From Traditional Fault Tolerance to Blockchain - Hardcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Dr. Zhao received the PhD degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 2002. He is now a Full Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Cleveland State University. He has more than 200 academic publications and three of his recent research papers in the dependable distributed computing area have won the best paper awards. Dr. Zhao also has two US utility patents and a patent application on blockchain under review.

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A critical book that reveals important features of the blockchain technology

The book covers the most essential techniques for designing and building dependable distributed systems, from traditional fault tolerance to the blockchain technology. Topics include checkpointing and logging, recovery-orientated computing, replication, distributed consensus, Byzantine fault tolerance, as well as blockchain.

It intentionally includes traditional fault tolerance techniques so that readers can appreciate better the huge benefits brought by the blockchain technology and why it has been touted as a disruptive technology, some people even rank it at the same level of the Internet. The book also expresses a grave concern over using traditional consensus algorithms in blockchain because the primary benefits of using blockchain, such as decentralization and immutability, could be lost under cyberattacks.

This groundbreaking book:

• Elaborates why blockchain consensus algorithms are transformational in solving the distributed consensus problem;
• Provides a detailed explanation on how Bitcoin and Ethereum Proof-of-Work consensus algorithms work;
• Presents a critical look on the current state of Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithms and provides a much needed document on the first practical implementation of the Proof-of-Stake algorithm used in PeerCoin;
• Formulates a taxonomy on blockchain benefits, identified key operations in applications that could benefit from using blockchain;
• Introduces the foundation for dependent distributed computing so that one could appreciate the impact of the blockchain technology.

Audience

Software developers and researchers who work with blockchain technology and those who wish to develop secure and dependable systems.