Guidelines for learning Blockchain

As a beginner, while starting learning something new everyone is having a question in mind, “How to get started?”. When I started learning Blockchain I was in the same situation. So I want to share my journey of BLOCKCHAIN with you, by this, every technical worm who is interested in learning new technologies will get an idea about this trending technology. 

Blockchain is a Decentralised public distributed ledger system in which no third party is involved when there is a matter of transactions. The transaction can be of any type whether it is of cryptocurrencies, digital documents, etc. We can imagine Blockchain similar to the Internet which is open to all, everyone can do work of their own choice but can not alter the works of the others. Unlike this blockchain data is immutable. 

We can also assume blockchain is like a chain of the block that can be append-only, and each block consists of certain content which is data, the previous block’s hash, and it’s hash. The previous block’s hash and Distributed public ledger system are important for maintaining the security of the blockchain. Suppose someone wants to tamper with the records of the blockchain by changing the value of the transaction the hash of that block will change, for catching the culprit the calculation of the hash will be helpful by some hashing algorithm and all the other blocks become invalid because DLT allows a copy of all the transactions for everyone who is involved in the blockchain. 

Terms for understanding Blockchain Technology:

There are many new phrases that you will encounter when you will start learning Blockchain, 

1. Genesis Block: The genesis block is the first block of the blockchain which is having the hash value ‘0’ in the previous block’s hash. 
   This block is coded by the developer manually so that all extended nodes got the idea of working on the  blockchain 
   and its pattern. 
   
2. Hash Function: If you are from an IT background so you will have a little bit of idea about, what is a hash or hash function? and if you 
   are not from this field, so no need to worry, Hash function is a function used to map the data in a fixed size 
   the value which is a combination of alpha numeric values. 
   
3. Distributed Ledger Technology: In simple words, we can understand a single database that is accessible to all the nodes of the blockchain but no one can change the content of the block, everyone is having a copy of all transactions of a blockchain but not 
   having a right to alter the transaction details, that is Distributed ledger which is used by blockchain for 
   maintaining trust and security. 
   
4. Merkel Tree: Merkel tree is a data structure that is used for storing the hash of the block. It is used in the Bitcoin blockchain 
   as well as in Ethereum blockchain for efficient data verification. Merkel root is the hash of all 
   transactions of a particular block. 

Consensus Algorithm: Before putting any transaction into the blockchain or adding any block into the chain, verification is needed which is possible with help of certain protocols called consensus algorithms. Bitcoin Blockchain uses PoW i.e. “Proof of Work” as its consensus algorithm and PoS “Proof of Stack” for Ethereum Blockchain. 

There are many more terms related to Blockchain Technology. Once you will dive into the river of blockchain you 
will come to know about them. 

Bitcoin: A very good example of Blockchain is BITCOIN, which is the first cryptocurrency introduced by the mysterious 
person or organization “Satoshi Nakamoto” for handling financial crises. Many people think that Bitcoin and 
Blockchain is the same but Bitcoin is the implementation of Blockchain technology. It is a cryptocurrency 
that means digital money. Bitcoin is a very popular currency worldwide that is used to buy or sell items by 
accepting payments in a digital wallet. Here 2 keys are their public key which is visible in the blockchain as our 
address or we can say that it is the identity of a peer, another key is the private key which is used to sign the 
transaction and allow access to a digital wallet. 

Development tools for Blockchain: Smart Contracts are the digital contracts that are put in the blockchain for executing a particular task. These are like physical contracts once a deal occurs and a contract is formed, no one can change it. Smart contracts do the same work but digitally. The smart contract helps in removing mistrust between parties. 

Tools for Developing Smart Contracts: An online IDE named REMIX ETHEREUM IDE provides a platform for building and also for executing or 
deploying smart contracts. It is an Ethereum-based platform that uses virtual ethers, which is a cryptocurrency 
for the Ethereum blockchain. This IDE works on the language called SOLIDITY which is similar to JavaScript and 
follows the principles of Object-Oriented Programming Language ( Link for accessing the IDE ). 

Tools for developing Blockchain: Hyperledger is an open-source framework for developing Blockchains, it was introduced by the “Linux Foundation”. There are many tools and flavors of hyper ledger based on the use cases, which means we can use frameworks as well 
as tools for the development, but the purpose of efficiency of the developer should be selective. As it is an 
open-source framework so beginners can download the code and modify it according to their use cases. 

Hyperledger Tools:

1. Hyperledger Caliper 
2. Hyperledger Cello 
3. Hyperledger Composer 
4. Hyperledger Explorer 
5. Hyperledger Quilt 
6. Hyperledger Ursa, etc.

Hyperledger Frameworks:

1. Hyperledger Fabric 
2. Hyperledger Iroha 
3. Hyperledger Sawtooth 
4. Hyperledger Besu 
5. Hyperledger Indy 
6. Hyperledger Burrow 
   

You can take help from, here, here you can learn, contribute as well as participate in the works of the others. 

Grenache: Grenache is a personal Ethereum Blockchain, which provides some virtual ethers and also users so that the developer can test their smart contract there. You can connect Grenache with the Remix Ethereum IDE for looking at the working of the smart contract on the blockchain. Also, the ethers provided by ganache are used in the transactions in the form of gas fees, and the spend ethers are refilled when you relaunch the ganache. 

Download Grenache from the given link – Genache Download.