Preface

Blockchain is an efficient, transparent, highly secured platform for data transaction.

It consists of growing number of transaction records or blocks which are linked via

cryptographic hash values. Each block contains data, own hash value, hash value of

next block, and nonce value. Any node/workstation from any geographical location

can participate in blockchain platform. Communications between nodes are managed

by various cryptographic protocols. Blockchain as a platform has emerged as one

of the decisive expertise with applications across various industrial domains. It is

known to be a highly secured platform with real-time notification to provide the

property of transparency to all the stake holders. The objective of the book is to update

recent advancements on blockchain as a platform with incorporation of properties

of Artificial Intelligence.

Companies around the world have a close look on the exponential advancements

of blockchain and IoT technology. A Gartnet study in 2018 reveals that blockchain

is going to add $3.1 trillion in business value by 2030. Another study by Forbes in

2017 analyzed the global IoT market to expect growth from $157 B in 2016 to $457

B by 2020. Thus, a lot of advancements of both the technologies to happen in near

future what we could really imagine.

Intelligent blockchain as a platform will ensure trust through technology among

participating organizations unlike existing contracts. This change is already apparent

in variety of industries including healthcare, supply chain, finance, manufacturing,

etc.

IoT ecosystems suffer heavily due to a number of security issues. A huge amount

of data, devices are getting hacked. As an example in healthcare system, monitoring

of patient’s real-time data is getting increased day by day and entry points of intruders

also increase. These are critically important data and need to be nurtured with utmost

care. Blockchain as a platform completely eliminates any chance of misuse of those

paramount data.

The proposed book is aimed to introduce the basic operating principle and funda-

mentals of blockchain technology. The contributory chapters will focus on the limi-

tations of the state-of-the-art blockchain use cases and propose methods of elimina-

tion. The use of blockchain framework for IoT systems would also be highlighted

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