Best Blockchain Books for Developers

In the present dynamic times, spending years and years learning blockchain appears unaffordable for many young specialists. How to compress such a period and get well-structured and ample information on the technology? A helpful life hack exists: the best blockchain developer books can supply readers with many valuable insights. The books' authors are blockchain professionals who often address various blockchain facets from unusual angles. Writing a book implies certain epiphanies descending on the author regarding one or another aspect of the technology as such, its adoption, and numerous relevant issues.

The present review of the best blockchain books for developers aims at assisting everyone who wants to become a blockchain developer. Besides, the books deliver a thought-provoking discourse on how blockchain impacts media, finance, healthcare, and many other domains. We believe that we can help generate interest for a fairly wide readership with the following list of the best blockchain development books.

The Truth Machine: The Blockchain and The Future of Everything

The book's authors, Paul Vigna and Michael J. Casey, are journalists of The Wall Street Journal. Besides, they both run crypto blogs for many years. In other words, the book is written by Bitcoin cheerleaders who have enough to say about the subject.

The story from Vigna and Casey can easily become your best book for blockchain developer due to their topic: blockchain transparency. The authors believe in Bitcoin and crypto as few others do. However, it doesn't stop them from raising tough questions about the way blockchain technology evolves. It is a sign of true professionals to find problems in the domain where they work. They never ignore the existing challenges despite their unwavering faith in blockchain technology. The Truth Machine urges other crypto adopters to take off the pink glasses and improve what can be improved in the blockchain.

You can purchase the book on Amazon for $26.99.

Blockchain Wars: The Future of Big Tech Monopolies and The Blockchain Internet

This blockchain book for developers describes a broad blockchain landscape that can be interesting not just for domain experts. Hard scientific topics coexist with daring speculations in the book. The author Evan McFarland shows the driving forces of a hidden competition between today's data monopolies and decentralized techs for the internet of tomorrow.

The book provides a specific blockchain guide for traders, investors, entrepreneurs, and governmental authorities to help them realize how decentralized Web 3.0 can improve our lives. McFarland bravely covers many disputable topics like the Internet-as-a-Computer, DAOs, the future of privacy, IoT supply chains, digital governance, etc. In such a context, revealing the dictatorship mechanisms inherent in the modern Big Tech hierarchies is a clear act of courage.

The Blockchain Wars belongs to the best books for blockchain developers and programmers since they can find numerous hints at what the inevitable Internet paradigm shift implies. You can buy the book on Amazon for either $10.35 (paper) or $9.99 (e-book).

The Blockchain Developer: A Practical Guide for Designing, Implementing, Publishing, Testing, and Securing Distributed Blockchain-based Projects.

Among the best books to learn blockchain development, this one seems to stand out. The author Elad Elrom covers two large domains of blockchain-based projects. First, he delivers a ton of theoretical info on the blockchain ecosystem. It includes explanations of different consensus mechanisms, P2P networks, decentralized ledgers, mining, transactions, and crypto-wallets. Second, Elrom shares practical approaches to developing Dapps on various blockchains like EOS, Ethereum, NEO, and Hyperledger.

Is this book for blockchain developers only? Mostly it is, but software architects, engineers, entrepreneurs, and investors can find the book helpful in learning more about blockchain. What practical examples can readers get from The Blockchain Developer? The most precious practice described by the book covers real-world coding to create a Dapp with Angular using typescript from A to Z. Besides, it shows how to connect the Dapp to a local test network before publishing in the mainnet environment.

The book is available on Amazon in paper and digital formats for $31.45 and $26.59, respectively.

Blockchain Basics: A Non-Technical Introduction in 25 Steps

Even the best books on blockchain development can hardly ignore a certain gap between purely technical narratives and business-oriented stories. The Blockchain Basics, written by Daniel Drescher, seems to address the problem. The book explains blockchain technology with no programmer jargon. Moreover, no previous knowledge of cryptography or mathematics is required to grasp 25 straightforward steps in learning the fundamentals of distributed ledgers.

The author deliberately uses metaphors, analogies, and even pictures to explain blockchain-related subjects without computer science terminology. The book's content covers a wide array of topics, from essential blockchain components and how they interact to functional limitations of DLT technology and major use-case scenarios.

Why do we include The Blockchain Basics in our list of the best books about blockchain development? The reason is in the business-relevant structure of the book. A wide circle of non-programmers receives easily digestible content on how blockchain can improve the modern financial system.

Amazon offers the book for $16.50 (a new paper edition), $5.50 (used paper books), and $12.50 (for the Kindle app).

Legalize Blockchain: How State Should Deal with Today's Most Promising Technology to Foster prosperity

It is reasonable to say a few words about the author to realize why we include the book in the best books for blockchain developers and programmers. Thomas G. Duenser is one of the responsible creators of the "Blockchain Act" developed in Liechtenstein. This is the first regulatory framework for the token economy in the world. Having a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, Mr. Duenser occupied various financial risk-management positions before becoming the director of the Office for Financial Market Innovation.

Such a professional background allows the author to share valuable insights regarding regulatory challenges the token economy will face in the near term. He believes that the current lows of financial markets are hardly appropriate for the token economy and jeopardize its development. However, negative critics do not constitute the main idea of this blockchain book for developers. The author delivers key messages about the new regulation that should be developed for token financial markets. He emphasizes the importance of blockchain innovations that governments should adopt to provide future prosperity.

You can buy a hardcover paper edition of the book on Amazon for $38.59

Blockchain for Dummies

Despite quite the funny title of the book, we put it into our list of the best books about blockchain development. The book's author Tiana Laurence provides a simple but holistic picture of disruptive blockchain technology. She analyzes what DLTs can do for various industries and what can not. The book explains how securely blockchain derives and transfers data across different networks. Besides, it demonstrates how blockchain enables Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Few other best blockchain developer books deserve to be a brief but essential guide to the technology that affects finance, supply chains, insurance, governance, and many other domains. But The Blockchain for Dummies does. The book proves that anyone besides coders and financial gurus can quickly grasp how blockchain adds value to modern industries and markets.

Amazon offers the book in a paperback format for $6.04 only.

Mastering Ethereum: Building Smart Contracts and Dapps

While all the other best books about blockchain development in our list cover the distributed ledger's technology as a whole, Mastering Ethereum focuses on the Ethereum protocol in particular. This is one of the most comprehensive guides to blockchain development on Ethereum ever published.

The book's author Andreas M. Antonopoulos needs no introduction to those who are in the know about blockchain. He is an iconic figure in the crypto industry whose influence is not inferior to Vitalik Buterin (Ethereum's creator). Andreas has already published several blockchain-related bestsellers like "Mastering Bitcoin", "The Internet of Money" (three volumes), and "Mastering The Lightning Network" (the most recent book). "Mastering Ethereum", therefore, is one in a series of the best books for blockchain developers and programmers written by Andreas M. Antonopoulos.

The book reveals exactly what the title indicates: mastering Ethereum implies acquiring practical and theoretical knowledge of the protocol in terms of using the fundamental tools of Ethereum. The book can be conditionally divided into two parts. The first one delivers the basics of the Ethereum blockchain, smart contracts, gas, decentralized apps, and how all that stuff works. The second part is intended for programmers and contains various hands-on coding examples.

Many experts suggest this blockchain book for developers as a sufficient manual on Ethereum.

Amazon offers the book for $34.67 (paper) and $13.20 (Kindle).

The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking

The Bitcoin Standard is a must-read in our list of the best books for blockchain development. The book's author Saifedean Ammous has created a true bestseller translated into 25 languages. The burning issues raised in the book are essential for modern society balancing on the edge of another financial crisis: the idea of sound money and how central banks compromise it. The author analyzes the evolution of monetary systems from a historical perspective to figure out the features of free market money. He demonstrates the way of separating money from politics and government monopolies.

Why should the readers agree that The Bitcoin Standard belongs to the best blockchain development books? The book explains how to derive value from decentralized money to shift financial power from governments in favor of individuals. Besides, the author answers numerous questions about the only fully-decentralized value-exchanging protocol: why Bitcoin mining is not a waste of energy, what myths are bouncing around Bitcoin as "money for criminals", and who supposedly controls Bitcoin. The book unequivocally proves that Bitcoin is a decent apolitical alternative to central banking.

You can purchase the book on Amazon for $12.05 (hardcover).

Mastering Blockchain (2nd Revised edition)

In our review of the best books on blockchain development, we cannot ignore The Mastering Blockchain, written by Imran Bashir. The second revised edition of the book (first published in 2018) includes many recent developments such as Ethereum 2.0, tokenization, corporate blockchains, and the like. The present edition is a comprehensive educational source of knowledge about cryptography, cryptocurrencies, secure blockchain transactions, and the capabilities of Ethereum as a global virtual computer.

Imran Bashir managed to provide everyone who will become a blockchain developer with the technical foundations of distributed systems. The book reveals how to develop applications using Ethereum in detail. Practical examples of using cryptography to achieve data security help readers understand the mechanisms behind Bitcoin and other cryptos. Building Dapps with Solidity and relevant frameworks is another expertise available in the book. In addition to Ethereum, some popular blockchains like Corda and Hyperledger are described.

You can purchase the Mastering Blockchain on Amazon for $32.54 (paperback) and $26.99 (Kindle)

Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor's Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond

It would be imprudent to overlook such a valuable aspect as crypto investments in our list of the best blockchain development books. The authors of the Cryptoassets belong to professionals from the financial industry. Jack Tatar is the founder and CEO of a leading marketing research company. Chris Burniske is a co-founder of a venture firm specializing in crypto assets. They deliver a specific crypto-asset taxonomy to explain distinctive features of cryptocurrencies, tokens, and crypto commodities. Such knowledge helps readers capitalize on numerous investment opportunities in Bitcoin and blockchain technology.

The book written by financial industry insiders offers a framework for evaluating crypto assets in terms of portfolio management. Maximizing returns with minimum risk is what the authors consider the goal of their crypto discourse. They reveal effective investment strategies capable of disrupting current portfolios while avoiding crypto bubbles. We reasonably believe that the Cryptoassets skillfully complements our present review of the best books on blockchain development.

Amazon offers both new and used versions of the book for $3.24 - $20.25