Blockchain Enabled Applications: Understand the Blockchain Ecosystem and How to Make it Work for You

Vikram Dhillon · David Metcalf · Max Hooper

Nov 2017 · Apress

About this ebook

Work with blockchain and understand its potential application beyond cryptocurrencies in the domains of healthcare, Internet of Things, finance, decentralized organizations, and open science. Featuring case studies and practical insights generated from a start-up spun off from the author’s own lab, this book covers a unique mix of topics not found in others and offers insight into how to overcome real hurdles that arise as the market and consumers grow accustomed to blockchain based start-ups. You'll start with a review of the historical origins of blockchain and explore the basic cryptography needed to make the blockchain work for Bitcoin. You will then learn about the technical advancements made in the surrounded ecosystem: the Ethereum virtual machine, Solidity, Colored Coins, the Hyperledger Project, Blockchain-as-a-service offered through IBM, Microsoft and more.

This book looks at the consequences of machine-to-machine transactions using the blockchain socially, technologically, economically and politically. Blockchain Enabled Applications provides you with a clear perspective of the ecosystem that has developed around the blockchain and the various industries it has penetrated.

What You’ll Learn

• Implement the code-base from Fabric and Sawtooth, two open source blockchain-efforts being developed under the Hyperledger Project
  
• Evaluate the benefits of integrating blockchain with emerging technologies, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence in the cloud
• Use the practical insights provided by the case studies to your own projects or start-up ideas
• Set up a development environment to compile and manage projects

Who This Book Is For

Developers who are interested in learning about the blockchain as a data-structure, the recent advancements being made and how to implement the code-base.

Decision makers within large corporations (product managers, directors or CIO level executives) interested in implementing the blockchain who need more practical insights and not just theory.

About the author

Vikram Dhillon is currently a research fellow in the Institute of Simulation and Training at University of Central Florida. He recently wrote Creating Blogs with Jekyll with Apress. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Central Florida, where his main focus was bioinformatics. He has published a few scientific papers on computational genomics. He has worked as a software and business development coach at the Blackstone Launchpad to mentor young entrepreneurs and startups through the process of building technology products. He was previously funded by the National Science Foundation through the Innovation Corps program to study customer discovery and apply it to commercialize high-risk startup ideas. He is a member of the Linux Foundation and has been very involved in open source projects and initiatives for the past several years. He often speaks at local conferences and meetups about programming, design, security, and entrepreneurship. He currently lives in Orlando and writes a technology-focused blog at opsbug.com

David Metcalf has more than 20 years experience in the design and research of web-based and mobile technologies converging to enable learning and healthcare. Dr. Metcalf is Director of the Mixed Emerging Technology Integration Lab (METIL) at UCF's Institute for Simulation and Training. The team has built mHealth solutions, simulations, games, eLearning, mobile and enterprise IT systems for Google, J&J, VA, U.S. military and UCF's College of Medicine among others. He is the co-editor/author of Connected Health (2017), HIMSS mHealth Innovation (2014) and the HIMSS Books best-seller mHealth: From Smartphones to Smart Systems (2012).

Max Hooper is the chief executive officer of Merging Traffic. He is responsible for the company’s management and growth strategy serving as the corporate liaison to the financial services industry and various capital formation groups.Prior to starting the company, Max was co-founder of Equity Broadcasting Corporation (EBC), a media company that owned and operated more than 100 television stations across the United States. Max was responsible for activities in the cable, satellite, investment banking and technology industries and during his tenure, it grew to become one of the top 10 largest broadcasting companies in the country.