Understanding blockchain through code.
English · Português do Brasil
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Blockchain Engineering is an open-source technical book about Bitcoin, Ethereum, cryptography, distributed systems, monetary economics, smart contracts, DeFi, scaling, security, and blockchain infrastructure.
The book approaches blockchain from a software engineer's perspective: understand the mechanism first, then inspect it, reproduce it, and build with it.
Note
This book is about engineering, protocols, and economic context. It does not cover trading strategies or price speculation.
flowchart TD
A[Origins] --> B[Money & Economics]
B --> C[Cryptography]
C --> D[Distributed Systems]
D --> E[Blockchain Fundamentals]
E --> F[Bitcoin]
F --> G[Wallets]
F --> H[Bitcoin Scaling]
H --> I[Lightning]
E --> J[Ethereum]
J --> K[EVM]
K --> L[Smart Contracts]
L --> M[Tokens]
M --> N[Web3 Applications]
N --> O[DeFi]
O --> P[Layer 2]
F --> Q[Security]
P --> Q
Q --> R[Infrastructure]
| Path | Start here | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Beginner | Origins | Full conceptual foundation |
| Software engineer | Cryptography | Protocols, execution, and code |
| Bitcoin | Origins | Bitcoin, wallets, forks, and Lightning |
| Ethereum | Ethereum | Accounts, EVM, contracts, DeFi, and Layer 2 |
flowchart LR
A[Origins] --> B[Economics]
B --> C[Cryptography]
C --> D[Distributed Systems]
D --> E[Blockchain]
E --> F[Bitcoin]
F --> G[Wallets]
G --> H[Ethereum]
H --> I[Smart Contracts]
I --> J[DeFi]
flowchart LR
A[Cryptography] --> B[Blockchain]
B --> C[Ethereum]
C --> D[EVM]
D --> E[Smart Contracts]
E --> F[Tokens]
F --> G[Web3]
G --> H[Security]
flowchart LR
A[Origins] --> B[Economics]
B --> C[Cryptography]
C --> D[Bitcoin]
D --> E[Forks]
D --> F[Wallets]
D --> G[Scaling]
G --> H[Lightning]
Origins: digital cash, Cypherpunks, Satoshi, and the work that came before Bitcoin
Money and Economics: money, banking, monetary policy, Austrian economics, and competing views
Cryptography: hashes, keys, signatures, elliptic curves, and Merkle trees
Bitcoin: transactions, UTXOs, mining, Script, SegWit, Taproot, and monetary policy
Wallets, Forks, and Scaling: key management, protocol upgrades, payment channels, and Lightning
Ethereum and EVM: accounts, state, gas, Proof of Stake, bytecode, and execution
Smart Contracts, Tokens, and Web3: Solidity, ABI, token standards, wallets, RPC, and signatures
DeFi and Layer 2: AMMs, lending, stablecoins, rollups, sequencers, and bridges
Security and Infrastructure: exploits, defensive design, nodes, RPC, indexing, and reliability
For the complete chapter-by-chapter index, see SUMMARY.md.
| Level | Project | Concepts |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation | Build a small blockchain | blocks, hashes, Proof of Work |
| Bitcoin | Decode a transaction | serialization, txids, block headers, Proof of Work |
| Ethereum | Query a node | raw JSON-RPC, blocks, balances, logs |
| Ethereum | Compile and inspect contracts | Solidity, ABI, bytecode, compiler errors |
| Web3 | Build Wallet Stats | balances, RPC, contract detection, token balances |
| DeFi | Model an AMM | constant product, fees, slippage, price impact |
| Infrastructure | Build a reorg-safe indexer | blocks, events, checkpoints, reorganizations |
You should be able to explain:
- how Bitcoin prevents double spending
- what miners actually compute
- how wallets derive and use keys
- why Bitcoin uses UTXOs
- how Ethereum executes smart contracts
- what gas pays for
- how token standards work
- how AMMs price assets
- what rollups move off-chain
- why bridges are difficult to secure
- how blockchain applications query and index on-chain data
The book prioritizes primary sources, protocol specifications, original papers, source code, and original economic texts.
See WRITING.md for research, sourcing, and editorial guidelines.
Important
Historical claims, especially claims about Satoshi Nakamoto, should distinguish documented evidence from inference and speculation.
The first complete edition is finished. All 21 sections, 332 chapter and section pages, the glossary, resources, and seven runnable projects have passed the repository's link, navigation, editorial, test, and type-check checks.
See PROGRESS.md for the section-by-section record and verification commands.
Corrections, technical reviews, clearer explanations, and links to primary sources are welcome.
See CONTRIBUTING.md.
The published site uses Material for MkDocs and builds both editions from the existing Markdown files.
python3 -m venv .venv-docs
.venv-docs/bin/python -m pip install -r requirements-docs.txt
MKDOCS_BIN=.venv-docs/bin/mkdocs node scripts/build-docs.mjs
node scripts/check-built-site.mjs
python3 -m http.server 8000 --directory siteOpen http://localhost:8000/ for English or http://localhost:8000/pt-BR/ for Brazilian Portuguese.
Warning
Never use production private keys, seed phrases, or meaningful funds while experimenting with code from this repository.
This repository is about blockchain engineering, distributed systems, and software development.
It is not financial, investment, legal, or tax advice.