https://twitter.com/iam_preethi is tweeting about these topics. Really liked her last article about Etherum: https://medium.com/@preethikasireddy/how-does-ethereum-work-...

throwaway6138348y ago

zeroxfe8y ago

The key concepts to think about when trying to decide whether you need to use a blockchain are:

  - consensus between trustless systems
  - failure tolerance between trustless systems
  - immutability of data
  - verifiable audit trails
  - cryptographically secured ownership of data/resource/etc.

For each of these areas there are more specific considerations, e.g.:

  - access control (public, private, federated)
  - type of consensus (proof-of-work, proof-of-stake, etc.)
  - type of data (ledger, map, log) and implementation

With blockchains, there are now huge classes of problems that can be dealt with, that were impossible or impractical with traditional databases (where trust is required between multiple parties.)

indigochill8y ago

Disclaimer: I've mostly absorbed this stuff through osmosis and lazy web searching, but I thought I'd take a shot with my understanding and someone can correct me if I'm mistaken.

Blockchains are designed to solve a certain set of problems. Understanding those problems and their relation to your product will help you determine whether a blockchain is a reasonable solution.

1. Do you need a distributed ledger? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_ledger)

2. Do you need proof of work? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof-of-work_system)

throwaway6138348y ago

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y78y ago

Not all blockchains use proof of work.

A better single question would be: do you need a distributed ledger with immutability guarantees (i.e. security against an adversary that might want to tamper with the history of your ledger).

xxs8y ago

The answer to point 2 (proof of work) is irrelevant with regard to block chains. Those are separate class of problems.

acoravos8y ago

throwaway6138348y ago

So (as I said in a sibling comment) my question wasn't "what can it be used for", but rather "what concepts are there to learn about it that could help me decide what to use it for".

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jashmenn8y ago

I just started a new site for teaching this!

I've found that smart contracts have a lot of jargon that can be opaque, but the concepts are familiar to web developers (and not that hard to learn).

For example, in traditional webdev we use our browser to connect to an app server, which is connected to a centralized database.

Writes are little more involved, because you need the network to agree that your writes are valid. So to perform writes, you submit a transaction to the network.

The result is reads are free and writes cost money.

Solidity is tricky, but not that bad if you're careful. If you know JavaScript already, you can totally learn to program smart contracts.

In any case, my site is here. I'll be making the first course free shortly: https://www.newline.co/

animesh8y ago

This article was on HN a few days ago. “Learn Blockchains by Building One” @van_flymen https://hackernoon.com/learn-blockchains-by-building-one-117...

submeta8y ago

That's an excellent article. And a very hands-down approach using code examples in Python.

roro56788y ago

What I am currently attending : https://www.coursera.org/learn/cryptocurrency/home/welcome

kochthesecond8y ago

dnt404-18y ago

I quickly checked the syllabus, however didn't find smart contracts? Do they go into that in some of the videos? How much time do you think this course takes?

david_vc8y ago

No smart contracts - it's a Bitcoin course. Some of the authors also released a tutorial on Solidity and smart contracts, which you can find on Andrew Miller's webpage.

The Coursera class took around 20 hours end to end.

elorm8y ago

Here you go

https://github.com/xel/blockchain-stuff

dnt404-18y ago

that's quite a good resource :)

vjdhama8y ago

There's this course by the people who wrote `Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies`

It covers the basics pretty well.

http://bitcoinbook.cs.princeton.edu/

socrates10248y ago

I'd definitely recommend this book, it's great! Comes with decent video lectures and such too. (disclosure: am a coauthor)

Also, this course page has some useful links and lecture notes/slides (mostly geared towards graduate students and research) http://soc1024.ece.illinois.edu/teaching/ece598am/fall2016/

supermdguy8y ago

Asdfbla8y ago

I can second this. It's a book written by capable people who do some research in the area too and they don't unecessarily hype the technology like so many resources you find about cryptocurrencies.

rainloft8y ago

CS 251: Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies at Stanford https://crypto.stanford.edu/cs251/

panzerboy8y ago

Can this course be also followed online? If yes, how? I can see the list of lectures, but not the actual contents.

dnt404-18y ago

Did you do it via self-study? How was the experience?

pors8y ago

I agree with the recommendation of "Mastering Bitcoin".

I recently also started diving into blockchain related tech, and I blog about it here: http://decentralized.blog/

So far mostly about IPFS, but soon more on the working of the different blockchains out there.

coolandsmartrr8y ago

Thanks for your dissection of IPFS, really useful to understand! Looking forward to more

ym7058y ago

If you're interested in Ethereum Smart Contracts I wrote: http://ethereumdev.io/

sghiassy8y ago

Clearly written articles, thx!

I’m n00b in Smart Contracts but they seem like interfaces to reading/writing to a data store.

taternuts8y ago

You didn't miss anything, it's very easy to deploy a bug in a smart contract and why anyone using it for anything important should have their contracts be audited by a third party professional(s).

elsurudo8y ago

It's really just a marketing name.

corbinpage8y ago

These videos by Jordan Leigh are really great for Ethereum concepts and development.

http://decypher.tv/series/ethereum-development

mvleming8y ago

I second this. Really great videos that balance breath vs depth well and that are easily digestible. The guy is also enjoyable to listen to.

I am not associated with Jordan Leigh nor Decyper.TV in any way except as a customer.

aaron_h8y ago

ttyprintk8y ago

Mastering Bitcoin, Second Edition

https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook

hcaw8y ago

I second this, it's a very good resource. Mastering Ethereum should be out early next year too.

nikivi8y ago

For blockchains :

https://learn-anything.xyz/databases/distributed-databases/b...

For smart contracts :

https://learn-anything.xyz/distributed-computing/ethereum/sm...

musgrove8y ago

acoravos8y ago

If blockchain concepts are new for you, here are my favorite starting places to learn:

Why Bitcoin Matters (2011, NYT) - https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/01/21/why-bitcoin-matters/...

What is blockchain, really? An intro for regular people. (2017, Medium) - https://medium.com/@wen_xs/what-is-blockchain-really-an-intr...

Re: “Smart contracts” - here’s a few 101 pieces on ethereum:

A Beginner’s Guide to Ethereum (2017, Coinbase blog) - https://blog.coinbase.com/a-beginners-guide-to-ethereum-46dd...

Ethereum is the Forefront of Digital Currency (2017, Coinbase blog) - https://blog.coinbase.com/ethereum-is-the-forefront-of-digit...

Dan Romero has compiled an excellent "reading list" for digital currencies: https://medium.com/@dwr/digital-currency-reading-list-6219f1...

And here's a 101 for developing a decentralized app (dApp): https://medium.com/@AndreaCoravos/dapps-101-how-do-i-start-d...

AdrienChey8y ago

notindexed8y ago

http://lopp.net/bitcoin.html

statoshi8y ago

This is my site; I've probably spent at least 100 hours curating this list over the years :-)

earlybike8y ago

Cakez0r8y ago

The metamask testnet faucet worked for me - https://faucet.metamask.io/

earlybike8y ago

Thanks, this worked.

tree_of_item8y ago

For a test network, can't you just modify the code to give yourself however many coins you want? Why would you need to mine?

crypt1d8y ago

I assume OP is referring to the test nets which are already running publicly, not one u would run locally:

https://testnet.etherscan.io/

hdhzy8y ago

[0]: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Contract

[1]: https://curiosity-driven.org/low-level-bitcoin

[2]: https://curiosity-driven.org/bitcoin-contracts

gtrubetskoy8y ago

The O'Reilly book is good, you should also look at code in your preferred language, ideally the C++ in which Bitcoin core is written.

Once you understand all this, the smart contracts thing will be a lot clearer, and you might even have a different opinion on it.

MoBattah8y ago

....advising learning bitcoin....smart contracts...don't think these two belong in the same sentence.

Cakez0r8y ago

> For example it has its own stack-based language

You can create "smart contracts" with bitcoin.

narulakeshav8y ago

I recently created a platform that has my hand-picked resources for bitcoin, cryptocurrency, blockchain: https://symphosis.com

It has resources for other concepts like Design, UX, JavaScript, Startups, etc.

wayoflife8y ago

For explanation of both, watch this Video: https://anders.com/blockchain/ and then click on the "fork on github" link ;)

arcaster8y ago

Core blockchain dev, i.e. at a protocol level requires serious chops, not the kind of thing you can just pick up in a few months.

arkj8y ago

Check out hyperledger and solidity.

https://github.com/hyperledger/hyperledger/blob/master/hyper...

https://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/solidity/

I found this visual tutorial on blockchain helpful.

https://youtu.be/_160oMzblY8

Shrugs8y ago

[1] https://medium.com/@mattcondon/getting-up-to-speed-on-ethere...

ablaba8y ago

josheth8y ago

W3kit let’s you interact with smart contracts and deploy your own Ethereum node with ease. This way you can focus on writing and testing smart contracts and not the underlying infrastructure.

The blog also has tutorials to get you started and teach Ethereum concepts.

https://blog.w3k.it

samlewis8y ago

If you're interested in the nitty gritty of the mechanics of Bitcoin, check out my blog post: http://www.samlewis.me/2017/06/a-peek-under-bitcoins-hood/

jc1238y ago

Solid material at "stackoverflow":

https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com

https://ethereum.stackexchange.com

b0ba1lle8y ago

If you're looking for a toy implementation, I just released https://github.com/robinmonjo/coincoin

It focuses on Blockchain and Digital Transactions

dabockster8y ago

Related, how does the blockchain structure look on paper? As in a data structure? What fields does it have?

I have a project idea, but I want to build the data structure from scratch as opposed to cargo culting something on top of Ethereum.

mbrock8y ago

gkrypt8y ago

I have listed various different products, tools, and resources. If anyone is interested do checkout https://cryptostack.xyz

agreen8y ago

Intro:

1. https://medium.freecodecamp.org/explain-bitcoin-like-im-five...

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIxwTx7o_B4

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBC-nXj3Ng4

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_160oMzblY8

5. https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/244-the-quiet-master-of-...

6. http://investorfieldguide.com/hashpower/

Build Your Own Blockchain:

1. https://dev.to/aunyks/lets-build-the-tiniest-blockchain

2. https://hackernoon.com/learn-blockchains-by-building-one-117...

3. https://github.com/jamesob/tinychain

Resource List for an Advanced Understanding (Multidisciplinary Approach):

1. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UiMS4Br7LkTIRdEOPjCukOxG...

---

Additionally, here is some advice from Balaji Srinivasan (source: https://www.producthunt.com/live/balaji-s-srinivasan):

1. First, I'd master database and cryptography fundamentals, with something like Dan Boneh's course for the latter

2. Then, I'd read the Bitcoin.org and Ethereum documentation

4. After doing all this, I'd take a look at application libraries like Ryan Shea and Muneeb Ali's new blockstack.org

The reason I'd do it in this order is that you would learn fundamentals first before proceeding to the cutting edge.

felipesabino8y ago

I compiled some of the resources I used to start understanding it.

It it a bit focused on ethereum, but I guess it is useful for starting to understand blockchain and smart contracts in general regardless

---

Watching

- "GOTO 2017 • Blockchain: The Slowest (and most Fascinating) Database in the World • Stefan Tilkov” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li3rfBAP_fE

Explains how the blockchain works and walks through most of the technical terms you will need to know

- "Ethereum Vs. Bitcoin: What Sets Them Apart? | CNBC” https://youtu.be/0UBk1e5qnr4

Uses the blockchain explanation to give you an idea of how the smart contract idea differs Ethereum from Bitcoin

- "Vitalik Buterin explains Ethereum" https://youtu.be/TDGq4aeevgY

3 minute macro explanation of what is Ethereum from its inventor Vitalik Buterin

- "DEVCON1: Ethereum for Dummies - Dr. Gavin Wood” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_LK0t_qaPo

Ethereum's CTO Dr. Gavin Wood explains in a very macro way the Ethereum concept with an idea of how the “Global Computer” works and what is the “Ethereum Virtual Machine”

- Devcon2: Ethereum in 25 Minutes https://youtu.be/66SaEDzlmP4

- DEVCON1: Ethereum in the Enterprise Environment - Taylor Gerring https://youtu.be/HXNWhXuMNpw

Expose core concepts about the blockchain and the Ethereum platform that are valuable to enterprise and how companies can leverage that using web technologies

---

Reading

- Coinbase - A beginner’s guide to Ethereum https://blog.coinbase.com/a-beginners-guide-to-ethereum-46dd...

- Fat Protocols http://www.usv.com/blog/fat-protocols

- The difference between App Coins and Protocol Tokens https://blog.0xproject.com/the-difference-between-app-coins-...

- What’s the Difference Between an ‘ICO’ and a ‘Token Launch’? Coins vs. Tokens (What is a SNGLS token?) https://medium.com/@SingularDTV/whats-the-difference-between...

---

Source of links, links and more links

- /r/ethereum - getting started https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/61y5ix/welcome_to...

- The Quiet Master of Cryptocurrency — Nick Szabo (Scroll to "Selected Links from the Episode”) https://tim.blog/2017/06/04/nick-szabo/

- What The Fuck Is Ethereum? ("I am a total nerd" option) http://whatthefuckisethereum.com/#nerd

---

Extra reading

- Money, blockchains, and social scalability http://unenumerated.blogspot.com.br/2017/02/money-blockchain...

- Does your dapp need a token? https://medium.com/@simondlr/does-your-dapp-need-a-token-394...

- Ethereum documentation http://www.ethdocs.org/en/latest/index.html

- Ethereum Wiki - FAQ https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/FAQ

mbrock8y ago

Great list!

mmurthy8y ago

I started this a few months ago where you can learn smart contract development by doing projects: https://www.zastrin.com

grk8y ago

If you want to stay updated on current news, I can recommend the http://blockchainweekly.net/ newsletter.

theylon8y ago

Blockgeeks is great for beginner material and to understand the basics. https://blockgeeks.com/

swe4458y ago

Check out the blockstack stuff. They have a to-do list tutorial available. Decentralized app development is kinda an etherem vs blockstack situation right now.

tonymarks8y ago

Preethi Kasireddy has done a pretty good job with her blog: https://www.hashhack.it

thisisit8y ago

https://blockchaintechblog.com/

earlybike8y ago

Similar question: Which tutorial enables me to write and deploy my first smart contract in Solidity within 120 minutes?

tommynicholas8y ago

http://truffleframework.com/tutorials/

Not sure the Ethereum network can even deploy in 120 minutes these days, but you'll certainly have it built in that time :)

dvcoolster8y ago

I loved Decypher.tv for getting going with Ethereum Smart Contracts as well as other requirements for a complete DApp

coralreef8y ago

Seems expensive, currently $60 USD. Worth it?

gnazarkin8y ago

Yep. I went through all of them and they are great

harrisreynolds8y ago

We recently launched a site to help people go from zero to hero with Blockchain technology. Feel free to sign up for the weekly newsletter here:

http://www.theblockchainhq.com/newsletter/

We plan on covering "Getting started with Blockchain development" very soon as there it still an opportunity here to make this much easier.

markatkinson8y ago

Might be worth learning about DAG, Tangle and IOTA too, here is their latest whitepaper: https://iota.org/IOTA_Whitepaper.pdf

andrewfromx8y ago

shameless plug, but walk thru this example: https://simplecoin.life/ico

MoBattah8y ago

Does this end after /ico12?

andrewfromx8y ago

yeah, it's not finished. Working on https://github.com/andrewarrow/simplecoin.life code and then I'll fix the rest of the site

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thebestia298y ago

It will be excellent to learn of that subject would be fabulous, if they had tutorials or videos pass lin link would be a good contribution

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