Ethereum For Dummies

Using geth to obtain light node and I've been downloading for a day and a half, and no idea of how long is left. Or how much disk space it might consume. The author is a CS prof, and probably has unconstrained bandwidth and disk, but for mere mortals, these details are important. Would I have been better off deploying a cloud machine with copious bandwidth to do this? The author might have offered a hint. The author claims that the book might be usable by non-programmers, and programmers can skip over some parts. Hogwash on both counts. As a programmer, I don't see how a non-programmer could set up a node. Ain't gonna happen. And I couldn't skip parts, as the Solidity language has taken parts from three other languages, and starting with the body of a dog, grafted on the head of a bull and the legs of a pig. It would have been nice to put parallel setup instructions for Linux. Other than these flaws, it's a good book. Seriously worth buying if you want a systematic approach. Hey - CS profs do have some good parts - they understand didactics. I'm giving it 2 stars so the buyer knows the flaws in advance. The strengths outweigh the flaws, for sure!

Good information put in a way that beginners can understand.

Great Read

This was a gag gift... but smh you literally had one job

I chose this book because my son, a computer professional, has been talking to me for a few years about the amazing potential of Ethereum, and I wanted to understand more about it. By the time I finished the book, I had learned a great deal. As I read, I asked my son a lot of questions, and he was truly impressed with the depth of the information covered here. I was impressed with how the author could make even the most complicated concepts ones that, although I couldn't have actually done the things covered here, like creating apps or tokens based on the Ethereum blockchain, I understood what the steps would be to do so.The idea of a blockchain and its importance was so well explained. For me, a beginner, the early chapters were the most useful, but I loved the fact that this book would serve more advanced users as a guide also. It's a rare gift to be able to write about a topic that is far beyond someone but lets them read about it without frustration, and such topics as designing simple smart contracts and how to test what you've done on a test platform rather than a live platform were written about so I could see what was being done and realize why it was important, while my son could in the future use the same writing to actually do what is being described.This book is for dummies in only that you don't have to be an expert to use it---but dummies or not, if you are interested in Ethereum, you'll be glad to have it as a resource.

There is much in the news about blockchains, and different "brands" one name that keeps coming up is "Ethereum".So what is it? How does it work? Will we lose money? Will we gain money?These questions and many more are clearly answered in this book. By the end of the book, you will not be able to write a grade A document on the subject, but you will be able to follow, and join in with conversations on this subject,Blockchains are very important. They are already impacting the lives of all of us. We all need to better understand the subjects surrounding them.This is an exceptionally good resource for that,

"Ethereum For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))" by Michael G. Solomon provides understandable information what Ethereum is and what it can do. The developing side did seem a bit thin but it did feel more like it was more to help give the reader an understanding of the platform. That said, what I liked most about it was the explanation of what Ethereum is and how it works so in that sense, I liked this book. It was understandable and easy to follow.

Like many other Dummies books, this is an excellent introductory and hands-on manual for using the Ethereum blockchain environment and Software Development Environment. It shows the basics of what you need to know to appreciate this toolkit. It won't make you an expert by itself, but that is not the purpose of a "Dummies Guide".

Awesome product

This book provides a fairly good overview of Ethereum and covers just about everything you need to know about decentralized blockchain-powered computing platforms, cryptocurrencies and tokens. This book isn't just for 'dummies', it goes into detail about how to setup a development environment to write your own smart contracts and decentralized applications. To get the full value out of this book, it's best if you are familiar with basic programming fundamentals and development environments ahead of time. One of the key takeaways from the book is learning how you can apply blockchain technology (and use the Ethereum platform) to solve everyday problems—like identity verification—in a way that is secure, transparent and decentralized. I did notice a few grammatical errors in the book though which makes me question how thoroughly the book was reviewed and edited before publishing.

Fast delivery, useful information!

For those of us happily familiar with '...for dummies' books, this doesn't deviate from the norm in terms of illustrations, paper quality (haha) and volume - this has 259 pages including the index. I won't go into what Ethereum is as if you don't already know, you won't be looking at the reviews of a book that concentrates on helping the user develop Ethereum applications. Having said that, there are about 20 introductory pages explaining blockchain tech, where Ethereum fits in, and use cases. The other 200 odd pages are about building, testing and deploying apps. Note that this book is not your bog-standard, simple as abc idiot's guide; if you're a noob, the tech jargon will throw you. The only bits I'm not keen on are the sometimes hardly visible texts on screenprints which either have dark backgrounds or very tiny lettering; otherwise it's a good enough book to use alongside other resources. My teens are finding it useful, and so am I. It does a good enough job of trying to uncomplicate (deliberately used as 'simplify' will be an overstatement) a somewhat complicated topic.

This is a comprehensive guide to Ethereum suitable for beginners as well as more experienced users. The book begins with a simple beginner's section explaining what blockchain technology is. It then goes to explain how to build apps etc in a lot of detail. This book is a great resource and is helped by the detailed index. I do sometimes find the Dummies books a little wordy and really wish they would use some flowcharts which would be easier to follow than paragraphs of text. I also think some of the screenshots are difficult to read as the text is so small and the paper is not of the highest quality. However, this is an issue that occurs with many of the Dummies books so if you have used their books before you will know what to expect.