The Science of the Blockchain 1st Edition

Wow - this is a terrific book for people with a deep background in computer science. The book is a gem describing the process of state replication problem between distributed computers which underlies the FinTech implementation of blockchain. The chapters include Fault-Tolerance, Consensus, Byzantine Agreement, Authenticated Agreement, Quorum Systems, Eventual Consistency & Bitcoin and Distributed Storage.

This book is modest in size, some 110 pages of text. But it's going to be very tough going for anyone without a solid background in mathematics (such as the commonly used symbols in set theory and logic), and the computer science of distributed systems.It's a mix of writing done in a casual style, that can be a bit careless about precision and completeness, intermingled with classically formatted Definitions, Algorithms, Theorems and Lemmas, where the Algorithms are a written in an Algol-like pseudo-computer language, sometimes missing key little details such as how some variable gets initialized or what means what.The reader should be comfortable with such mathematical symbols as those for subset, set membership, union, intersection, universal and existential quantifiers, power set (the number "2" followed by a superscript such as for example "V" would denote the set of all subsets of "V"), empty set, and so forth.The book covers various state replication algorithms. These algorithms enable multiple communicating nodes to come to a common agreement on some shared state, with some provable degree of tolerance for nodes failing or lying.The main chapter headers are:- Fault-Tolerance and Paxos- Consensus- Byzantine Agreement- Authenticated Agreement- Quorum Systems- Eventual Consistency and Bitcoin- Distributed Storage

This is an excellent book. Whilst a bit terse, it progressively builds and illustrates a good solid Mathematical framework to the Blockchain and manages to condense it all down into a reasonable size avoiding all the fluff and hot air that normally accompanies most other books on this subject. The book also provides good potted histories at the end of each chapter, listing the references to the key academic papers for further reading into the key concepts described.

Very helpful and clear in providing understanding some of the key elements of Blockchain. Assumes some understanding of the overall operation of Blockchain implementations, requiring colateral references.

Mediocre at best. way too pricy. Hands off

When I started going over this book, I was completely disappointed but as I spent more time, I thought it has some nuggets and is worth a couple of lattes at Starbucks. I would not call this a book but rather notes taken by student in a class. It is a collection of algorithms - with notes and explanation. But on a positive note, it may not be a bad idea to get introduced to these algorithms at one place. If you have not encountered these algorithms in your computer science course, you may need to supplement your reading with a few google searches.I bought the Kindle edition and it is terrible. The kindle book is nothing but a PDF viewer (even worse that that - on a desktop, you cannot even view TOC on the side - terrible.

Good CS introduction to blockchain. Be warned though, it is verbose and not the right book if you're not looking for something dry but formal.

It is not detail enough and some topics are lack of example, but for beginners, it i good enough for picking up at least the keywords