Blockchain is a technology for a distributed, tamperproof ledger, with untrusted agents. Proof of work (PoW) is a method to provide assurance in the chain and make tampering all but impossible. To add a new transaction (as data in a block) to the to the ledger (chain), miners need to solve a computationally challenging problem and are rewarded for their work. This crystallographic puzzle is often done with hash functions.

This tool  enables users to create your own blockchain, explore tampering, and adding blocks. Each of the key steps in block chain and discussed in detail including an easy to use app and the underlying code to run it. Users can run the apps, and run and modify the underlying to code to explore, hands-on, the key concepts behind blockchain.

The notebooks included are:

• Blockchain demo app
• Hash functions (app and code)
• Proof or work (app and code)

nanoHUB, Jupyter, Anaconda

• The Micro Nano Technology Collaborative Undergraduate Research Network (MNT-CURN)
• Network for Computational Nanotechnology (NCN) - home of nanoHUB

• Nakamoto S. Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system. Decentralized Business Review. 2008 Oct 31:21260.
• Anders Brownworth "Blockchain 101 - a visual demo" https://youtu.be/_160oMzblY8

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Oneal Douglin, Yu-Chung Chang, Alfonso Daniel Meraz, Shivam Tripathi, Brian Hyun-jong Lee, Alejandro Strachan (2022), "Blockchain and proof of work lab," https://nanohub.org/resources/blockchain. (DOI: 10.21981/KXXK-0M58).

  BibTex | EndNote

1. blockchain
2. Blockchain and Proof of Work Lab
3. Jupyter notebooks
4. Proof of Work