Blockchain Architecture

Prerequisites:

There are no prerequisites for this course.

Target Audience:

Technical leaders who need to make decisions about architecture, environment, and development platforms

Course Objectives:

The class covers the following topics:

• What is Blockchain
• How does Blockchain work
• Types of Blockchains
• How is Blockchain different from what we have today
• What are use cases for Blockchain
• What does a Blockchain app look like
• How do I design a Blockchain app
• How do I develop a Blockchain app
• How do I test a Blockchain app

Course Outline:

What is Blockchain?

• A record keeping system
• Trust
• Decentralization
• Trustless environment

How does Blockchain work?

• Announcements
• Blocks
• Nodes
• Chaining
• Verification
• Consensus
• Scalability
• Privacy
• Crypto Hashing
• Digital Fingerprinting
• PoW vs PoS

Types of Blockchains

• Public vs Private
• Open vs closed
• Smart Contracts
• Blockchain as History
• Tokens / Coins
• Gas

How is Blockchain different from what we have today?

• Decentralized
• Peer-to-peer architecture
• Software vs Firmware
• Database vs Blockchain
• Distributed database or other technology?
• Data Sovereignty
• Group Consensus
• What are Use Cases for Blockchain?
• Use Case Examples
  • Currency
  • Banking Services
  • Voting
  • Medical Records
  • Supply Chain / Value Chain
  • Content Distribution
  • Verification of Software Updates (cars, planes, trains, etc)
  • Law Enforcement
  • Title and Ownership Records
  • Social Media and Online Credibility
  • Fractional asset ownership
  • Cable Television billing
• High fault tolerance
• DDoS-proof
• Public or Private Blockchain?
• Who are the participants?

What does a Blockchain app look like?

• DApp
• Resembles typical full stack web application
• Any internal state changes and all transactions are written to the blockchain
• Node.js
• IDE
• Public Blockchain visibility
• Private Blockchain solutions
• Oracles

How do I design a Blockchain app?

• What does this solution need to let users do?
• Will the proposed solution reduce or remove the problems and pain points currently felt by users?
• What should this solution prevent users from doing?
• Do you need a solution ready for heavy use on day 1?
• Is your solution idea enhanced by the use of Blockchain? Does the use of Blockchain create a better end-user experience? If so, how?
• Has your business developed custom software solutions before?
• What level of support are you going to need?
• How big is the developer community?
• Does your vision of the future align with the project or platform's vision of the future?
• Does the platform aim to make new and significant contributions to the development space, or is it an efficiency / cost play?
• Should the solution be a public or private Blockchain?
• Should the solution be an open or closed Blockchain?
• Create a plan for contract updates and changes!
• Hybrid solutions
• Monetary exchanges?

How do I develop a Blockchain app?

• AGILE approach pre-release
• Define guiding principles up front
• Software vs Firmware
• Announcements, not transactions!
• Classes, not contracts
• Link contracts to share functions
• Use calling contracts to keep contract address the same
• Hyperledger vs Ethereum
• CONSIDER No of Users * Avg No of Transactions (state changes) per User
• Should a Blockless solution be applied?
• Performance
• Security
• Anonymity
• Security
• Monolithic vs Modular
• Sandwich complexity model

How do I test a Blockchain app?

• Recommend 5x to 10x traditional application testing time
• SECURITY is #1!
• Networks (Ethereum)