This book takes readers through the sensational history of blockchains and their potential to revolutionize database systems of the future. In order to demystify blockchains, the book capitalizes on decades of research and field testing of existing database and distributed systems and applies these familiar concepts to the novel blockchain system. It then utilizes this framework to explore the essential block platform underpinning blockchains, which is often misunderstood as a specific attribute of cryptocurrencies rather than the core of the decentralized system independent of application. The book explores the nature of these decentralized systems, which have no single owner and build robustness through a multitude of stakeholder contributions. In this way, blockchains can build trust into existing systems and thus present attractive solutions for various domains across both academia and industry. Despite this, high-impact and real-world applications of blockchain have yet to be realized outside of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. The book establishes how this new data system, if properly applied, can disrupt the sector in much the same way databases did so many years ago. The book explores the fundamental technical limitations that may be preventing blockchain from realizing this potential and how to overcome or mitigate them. Readers who are completely new to blockchains will find this book to be a comprehensive survey of the state of the art in blockchain technology. Readers with some experience of blockchains, for example through developing cryptocurrencies, will likely find the book's database perspective enlightening. Finally, researchers already working with blockchain will learn to identify existing gaps in the design space and explore potential solutions for creating the next generation of blockchain systems.
Pingcheng Ruan is a Ph.D. graduate of the School of Computing at the National University of Singapore, under the guidance of Professor Beng Chin Ooi. He is the winner of the Best Paper Award at VLDB 2019 and the Research Highlight Award at ACM SIGMOD 2020. His doctoral thesis earned an Honorable Mention for the ACM SIGMOD 2022 Jim Gray Doctoral Dissertation Award. His research interest focuses on blockchains, distributed systems, databases, and all other data processing platforms. In 2016, he graduated from the School of Computer Science and Engineering at Nanyang Technological University with a Bachelor's Degree with First Class Honors.
Tien Tuan Anh Dinh is an Assistant Professor in the Information System and Technology Design (ISTD) pillar at the Singapore University of Technology and Design. His research interests intersect with distributed systems, databases, and security. He earned a Ph.D. at the University of Birmingham, UK, with a focus on applying formal methods to verify security properties of P2P systems. He spent a few months, respectively, at Singtel as a research engineer and at Microsoft Research in the networking and systems group. He was a research fellow at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), working on cloud-based systems, and a senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore (NUS), working on databases and security.
Dumitrel Loghin is a Research Assistant Professor in the School of Computing at the National University of Singapore (NUS) also working in the Singapore Blockchain Innovation Programme (SBIP) and part of the Database Systems Research Group. He obtained his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the NUS in 2017, his Master's degree in Advanced Computer Architectures from the Politehnica University of Bucharest in 2012, and a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the same university in 2010. His research interests include parallel and distributed computing, blockchain and distributed database systems, advanced computer architectures, embedded systems, and general performance of computer systems.
Meihui Zhang is a professor at the School of Computer Science and Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT), China. Before joining BIT, she was an Assistant Professor at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). She obtained her PhD from the National University of Singapore (NUS). Her main research interests include Big Data Management and Analytics, Large-scale Data Integration, Modern Database Systems, Blockchain Systems and AI. She is a winner of 2020 VLDB Early Career Research Contribution Award and 2019 CCF-IEEE CS Young Scientist Award. She is also a co-author of VLDB 2019 Best Paper, IEEE ICDE 2018 best paper runner up, and 2019 ACM SIGMOD Highlight Award paper. Meihui has served as Research Track Associate Editor of VLDB 2018-2020, VLDB 2023, SIGMOD 2021, SIGMOD 2023, ICDE 2018 and ICDE 2022-2023. She is serving as Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering (TKDE) and Survey Track Editor of Distributed and Parallel Databases. She is a trustee of VLDB endowment. Gang Chen is a Professor and Dean of Computer Science at Zhejiang University as well as the Director of the Zhejiang University Software Institute. He was selected as the Distinguished Professor of the Yangtze River Scholars Award Program by the Ministry of Education in 2017 and as a third-batch national Million Plan technology innovation leader; he won the Zhongchuang Software Talent Award in 2012 and was selected as the New Century Talent Support Program of the Ministry of Education in 2007. His research interests are in the field of database and big data research, including the direction of batch-streaming-mixed big data real-time processing technology, cloud database management technology, and Internet big data processing technology. His papers have been published in CCF Class A international journals and academic conferences, and his research work won the VLDB 2014 Best Paper Award. He has won the first prize for the Science and Technology Progress Award by the Ministry of Education, the first for Science and Technology by Zhejiang Province, and two second prizes for the National Science and Technology Progress Award.
Pingcheng Ruan是新加坡國立大學計算機學院的博士畢業生，由Beng Chin Ooi教授指導。他是VLDB 2019年最佳論文獎和ACM SIGMOD 2020年研究亮點獎的獲獎者。他的博士論文獲得了ACM SIGMOD 2022年Jim Gray博士論文獎的榮譽提名。他的研究興趣集中在區塊鏈、分散系統、數據庫和其他數據處理平台上。2016年，他以一等榮譽學位畢業於新加坡南洋理工大學計算機科學與工程學院。
Tien Tuan Anh Dinh是新加坡科技與設計大學信息系統和技術設計（ISTD）柱的助理教授。他的研究興趣涉及分散系統、數據庫和安全性。他在英國伯明翰大學獲得博士學位，專注於應用形式方法驗證P2P系統的安全性質。他曾在新加坡電信公司擔任研究工程師，在微軟研究院的網絡和系統組擔任研究員。他曾在南洋理工大學擔任研究員，從事基於雲的系統研究，並在新加坡國立大學擔任高級研究員，從事數據庫和安全性研究。
Dumitrel Loghin是新加坡國立大學計算機學院的研究助理教授，也是新加坡區塊鏈創新計劃（SBIP）和數據庫系統研究小組的一部分。他於2017年在新加坡國立大學獲得計算機科學博士學位，2012年在布加勒斯特理工大學獲得高級計算機架構碩士學位，2010年在同一所大學獲得計算機科學學士學位。他的研究興趣包括並行和分散計算、區塊鏈和分散式數據庫系統、高級計算機架構、嵌入式系統和計算機系統的整體性能。
Meihui Zhang是中國北京理工大學計算機科學與技術學院的教授。在加入北京理工大學之前，她曾是新加坡科技與設計大學的助理教授。她在新加坡國立大學獲得博士學位。她的主要研究興趣包括大數據管理和分析、大規模數據集成、現代數據庫系統、區塊鏈系統和人工智能。她是2020年VLDB早期職業研究貢獻獎和2019年CCF-IEEE CS青年科學家獎的獲獎者。她還是VLDB 2019年最佳論文、IEEE ICDE 2018年最佳論文亞軍和2019年ACM SIGMOD亮點獎論文的合著者。她曾擔任VLDB 2018-2020、VLDB 2023、SIGMOD 2021、SIGMOD 2023、ICDE 2018和ICDE 2022-2023的研究軌道副編輯。她現任IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering（TKDE）的副編輯和Distributed and Parallel Databases的調查軌道編輯。她是VLDB基金的受託人。
Gang Chen是浙江大學計算機科學學院的教授和院長，也是浙江大學軟件學院的主任。他於2017年被教育部選為長江學者特聘教授，並成為第三批國家“百萬計劃”技術創新領軍人才；他於2012年獲得中創軟件人才獎，並於2007年被選為教育部新世紀優秀人才支持計劃。他的研究興趣集中在數據庫和大數據研究領域，包括批量-流混合大數據實時處理技術、雲數據庫管理技術和互聯網大數據處理技術。他的論文已發表在CCF A類國際期刊和學術會議上，他的研究成果
