Innovative as it is, the blockchain technology is getting more and more attention and an increasing number of applications have emerged. This book elaborates on both the design thinking ideas and technical details in blockchain and smart contracts to help readers delve into the conceptual framework and understand why blockchain is designed as such and how it makes the current system decentralised yet effective. Having this understanding lays the ground for further analysis of blockchain-based solutions and innovative fintech applications.
Topics covered in this book include blockchain structure, blockchain ecosystem, design thinking for blockchain, smart contract, fintech and financial services, solution-based problem solving, fintech valuation, and current issues faced such as privacy protection and solution selection, with the aid of real-life examples and hands-on exercises.
Blockchain and Smart Contracts serves as a valuable guide for researchers and practitioners who have interests in the blockchain, smart contract, fintech innovation and applications, design thinking, and technical details. This book is particularly written for anyone who has no technical background and is searching for an initiation into the deep end of blockchain. Those with business, finance and economic interests will find this interesting and easy to digest.
Sample Chapter(s)
Preface
Chapter 2: Bitcoin Mining and Python Programming Demonstration
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Contents:
- Cryptography and Blockchain Technology
- Bitcoin Mining and Python Programming Demonstration
- Consensus for Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies
- Token Economics and Valuation
- Cryptocurrency as an Alternative Investment Class
- A Look at Security and Privacy: Bitcoin, Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Networks
- Introduction to Blockchain Smart Contracts and Programming with Solidity for Ethereum
- Hands-On Lab with MultiChain
- Hands-On Guide to Bitcoin Layer-2 Lightning Network Node Setup
- Architecting and Designing Your Own Blockchain Solution
Readership: Advanced undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate students, practitioners, and researchers in the field of Finance/Fintech/IT/Business/Economics/Marketing.
Professor David LEE Kuo Chuen, founder of several companies including California-based Left Coast, Singapore's Ferrell Group and BlockAsset. He is a non-executive director of two listed companies. He is the founding investor in Zcash, Qtum and a few other blockchain companies. He is an advisor to Financial Inclusion Institute, and was the Director of the Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics at the Singapore Management University. He graduated with BSc, MSc and PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He was the Group Managing Director of OUE and Auric Pacific. He founded and managed one of the most successful hedge funds in 1998 for property investment in Asia with several commercial buildings and more than 100 units of residential units. He founded Premium Land and was the property developer for Ferrell Residences, a high-end 24-storey residential building in 2006. His operation and managing experience includes F&B, manufacturing, hospitality, hedge funds, stockbroking, property management, property development, REITs, medical plastic components, listing and de-listing of companies, start-ups and multinationals. He is the editor and an author of the American Library Association Outstanding Award Reference Book titled Digital Currency by Elsevier and the LASIC model for scalable technology companies. He has been nominated by Internal Consulting Group as a Global Thought Leader for Fintech and Blockchain.
Dr LO Swee Won is a lecturer at the School of Business, Singapore University of Social Sciences. She graduated with a PhD in Information Security & Trust from Singapore Management University, where her dissertation focused on the security of online distribution of multimedia codestreams. She teaches financial cryptography, FinTech and blockchain security & privacy courses for postgraduate and undergraduate. She is a content provider and validator for the IBF Future-Enabled Skills series and a member of the Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies Technical Committee (BDLTTC) at ITSC. Her primary research interests include data/user security and privacy, and risks and complexities in blockchain. Her publications include book chapters, papers in top conferences such as WISA, ICME and ESORICS. She serves as referee for Singapore Economic Review, IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems and is a member of the Editorial Board of Cybersecurity and Privacy (specialty section of Frontiers in Big Data) as Review Editor.
Ms WANG Yu is a fintech research fellow at the School of Business, Singapore University of Social Sciences. Her main research interests are fintech, ICO, financial data analysis and asset pricing. Prior to SUSS, she worked at National University of Singapore, Business School as a research associate on corporate governance and sustainability. She graduated with a MSc in Applied Economies from Nanyang Technological University and BSc in Financial Engineering from Huazhong University of Sciences of Technologies. She has multiple journal papers, including an empirical study on sustainability reporting and firm value published on an SSCI journal, Sustainability, and one investigating cryptocurrency as a new alternative investment published on Journal of Alternative Investments that has been cited for over 120 times and recommended by CFA Institute Journal Review. She also serves as referee for various journals such as Singapore Economic Review, Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, and Journal of Alternative Investments.
