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Ask HN: Resources to learn blockchain and smart contracts?

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Re: Ask HN: Resources to learn blockchain and smart contracts?

#41

Post by indigochill »

throwaway613834 wrote: post #39

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".

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).

Re: Ask HN: Resources to learn blockchain and smart contracts?

#42

Post by acoravos »

throwaway613834 wrote: post #39

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".

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.

Re: Ask HN: Resources to learn blockchain and smart contracts?

#44

Post by y7 »

indigochill wrote: post #41
throwaway613834 wrote: post #39

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".

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…

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).

Re: Ask HN: Resources to learn blockchain and smart contracts?

#45

Post by throwaway613834 »

indigochill wrote: post #41
throwaway613834 wrote: post #39

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".

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…

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?)

Re: Ask HN: Resources to learn blockchain and smart contracts?

#46

Post by throwaway613834 »

acoravos wrote: post #42
throwaway613834 wrote: post #39

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".

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.

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.

Re: Ask HN: Resources to learn blockchain and smart contracts?

#47

Post by gtrubetskoy »

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.

Re: Ask HN: Resources to learn blockchain and smart contracts?

#49

Post by aaron_h »

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.

Re: Ask HN: Resources to learn blockchain and smart contracts?

#50

Post by MoBattah »

gtrubetskoy wrote: post #47

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 B…

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