Foreword

Some believe blockchain is going to reinvent everything; others see it as a despicable hype-machine deserving no attention. I think the truth lies somewhere in between, and since blockchain technology is here to stay, I truly believe that reading this book may be one of the best investments you will ever make.

The blockchain space is growing rapidly—major conferences are starting to attract thousands of participants, and new companies are forming in the blockchain ecosystem at an ever-increasing rate. Despite this, adoption remains slow. I believe there are two reasons for this. The first is the disruptive impact of cryptocurrency speculation on unregulated financial markets. This can put off potential new developers, who may not be comfortable with it or may see such speculation as a distraction. Instead, I see it as a fantastic indicator of just how much potential this new form of programmable money has.

The second reason for the sluggish adoption of blockchain technology is, I believe, a fundamental misalignment of expectations. Imagine if in the late ’90s we had decided to ignore the potential of the internet. What if we called it a scam just because today’s Facebook or Netflix weren’t quite there yet? The opportunity cost would have been enormous!

Having been in the blockchain space since 2012, I’ve witnessed firsthand both this phenomenal growth and the slow adoption. The community is larger by several orders of magnitude now, but its ideals remain similar to what I experienced when I first fell down the blockchain rabbit hole. Over 10 years have passed since the groundbreaking release of the Bitcoin whitepaper, but innovation is still being driven primarily by an ethos that says, “Don’t trust—verify.” This initial concept is alive and well and is growing stronger as it endures technical and social attacks.

The pioneering thinkers working behind the scenes on Bitcoin have helped decentralized blockchains become the innovative and powerful technology we have today. These thinkers saw early on how the concepts of “permissionless innovation” and “reinterpretation of trust” (whose roots reach back as far as the mid ’80s with Ken Thompson and his ACM article “Reflections on Trusting Trust”^[1]) were potential threats to preexisting systems, and they took that into account when designing the fundamentals of the new financial system they were dreaming of.

¹

See Ken Thompson, “Reflections on trusting trust,” Communications of the ACM, August 1984, https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=358210.

And now this new, decentralized, financial system they designed from scratch has become self-sustaining. Today, hundreds of developers are collectively securing the Bitcoin blockchain with their knowledge and expertise, and thousands more are contributing to the development of it and other blockchain platforms, such as Ethereum. Yet we still need more of these types of pioneering developers, these adversarial thinkers who are not afraid to go against the grain, who are blockchain-aware and have fresh ideas to contribute to this space. And here is where this book comes in.

Creating a decentralized application on a blockchain like Ethereum is a complex process, but Roberto Infante manages to present it in a simple manner that allows any good developer to successfully navigate the complexities, understand the implications, and ultimately realize their potential of writing blockchain applications.

This book shows the many tools, services, and protocols that have been created in this ecosystem, and demonstrates how everything works well together to support a decentralized application’s needs. Blockchain is about interoperability, and Roberto understands this innately. He arms you with the tools of the experts while keeping you aware of the bigger picture.

Writing secure smart contracts is both difficult and a necessity when creating new, critical cogs for the existing blockchain. This book facilitates this while avoiding reinventing the wheel. It will help you to find new ways to connect these basic building blocks and create use cases that go above and beyond those already explored.

Crowdfunding and the spectacular returns from Initial Coin Offerings have been huge in the last year, and have doubtlessly contributed to the growth of the blockchain scene. But what use case will drive the next growth cycle? You, armed with this book, will have all the tools you’ll need to answer that question.

The next financial revolution is already underway. And you do not want to miss it.

—Thomas Bertani, CEO of Oraclize