Michael G. Solomon - Blockchain Data Analytics For Dummies

Blockchain Data Analytics For Dummies®

Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2020 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions .

Trademarks:Wiley, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ.

For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002. For technical support, please visit https://hub.wiley.com/community/support/dummies .

Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com . For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com .

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020937204

ISBN 978-1-119-65177-2 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-65175-8 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-65178-9 (ebk)

1 Cover

2 Introduction Introduction Data is the driver of today’s organizations. Ignore the vast amounts of data available to you about your products, services, customers, and even competitors, and you’ll quickly fall behind. But if you embrace data and mine it like it contains valuable jewels, you could find the edge to stay ahead of your competition and keep your customers happy. And the potential value you can find in data gets even more enticing when you incorporate blockchain technology into your organization. Blockchain is a fast-growing innovation that maintains untold pieces of information you could use to decrease costs and increase revenue. Realizing blockchain data value depends on understanding how blockchain stores data and how to get to it. Blockchain Data Analytics For Dummies introduces readers to blockchain technology, how it stores data, how to identify and get to interesting data, and how to analyze that data to find meaningful information. You learn how to set up your own blockchain analytics lab and local blockchain to learn and practice blockchain analytics techniques. After you set up your analytics lab, you find out how to extract blockchain data and build popular analytics models to uncover your data’s hidden information. About This Book About This Book Blockchain technology is often described as the most important and disruptive technology of our generation. At its core, blockchain technology provides a novel way to add data to a ledger of transactions that is shared by other users whom you do not trust. Blockchain technology has the potential to change the way we conduct business at every level. And, while managing transactions between any two or more parties, any data related to the transaction gets stored on the shared ledger that can never be changed or deleted. The availability of unmodified history of transactions can be a huge advantage for organizations of all types. Unlocking the trends or lessons in these blockchain transactions is the focus of this book. Blockchain Data Analytics For Dummies gives you the foundation of blockchain technology data storage and techniques to analyze blockchain-based data. You learn — in clear language — how to build analytics models and populate them with blockchain data. Foolish Assumptions Foolish Assumptions I don’t make many assumptions about your experience with blockchain technology, application programming, or cryptography, but I do assume the following: You have a computer and access to the Internet. You know the basics of using your computer and the Internet, as well as how to download and install programs. You know how to find files on your computer’s disk and how to create folders. You’re new to blockchain and you aren’t an experienced software developer. You’re new to building data analytics models. Icons Used in This Book Icons Used in This Book The Tip icon marks tips (duh!) and shortcuts you can use to extract blockchain data and build analytics models. Remember icons mark the information that’s especially important to know. The Technical Stuff icon marks information of a highly technical nature that you can normally skip over. The Warning icon tells you to watch out! It marks important information that may save you headaches when writing your own blockchain applications. Beyond the Book Beyond the Book In addition to the material in the print or e-book you’re reading right now, this product also comes with some access-anywhere goodies on the web. Check out the free cheat sheet for more on blockchain technology and data analytics at www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/blockchaindataanalyticsfd . You’ll find summary information about blockchain technology, data analytics models, and extracting blockchain data. The cheat sheet is a reference to use over and over as you gain experience in extracting blockchain data and building data analytics models. In addition, if you’d rather download the code you see in this book instead of typing it, go to http://www.dummies.com/go/blockchaindataanalyticsfd . You can download zip files for each of the projects you’ll create to develop and test data access and analytics scripts. Where to Go from Here Where to Go from Here The Dummies series tells you what you need to know and how to do the things you need to do to get the results you want. Readers don’t have to read the entire book to just learn about some topics. For example, if you just want to learn about extracting blockchain data, you can jump right to Chapters 5 and 6 . On the other hand, if you need to set up your own blockchain analytics lab, read Chapter 4 , which tells you how to do that with clear, step-by-step instructions.