golang-blockchain

README

Blockchain in Go

This is a simple blockchain implementation in Go. It consists of:

• Transactions with a sender, receiver, and amount
• Blocks that contain transactions and the hash of the previous block
• A Blockchain that consists of a series of blocks

Features

• Generate new blocks containing transactions
• Calculate the hash for blocks
• Validate blocks by comparing hashes
• Maintain an immutable transaction history

Code Overview

The key components:

• Transaction struct - A basic transaction between a sender and receiver
• Block struct - Contains transactions, metadata, and cryptographic hash
• Blockchain struct - Sequence of blocks with hash pointers

Core functionality:

• NewBlock() - Create and initialize new blocks
• calculateHash() - Generate SHA-256 hash for blocks
• AddBlock() - Append new blocks to the blockchain

The main() function demonstrates creating a blockchain, adding blocks, and printing the results.

Running the Code

To run the example:

go run blockchain.go

This will initialize a blockchain, add some sample blocks, and print details to stdout.

Next Steps

Possible improvements:

• Persist the blockchain data structure
• Implement consensus algorithms
• Add transaction signatures and verification
• Optimize hashing and serialization
• Create miners that compete to add blocks
• Enable peer-to-peer network communication
• Add RPC interface for queries and updates

License

This code is released under the MIT License. Feel free to modify and reuse according to the terms.