BUSINESS105 – Mastering Bitcoin.pdf – Mastering Bitcoin SECOND EDITION Programming the Open Blockchain Andreas M. Antonopoulos *ebook converter DEMO | Course Hero

Unformatted text preview: Mastering Bitcoin
SECOND EDITION
Programming the Open Blockchain Andreas M. Antonopoulos ******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks******* Mastering Bitcoin
by Andreas M. Antonopoulos
Copyright © 2017 Andreas M. Antonopoulos, LLC. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
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June 2017: Second Edition ******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks******* Revision History for the Second Edition
2017-06-01: First Release
2017-07-21: Second Release
See for release
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978-1-491-95438-6
[LSI] ******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks******* Dedicated to my mum, Theresa (1946–2017)
She taught me to love books and question authority
Thank you, mum ******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks******* Preface ******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks******* Writing the Bitcoin Book
I first stumbled upon bitcoin in mid-2011. My immediate reaction was more
or less “Pfft! Nerd money!” and I ignored it for another six months, failing to
grasp its importance. This is a reaction that I have seen repeated among many
of the smartest people I know, which gives me some consolation. The second
time I came across bitcoin, in a mailing list discussion, I decided to read the
whitepaper written by Satoshi Nakamoto to study the authoritative source and
see what it was all about. I still remember the moment I finished reading
those nine pages, when I realized that bitcoin was not simply a digital
currency, but a network of trust that could also provide the basis for so much
more than just currencies. The realization that “this isn’t money, it’s a
decentralized trust network,” started me on a four-month journey to devour
every scrap of information about bitcoin I could find. I became obsessed and
enthralled, spending 12 or more hours each day glued to a screen, reading,
writing, coding, and learning as much as I could. I emerged from this state of
fugue, more than 20 pounds lighter from lack of consistent meals, determined
to dedicate myself to working on bitcoin.
Two years later, after creating a number of small startups to explore various
bitcoin-related services and products, I decided that it was time to write my
first book. Bitcoin was the topic that had driven me into a frenzy of creativity
and consumed my thoughts; it was the most exciting technology I had
encountered since the internet. It was now time to share my passion about
this amazing technology with a broader audience. ******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks******* Intended Audience
This book is mostly intended for coders. If you can use a programming
language, this book will teach you how cryptographic currencies work, how
to use them, and how to develop software that works with them. The first few
chapters are also suitable as an in-depth introduction to bitcoin for noncoders
— those trying to understand the inner workings of bitcoin and
cryptocurrencies. ******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks******* Why Are There Bugs on the Cover?
The leafcutter ant is a species that exhibits highly complex behavior in a
colony super-organism, but each individual ant operates on a set of simple
rules driven by social interaction and the exchange of chemical scents
(pheromones). Per Wikipedia: “Next to humans, leafcutter ants form the
largest and most complex animal societies on Earth.” Leafcutter ants don’t
actually eat leaves, but rather use them to farm a fungus, which is the central
food source for the colony. Get that? These ants are farming!
Although ants form a caste-based society and have a queen for producing
offspring, there is no central authority or leader in an ant colony. The highly
intelligent and sophisticated behavior exhibited by a multimillion-member
colony is an emergent property from the interaction of the individuals in a
social network.
Nature demonstrates that decentralized systems can be resilient and can
produce emergent complexity and incredible sophistication without the need
for a central authority, hierarchy, or complex parts.
Bitcoin is a highly sophisticated decentralized trust network that can support
myriad financial processes. Yet, each node in the bitcoin network follows a
few simple mathematical rules. The interaction between many nodes is what
leads to the emergence of the sophisticated behavior, not any inherent
complexity or trust in any single node. Like an ant colony, the bitcoin
network is a resilient network of simple nodes following simple rules that
together can do amazing things without any central coordination. ******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks******* 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 by
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. ******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks******* ******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks******* Code Examples
The examples are illustrated in Python, C++, and using the command line of
a Unix-like operating system such as Linux or macOS. All code snippets are
available in the Github repository
( ) in the code subdirectory of the
main repo. Fork the book code, try the code examples, or submit corrections
via GitHub.
All the code snippets can be replicated on most operating systems with a
minimal installation of compilers and interpreters for the corresponding
languages. Where necessary, we provide basic installation instructions and
step-by-step examples of the output of those instructions.
Some of the code snippets and code output have been reformatted for print.
In all such cases, the lines have been split by a backslash (\) character,
followed by a newline character. When transcribing the examples, remove
those two characters and join the lines again and you should see identical
results as shown in the example.
All the code snippets use real values and calculations where possible, so that
you can build from example to example and see the same results in any code
you write to calculate the same values. For example, the private keys and
corresponding public keys and addresses are all real. The sample
transactions, blocks, and blockchain references have all been introduced in
the actual bitcoin blockchain and are part of the public ledger, so you can
review them on any bitcoin system. ******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks******* Using Code Examples
This book is here to help you get your job done. In general, if example code
is offered with this book, you may use it in your programs and
documentation. You do not need to contact us for permission unless you’re
reproducing a significant portion of the code. For example, writing a program
that uses several chunks of code from this book does not require permission.
Selling or distributing a CD-ROM of examples from O’Reilly books does
require permission. Answering a question by citing this book and quoting
example code does not require permission. Incorporating a significant
amount of example code from this book into your product’s documentation
does require permission.
We appreciate, but do not require, attribution. An attribution usually includes
the title, author, publisher, and ISBN. For example: “Mastering Bitcoin by
Andreas M. Antonopoulos (O’Reilly). Copyright 2017 Andreas M.
Antonopoulos, 978-1-491-95438-6.”
Some editions of this book are offered under an open source license, such as
CC-BY-NC, in which case the terms of that license apply.
If you feel your use of code examples falls outside fair use or the permission
given above, feel free to contact us at [email protected] ******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks******* Bitcoin Addresses and Transactions in This Book
The bitcoin addresses, transactions, keys, QR codes, and blockchain data
used in this book are, for the most part, real. That means you can browse the
blockchain, look at the transactions offered as examples, retrieve them with
your own scripts or programs, etc.
However, note that the private keys used to construct addresses are either
printed in this book, or have been “burned.” That means that if you send
money to any of these addresses, the money will either be lost forever, or in
some cases everyone who can read the book can take it using the private keys
printed in here. WARNING
DO NOT SEND MONEY TO ANY OF THE ADDRESSES IN THIS BOOK. Your
money will be taken by another reader, or lost forever. ******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks******* O’Reilly Safari
NOTE
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For more information, please visit . ******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks******* How to Contact Us
Please address comments and questions concerning this book to the
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Watch us on YouTube: ******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks******* Contacting the Author
You can contact me, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, on my personal site:

Information about Mastering Bitcoin as well as the Open Edition and
translations are available on:
Follow me on Facebook:
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Many thanks to all my patrons who support my work through monthly
donations. You can follow my Patreon page here:
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks******* Acknowledgments
This book represents the efforts and contributions of many people. I am
grateful for all the help I received from friends, colleagues, and even
complete strangers, who joined me in this effort to write the definitive
technical book on cryptocurrencies and bitcoin.
It is impossible to make a distinction between the bitcoin technology and the
bitcoin community, and this book is as much a product of that community as
it is a book on the technology. My work on this book was encouraged,
cheered on, supported, and rewarded by the entire bitcoin community from
the very beginning until the very end. More than anything, this book has
allowed me to be part of a wonderful community for two years and I can’t
thank you enough for accepting me into this community. There are far too
many people to mention by name — people I’ve met at conferences, events,
seminars, meetups, pizza gatherings, and small private gatherings, as well as
many who communicated with me by Twitter, on reddit, on bitcointalk.org,
and on GitHub who have had an impact on this book. Every idea, analogy,
question, answer, and explanation you find in this book was at some point
inspired, tested, or improved through my interactions with the community.
Thank you all for your support; without you this book would not have
happened. I am forever grateful.
The journey to becoming an author starts long before the first book, of
course. My first language (and schooling) was Greek, so I had to take a
remedial English writing course in my first year of university. I owe thanks to
Diana Kordas, my English writing teacher, who helped me build confidence
and skills that year. Later, as a professional, I developed my technical writing
skills on the topic of data centers, writing for Network World magazine. I owe
thanks to John Dix and John Gallant, who gave me my first writing job as a
columnist at Network World and to my editor Michael Cooney and my
colleague Johna Till Johnson who edited my columns and made them fit for
publication. Writing 500 words a week for four years gave me enough
experience to eventually consider becoming an author.
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks******* Thanks also to those who supported me when I submitted my book proposal
to O’Reilly, by providing references and reviewing the proposal. Specifically,
thanks to John Gallant, Gregory Ness, Richard Stiennon, Joel Snyder, Adam
B. Levine, Sandra Gittlen, John Dix, Johna Till Johnson, Roger Ver, and Jon
Matonis. Special thanks to Richard Kagan and Tymon Mattoszko, who
reviewed early versions of the proposal and Matthew Taylor, who copyedited
the proposal.
Thanks to Cricket Liu, author of the O’Reilly title DNS and BIND, who
introduced me to O’Reilly. Thanks also to Michael Loukides and Allyson
MacDonald at O’Reilly, who worked for months to help make this book
happen. Allyson was especially patient when deadlines were missed and
deliverables delayed as life intervened in our planned schedule. For the
second edition, I thank Timothy McGovern for guiding the process, Kim
Cofer for patiently editing, and Rebecca Panzer for illustrating many new
diagrams.
The first few drafts of the first few chapters were the hardest, because bitcoin
is a difficult subject to unravel. Every time I pulled on one thread of the
bitcoin technology, I had to pull on the whole thing. I repeatedly got stuck
and a bit despondent as I struggled to make the topic easy to understand and
create a narrative around such a dense technical subject. Eventually, I decided
to tell the story of bitcoin through the stories of the people using bitcoin and
the whole book became a lot easier to write. I owe thanks to my friend and
mentor, Richard Kagan, who helped me unravel the story and get past the
moments of writer’s block. I thank Pamela Morgan, who reviewed early
drafts of each chapter in the first and second edition of the book, and asked
the hard questions to make them better. Also, thanks to the developers of the
San Francisco Bitcoin Developers Meetup group as well as Taariq Lewis and
Denise Terry for helping test the early material. Thanks also to Andrew
Naugler for infographic design.
During the development of the book, I made early drafts available on GitHub
and invited public comments. More than a hundred comments, suggestions,
corrections, and contributions were submitted in response. Those
contributions are explicitly acknowledged, with my thanks, in “Early Release
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks******* Draft (GitHub Contributions)”. Most of all, my sincere thanks to my
volunteer GitHub editors Ming T. Nguyen (1st edition) and Will Binns (2nd
edition), who worked tirelessly to curate, manage and resolve pull requests,
issue reports, and perform bug fixes on GitHub.
Once the book was drafted, it went through several rounds of technical
review. Thanks to Cricket Liu and Lorne Lantz for their thorough review,
comments, and support.
Several bitcoin developers contributed code samples, reviews, comments, and
encouragement. Thanks to Amir Taaki and Eric Voskuil for example code
snippets and many great comments; Chris Kleeschulte for contributing the
Bitcore appendix; Vitalik Buterin and Richard Kiss for help with elliptic
curve math and code contributions; Gavin Andresen for corrections,
comments, and encouragement; Michalis Kargakis for comments,
contributions, and btcd writeup; and Robin Inge for errata submissions
improving the second print. In the second edition, I again received a lot of
help from many Bitcoin Core developers, including Eric Lombrozo who
demystified Segregated Witness, Luke Dashjr who helped improve the
chapter on transactions, Johnson Lau who reviewed Segregated Witness and
other chapters, and many others. I owe thanks to Joseph Poon, Tadge Dryja,
and Olaoluwa Osuntokun who explained Lightning Network, reviewed my
writing, and answered questions when I got stuck.
I owe my love of words and books to my mother, Theresa, who raised me in
a house with books lining every wall. My mother also bought me my first
computer in 1982, despite being a self-described technophobe. My father,
Menelaos, a civil engineer who just published his first book at 80 years old,
was the one who taught me logical and analytical thinking and a love of
science and engineering.
Thank you all for supporting me throughout this journey. ******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks******* Early Release Draft (GitHub Contributions)
Many contributors offered comments, corrections, and additions to the earlyrelease draft on GitHub. Thank you all for your contributions to this book.
Following is a list of notable GitHub contributors, including their GitHub ID
in parentheses:
Alex Waters (alexwaters)
Andrew Donald Kennedy (grkvlt)
bitcoinctf
Bryan Gmyrek (physicsdude)
Casey Flynn (cflynn07)
Chapman Shoop (belovachap)
Christie D’Anna (avocadobreath)
Cody Scott (Siecje)
coinradar
Cragin Godley (cgodley)
dallyshalla
Diego Viola (diegoviola)
Dirk Jäckel (biafra23)
Dimitris Tsapakidis (dimitris-t)
Dmitry Marakasov (AMDmi3)
drstrangeM
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks******* Ed Eykholt (edeykholt)
Ed Leafe (EdLeafe)
Edward Posnak (edposnak)
Elias Rodrigues (elias19r)
Eric Voskuil (evoskuil)
Eric Winchell (winchell)
Erik Wahlström (erikwam)
effectsToCause (vericoin)
Esteban Ordano (eordano)
ethers
fabienhinault
Frank Höger (francyi)
Gaurav Rana (bitcoinsSG)
genjix
halseth
Holger Schinzel (schinzelh)
Ioannis Cherouvim (cherouvim)
Ish Ot Jr. (ishotjr)
James Addison (jayaddison)
Jameson Lopp (jlopp)
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks******* Jason Bisterfeldt (jbisterfeldt)
Javier Rojas (fjrojasgarcia)
Jeremy Bokobza (bokobza)
JerJohn15
Joe Bauers (joebauers)
joflynn
Johnson Lau (jl2012)
Jonathan Cross (jonathancross)
Jorgeminator
Kai Bakker (kaibakker)
Mai-Hsuan Chia (mhchia)
Marzig (marzig76)
Maximilian Reichel (phramz)
Michalis Kargakis (kargakis)
Michael C. Ippolito (michaelcippolito)
Mihail Russu (MihailRussu)
Minh T. Nguyen…

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