Blockchain Foundations: Principles, Architecture, and Global Applications of Distributed Ledger Technology

Blockchain Foundations: Principles, Architecture, and Global Applications of Distributed Ledger Technology, by Saina Philip Kipkosgei, is a seven-chapter textbook introducing distributed ledger technology from first principles for undergraduate and postgraduate students.Chapter 1 builds cryptography, distributed consensus, Merkle trees, proof-of-work and proof-of-stake, and scalability, extending into privacy, enterprise systems, and decentralization theory.Chapter 2 covers cryptocurrency monetary economics, including Bitcoin and Ethereum monetary policy and institutional adoption, with attention to Africa, including M-Pesa, eNaira, and Kenya's regulatory evolution.Chapter 3 examines decentralized finance: lending, automated market makers, restaking, account abstraction, and asset tokenization.Chapters 4-7 extend to NFTs and digital ownership, Web3 infrastructure, stablecoin legislation and monetary geopolitics, and regulation and ethics.The text pairs technical rigor with a distinctive emphasis on African adoption cases, setting it apart from comparable blockchain texts.