Blockchain CBSA – Course Wrap Up and Final Practice Exam

1. Blockchain Terminology Review

Now one of the resources I’m going to request you take a look at before you take the exam is on the Blockchain Training Alliance website and it would be under resources here. It’s basically glossary of blockchain terms. Now the reason I’m going to ask you to do this is because oddly enough, a lot of these terms you’re going to see again on the exam and no better a resource than to go to the source for the right definition, right? So let’s go ahead and talk about some of these. Now there’s also a PDF you can download. So if you download the glossary you can do that or just go over the website and basically review a lot of these terms. Now the main ones I’m going to point out, I’m going to ask that you take a few minutes and understand why I’m pointing them out and why they are important to know for the exam. Now, first of all, the first time I want to point out that I think is worth your time is called blockchain. So public blockchain is really a mathematical structure for storing digital transactions in an immutable peer to peer ledger that is incredibly difficult to fake and yet remain accessible to everyone.

Now this is sort of the nerdy version of a blockchain, but again, you do want to just take a look at it and make sure that you understand that it is a data structure. It’s really what it is and a blockchain is really a distributed ledger. And what is a ledger? It’s really a database. Effectively. The next one I want to point out is over here called chain code. Now we talked about chain code already, but basically this is a hyper ledger fabric term that’s used, it was defined by IBM and it refers to a smart contract. Now hyperledger fabric has composer, it does have a CLI. Now consensus, this is a term that’s used when a majority of participants on a network agree on the validity of the transaction. In other words, if we have twelve nodes and you need to have ten agree that this transaction is valid and you only have nine, then consensus has not been met. However, if you have ten and the minimum requirement is ten out of twelve, you then have consensus. Another term is called crud. You’re going to see Crud again on the exam. And what this means is this basically in the world of databases, we have the ability to create, retrieve, update and delete transactions.

 Now those transactions are what they’re data. They’re basically part of a data structure. We can create, retrieve or update or delete. That’s true in a database in a blockchain. Remember, we really can only create and retrieve cryptographic hash function. This is the function that’s going to again, remember our hashing demo, the same input will get the same output. If we change the input, the output will be different. Now, on the exam the hash function really provides what it is used to create a digital ID, decentralized apps, a D app and make sure you know that. Now, another term I didn’t cover, but it is important to just know what it is. You may see it again. A decentralized autonomous organization is an organization that is going to run rules encoded in a computer program called Smart contracts. Now basically, this is automation on overdrive where you don’t have anyone manually checking anything. DDoS again, this is an attack against a blockchain network or web server. For example, decentralized digital signature, digital asset. These are terms you want to know.

Now, in the world of Ethereum, just like in Bitcoin, we have the BIP Bitcoin Information protocol. Ethereum has what’s called the Ethereum request for comment. This is the ERC standard and this is what tokens are based on as well. ERC 20, if you remember. A fork.

What is a fork? It’s going to alter the blockchain gas. Now, at the end of the module or end of the course, I have a bonus demo that goes through how to determine how much gas you’re going to need to run a specific task on an EVM. Now, gas is going to measure how much work it needs to take to perform an Ethereum. And basically it’s going to translate that estimate into an amount of gas that you’re going to have to have available to run genesis block. Again, this is a term you’re going to be guaranteed to see again. Initial block with the blockchain, that’s the starting block. Now the genesis block is what number genesis block is zero. GitHub is where everything is hosted. Gossip protocol. This is basically peer to peer protocol. Hard fork, hash functions. Again, a lot of terms here. I won’t read everyone to you. I’m just giving you an incentive here to go ahead and make sure you know these. Merkel tree. Now, merkel tree is going to be part of a node that is going to basically it’s called a leaf node, I should say. And that hash is going to have data blocks and it’s going to be a structure.

It’s going to occur a nuts. Now remember, nuts is going to be a number that’s used once in the demo. We talked about an odds. I showed you how it worked when he changed it. Different input equals what? A different output. Peer to peer. We know what that means. PKI. We talked about PKI. We know what that is. Number two, public key infrastructure. We need to have a private key and a public key. It’s a way to manage our encryption. Now, these are some of the basic proof of work. Proof of stake, proof of capacity. Makes you go in and understand these consensus algorithms. You will see that again. RPC. What is an RPC? It’s a protocol that’s used from one program to another. It’s basically a server to server communication protocol. In the old world of Unix. Basically, this is how communication occurred through basically our PCs charting. Make sure you know what charting is, what a smart contract is. Now, solidity, right? We talked about that. And again, now one term basically, I didn’t cover very well was UTXO, and I just want to make sure you know what that is.

Basically, UTXO is unspent transaction outputs. Basically, this is something that can occur in a blockchain, like bitcoin, where those outputs are going to be used to determine if a transaction is valid or not. These are basically stray outputs, essentially. And then a wallet, and then we have a 51% attack. Now this type of attack is where the majority of miners basically decide to launch an attack on the rest of the nodes. This is what’s going to try to initiate what’s called a what kind of an attack? A double spending. All right, so once again, go over to the website for VTA. Go over and check out the glossary of terms. Download the PDF if that’s easier for you as well. You can guarantee you’re going to see probably eight to ten of these terms on the existing and I warned you if you don’t know them all. So with that said, let’s move on.