Online Courses
Blockchain Security
Online Courses
Blockchain Security
  • Blockchain Security
  • Fundamentals of Blockchain Security
    • Introduction to blockchain
    • The promises of blockchain
    • Inside the blockchain hype
    • Blockchain structures
    • What is public-key cryptography?
      • How does public-key cryptography work?
      • Public-key cryptography in the blockchain
    • Security assumptions of public-key cryptography
      • Quantum computing
    • Hash function in blockchain
      • Properties of hash functions
      • Hash functions in the blockchain
      • Blockchain security hash key functions
    • Quiz
  • Consensus Algorithm Security
    • Introduction
      • The Byzantine generals problem
      • Security via scarcity
      • Common blockchain consensus algorithms
      • The longest chain rule
    • Proof of work
      • Inside PoW mining
    • Attacking proof of work
      • The 51% attack
      • Denial of service: Artificial difficulty increases
    • Proof of stake
      • Choosing the block creator
    • Attacking PoS consensus
      • XX% attack and the PoS "timebomb"
      • Fake stake attacks
      • Long-range attack
      • Nothing at stake problem
      • Sour milk attack
    • Quiz
  • Blockchain in Action
    • Nodes and network
      • Inside the node
      • How blocks are created
    • Attacking block creation
      • Denial-of-service
      • Frontrunning
      • Selfish mining
      • SPV mining
    • Attacking blockchain nodes
      • Blockchain software misconfiguration
      • Denial of service
      • Malicious transactions
    • Attacking the blockchain network
      • Eclipse attack
      • Routing attack
      • Sybil attack
    • Quiz
  • Smart Contract Security
    • What are smart contracts?
      • Smart contracts
    • General programming vulnerabilities
      • Arithmetic vulnerabilities
      • Right-to-left control character
    • Blockchain vulnerabilities
    • Ethereum vulnerabilities
    • Quiz
  • Beyond the Basics
    • Alternative distributed ledger architectures
      • Introduction to DAGs
      • Introduction to block lattices
      • Introduction to sidechains
    • Second-level blockchain protocols
      • How a state channel works
    • Advanced cryptography in blockchain
      • Multisignatures
      • Zero-knowledge proofs
      • Stealth addresses
      • Ring signatures
      • Commitment schemes
    • Quiz
  • Cumulative Quiz
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  1. Smart Contract Security

What are smart contracts?

The world computer

Blockchains are designed to create a distributed, decentralized and shared digital ledger. This ledger can be used to record financial transactions (i.e., cryptocurrency). It can also be used for other purposes

Smart contract platforms use the distributed ledger to synchronize operations of a massive distributed computer. Transactions contain code to run on the "computer". Nodes store the state of the distributed computer. After a block is validated, it is executed to update state

Smart contract platforms are massively parallelized computers. However, this parallelization is not used to speed up the computers. Every node runs the same code. Parallelization maintains state synchronization

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Last updated 8 months ago