Search icon CANCEL
Subscription
0
Cart icon
Your Cart (0 item)
Close icon
You have no products in your basket yet
Arrow left icon
Explore Products
Best Sellers
New Releases
Books
Videos
Audiobooks
Learning Hub
Free Learning
Arrow right icon
Arrow up icon
GO TO TOP
Mastering Blockchain

You're reading from   Mastering Blockchain A deep dive into distributed ledgers, consensus protocols, smart contracts, DApps, cryptocurrencies, Ethereum, and more

Arrow left icon
Product type Paperback
Published in Aug 2020
Publisher Packt
ISBN-13 9781839213199
Length 816 pages
Edition 3rd Edition
Languages
Concepts
Arrow right icon
Author (1):
Arrow left icon
Imran Bashir Imran Bashir
Author Profile Icon Imran Bashir
Imran Bashir
Arrow right icon
View More author details
Toc

Table of Contents (24) Chapters Close

Preface 1. Blockchain 101 2. Decentralization FREE CHAPTER 3. Symmetric Cryptography 4. Public Key Cryptography 5. Consensus Algorithms 6. Introducing Bitcoin 7. The Bitcoin Network and Payments 8. Bitcoin Clients and APIs 9. Alternative Coins 10. Smart Contracts 11. Ethereum 101 12. Further Ethereum 13. Ethereum Development Environment 14. Development Tools and Frameworks 15. Introducing Web3 16. Serenity 17. Hyperledger 18. Tokenization 19. Blockchain – Outside of Currencies 20. Enterprise Blockchain 21. Scalability and Other Challenges 22. Current Landscape and What's Next 23. Index

Definition

There are many definitions of smart contracts. An online search reveals many definitions. However, while the definitions provided online at various sources are correct and useful, in my opinion, they are not complete. It is crucial to properly and completely define what a smart contract is. The following is my attempt to provide a comprehensive generalized definition of a smart contract:

A smart contract is a secure and unstoppable computer program representing an agreement that is automatically executable and enforceable.

Dissecting this definition reveals that a smart contract is, fundamentally, a computer program that is written in a language that a computer or target machine can understand. Also, it encompasses agreements between parties in the form of business logic. Another fundamental idea is that smart contracts are automatically executed according to the instruction that is coded in, for example, when certain conditions satisfy. They are enforceable...

lock icon The rest of the chapter is locked
Register for a free Packt account to unlock a world of extra content!
A free Packt account unlocks extra newsletters, articles, discounted offers, and much more. Start advancing your knowledge today.
Unlock this book and the full library FREE for 7 days
Get unlimited access to 7000+ expert-authored eBooks and videos courses covering every tech area you can think of
Renews at $19.99/month. Cancel anytime
Banner background image