Crash Course on Blockchain for Newbies

This post provides an eclectic mix of content for understanding basics of Blockchain. Please note this is for people who have interest in understanding Blockchain with no prior theoretical or hands-on experience. Hopefully this will give readers better intuition for Blockchain and help envision scenarios for enterprise usage. This blog was first published on Medium.

--

Blockchain, the technology behind the much hyped crypto-currencies, is perhaps becoming one of the most discussed topic in the technology world. A quick search on Google Trends reveals how Blockchain mania is spreading across the world vis-a-vis other technology trends of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

While India still seems to be catching up with this mania, I caught up a bit early, partly by virtue of my profession as I was required to prepare a presentation and partly because I invested a highly conservative, risk mitigated stake in one of the crypto-currencies (which means I am not even remotely close to being a millionaire — yet! :p).

Anyhow, there is an ocean of scattered content and courses on Blockchain across the Internet. So, if you are looking to build deeper expertise in this area, it would always be advisable to start off with a book, go through some research papers, followed by an applied course. One of the recommended books by both Investopedia and Blockchain Council is Blockchain by Melanie Swan.

However, if you are looking for a quick understanding on the subject, you can go through the content listed below. Please be advised that this list may not be the best learning path available on the Internet but it worked well for my mental model of understanding a new subject and helped in crystallizing the basic concepts. I hope it works for your mental model as well :).

Please go through the content in the order given below. Even though some of the videos will repeat the concepts, go through them anyway to build a concrete understanding. So here we go.

---

A visual demo of how blockchain works by MIT: Understand concepts such as — Hash, Block, Blockchain, Distributed Ledger, Tokens, Coinbase through a demo video.

---

Understanding the concept of consensus and proof of work in a Blockchain. This video by KHAN Academy, will give you an intuition for proof of work protocols used in Blockchain.

---

Understanding the security aspect of Blockchain through a bitcoin transaction example: This was one of the areas that bugged me a lot. I was finding it difficult to gain intuition for concepts like longest chain, forks, computing power, rewards mechanism in relation with the game theory and how it is tied to security of the Blockchain. This video helped sort through most of my doubts in a highly visual way.

---

Do it yourself - a step by step Blockchain application: Assuming you have gone through the above videos and have pretty much got the hang of the concept - how about some dessert finish for you ;)? With this Blockchain app, you will not just get a hands on practice but also a step by step understanding or revision of your concepts. Thanks to the amazing Sean Han who built this app.

---

White-boarding Blockchain: I would like to thank my colleague Dwayne DeSylvia for posting this whiteboard. This explains basic concepts through a use case of real estate property transfers. There are other videos as well on this page, so you can later revisit this page and view other videos, if you feel like.

---

I hope this will help you in gaining better intuition for the subject. Please do drop in your comments & suggestions in case you have come across learning paths or content that helped you in better understanding of Blockchain.