Mastering Ethereum: Building Smart Contracts and Dapps

777 Pages·2018·6.68 MB·English

by  Andreas M Antonopoulos

Praise for Mastering Ethereum
“Mastering Ethereum is a fantastically thorough guide, from basics to state-
of-the-art practices in smart contract programming, by two of the most
eloquent blockchain educators.”
Manuel Araoz, CTO, Zeppelin
Mastering Bitcoin is the canonical reference that made Bitcoin and
blockchain technology accessible to a broad audience, and Mastering
Ethereum does the same for the Ethereum world computer.
Lane Rettig, Ethereum core developer
“Mastering Ethereum is the absolute best book to read if you’re ready to
build your own DApp! Andreas and Gavin have put together a
comprehensive guide for anyone interested in the decentralized web and
how to build decentralized applications.”
Taylor Gerring, Executive Director, Blockchain Institute
“I had the privilege of having access to Andreas’ and Gav’s book Mastering
Ethereum, and I have to say I’m amazed at its breadth, scope, and
accessibility. It has it all: a deep history of Ethereum, explanations of
elliptical curve mathematics, solidity tutorials, and legal debates on utility
tokens and ICOs. It’s deep enough that it can be used as a whole syllabus of
reference material, yet it’s accessible enough that anyone who is merely
math-curious can understand. After reading a few chapters on the topic, I
feel I have a much more solid understanding of many of the underlying
cryptographic primitives. If you’re a researcher, a developer, a manager, a
lawyer, a student, or anyone curious about where the future of tech is going,
I highly recommend having Mastering Ethereum on your shelf.”
Alex Van de Sande, designer, Ethereum Foundation
“Mastering Ethereum will become a must-read in the future, as Ethereum is
going to be as ubiquitous as TCP/IP. It will become a necessary layer under
which decentralized, trustless technologies live and thrive.”
Hudson Jameson, Community Organizer, Ethereum Foundation
“Mastering Ethereum is the perfect book for anyone who wants to learn
more about Ethereum, whether you’re looking to test the waters or dive
straight into the deep end. Between Gavin Wood’s technical knowledge of
Ethereum’s inner workings and Andreas Antonopoulos’ ability to make
complex subjects approachable, you get the best of both worlds with this
book. I only wish it had been around when I first started diving into
Ethereum.”
Taylor Monahan, Founder and CEO of MyCrypto
Mastering Ethereum
Building Smart Contracts and DApps
Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Dr. Gavin Wood
Mastering Ethereum
by Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Dr. Gavin Wood Copyright © 2019 The
Ethereum Book LLC, Gavin Wood. All rights reserved.
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December 2018: First Edition
Revision History for the First Edition
2018-11-13: First Release
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Ethereum, the cover image, and related trade dress are trademarks of O’Reilly
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Mastering Ethereum is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-
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ND 4.0). The author maintains an online version at
https://github.com/ethereumbook/ethereumbook.
978-1-49197194-9
[LSI]
Preface
This book is a collaboration between Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Dr. Gavin
Wood. A series of fortunate coincidences brought these two authors together in
an effort that galvanized hundreds of contributors to produce this book, in the
best spirit of open source and the creative commons culture.
Gavin had been wishing to write a book that expanded on the Yellow Paper (his
technical description of the Ethereum protocol) for some time, primarily to open
it up to a wider audience than the original Greek-letter-infused document could
possibly allow.
Plans were underway — a publisher had been found — when Gavin got talking
to Andreas, whom he had known from the very beginning of his tenure with
Ethereum as a notable personality in the space.
Andreas had recently published the first edition of his book Mastering Bitcoin
(O’Reilly), which quickly became the authoritative technical guide to Bitcoin
and cryptocurrencies. Almost as soon as the book was published, his readers
started asking him, “When will you write Mastering Ethereum?” Andreas was
already considering his next project and found Ethereum to be a compelling
technical subject.
Finally, in May 2016, Gavin and Andreas were both coincidentally in the same
city at the same time. They met up for a coffee to chat about working on the
book together. With both Andreas and Gavin being devotees of the open source
paradigm, they both committed to making this a collaborative effort, released
under a Creative Commons license. Thankfully, the publisher, O’Reilly Media,
was happy to agree, and the Mastering Ethereum project was officially launched.
How to Use This Book
The book is intended to serve both as a reference manual and as a cover-to-cover
exploration of Ethereum. The first two chapters offer a gentle introduction,
suitable for novice users, and the examples in those chapters can be completed
by anyone with a bit of technical skill. Those two chapters will give you a good
grasp of the basics and allow you to use the fundamental tools of Ethereum.
Chapter 3 and beyond are intended mainly for programmers and include many
technical topics and programming examples.
To serve as both a reference manual and a cover-to-cover narrative about
Ethereum, the book inevitably contains some duplication. Some topics, such as
gas, have to be introduced early enough for the rest of the topics to make sense,
but are also examined in depth in their own sections.
Finally, the book’s index allows readers to find very specific topics and the
relevant sections with ease, by keyword.
Intended Audience
This book is mostly intended for coders. If you can use a programming
language, this book will teach you how smart contract blockchains work, how to
use them, and how to develop smart contracts and decentralized applications
with them. The first few chapters are also suitable as an in-depth introduction to
Ethereum for noncoders.
Conventions Used in This Book
The following typographical conventions are used in this book: Italic
Indicates new terms, URLs, email addresses, filenames, and file
extensions.
Constant width
Used for program listings, as well as within paragraphs to refer to
program elements such as variable or function names, databases, data
types, environment variables, statements, and keywords.
Constant width bold
Shows commands or other text that should be typed literally by the
user.
Constant width italic
Shows text that should be replaced with user-supplied values or values
determined by context.
TIP
This icon signifies a tip or suggestion.
NOTE
This icon signifies a general note.
WARNING
This icon indicates a warning or caution.