Toptal

This post is my attempt to understand the key aspects of the blockchain by exploring the internals. I started by reading the original bitcoin whitepaper, but I felt the only way to truly understand the blockchain is by building a new cryptocurrency from scratch.

That’s why I decided to create a cryptocurrency using the new Crystal programming language, and I dubbed it CrystalCoin. This article won’t discuss algorithm choices, hash difficulty, or similar topics. Instead, the focus will be on detailing a concrete example, which should provide a deeper, hands-on understanding of the strengths and limitations of blockchains.

If you haven’t read it yet, for more background on algos and hashing, I suggest you take a look at Demir Selmanovic’s article Cryptocurrency for Dummies: Bitcoin and Beyond.

Why I Chose the Crystal Programming Language

For a better demonstration, I wanted to use a productive language like Ruby without

To read the full article click on the 'post' link at the top.