[201109] Weekly Progress: Ethereum

        阅读了《Mastering Ethereum》的最后两章。至此，区块链的基础知识部分已学习完成。和教授探讨之后，决定选择以DID（Decentralized Identifier）为研究方向，其官方文档如下。 

        https://www.w3.org/TR/did-core/              

        Last week, I finished reading Mastering Ethereum. Learned the last two chapters of the book, which are The Ethereum Virtual Machine and Consensus.

        1. Learned the concept of EVM and the difference from other virtual machine technologies such as Virtualbox and KVM. Learned the EVM instruction set. And also learned at gas, the EVM’s accounting mechanism, and saw how it solves the halting problem and protects Ethereum from denial-of-service attacks.

        2. Learned the two most important consensus metrics again: consensus via Proof of Work and consensus via Proof of Stake. And Ethash is also introduced in the last chapter of this book as a proof-of-work algorithm for Ethereum. Since Casper was in the development stage at the time, there was not much introduction in the book, and further study was needed.

        3. In addition, the introduction of random entropy in the book is as follows: The first and most important step in generating keys is to find a secure source of entropy, or randomness. Ethereum software uses the underlying operating system’s random number generator to produce 256 random bits. Usually, the OS random number generator is initialized by a human source of randomness, which is why you may be asked to wiggle your mouse around for a few seconds or press random keys on your keyboard. An alternative could be cosmic radiation noise on the computer’s microphone channel. Do not write your own code to create a random number or use a "simple" random number generator offered by your programming language.

        4. Finally, the concept of non-fungible tokens is as follows: Strictly speaking, if a token’s historical provenance can be tracked, then it is not entirely fungible. Non-fungible tokens are tokens that each represent a unique tangible or intangible item and therefore are not interchangeable. The thing owned can be a digital item, such as an in-game item or digital collectible; or the thing can be a physical item whose ownership is tracked by a token, such as a house, a car, or an artwork.

Next Plan

        From next week, I will officially start reading the papers in the DID direction. First I plan to read the guest editorial, “Decentralized Identity: Where DID It Come And Where Is It Going?”, published in IEEE Communications Standards Magazine in December 2019.