This podcast focuses on blockchain basics, explaining its core concepts like distributed systems and cryptography. It explores the Byzantine Generals' Problem and the CAP theorem to highlight the challenges of distributed systems. The text then clarifies the hash function and Merkle tree, ultimately explaining how a blockchain functions as a giant Merkle tree. It differentiates between the bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains by illustrating their applications as value-transfer and decentralized application platforms, respectively. The text then dives into the bitcoin block structure and explains the mining process as an incentivized brute-force attack, concluding with a brief overview of blockchain evolution, generations, and its current position on the Gartner hype cycle.

Buy the book at https://www.packtpub.com/en-us/product/ethereum-smart-contract-development-9781788473040

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