**UPDATE:Course radically updated to include latest Fabric 2.x. Watch the first video for details**

So you want to deploy a blockchain but are overwhelmed by the sea of information out there that is half-baked and seems to want to do too much at the same time.

If so, this course is for you. We will start by explaining exactly what a blockchain is from a technical perspective instead of a high-level business overview. We start from absolute zero, assume no background and give the details only as much as necessary. Then, we move on to the highly popular and industry backed blockchain framework -- Hyperledger Fabric and its high-level library -- Composer. We explain how to set everything up and then move to creating our first blockchain and then a smart contract.

We will also cover how this blockchain can be used from an existing application using a REST API. This would enable you to start using blockchains in your own applications that can benefit from a blockchain or distributed ledger.

We take a case study-based approach and motivate why we need the commands we're running and how everything fits together. If there is a concept that is typically covered in similar courses but isn't immediately necessary for deploying our first smart contract, we'll skip it. We aim to have our first smart contract up and running in about an hour and then integrate with it from outside the Fabric environment by the end of this course -- a total of about 1.5 hours.

There is also a real-time chat system in place for students who enroll in this course. With a free signup, you get access to real-time chat with myself and fellow students who are working to complete this course (or have completed the course before you). We plan on creating this network of like-minded experts who can help each other out and collaborate on exciting ideas together.

What will I learn?

• Basics of a hash

• How this simple concepts enable the powerful blockchain architecture

• Install and configure Hyperledger Fabric using the easiest method available

• Install and run Composer -- a high-level, easy to use interface to Fabric

• Set up a REST API to use our blockchain from outside Fabric

• Use a REST API testing application and then PHP to access data from our blockchain

• Use the Latest Fabric 2.x

About the instructor:

• Teacher and researcher by profession

• PhD in Security and a PostDoc from Max Planck Institute for Software Systems, Germany

• 17+ years of working with computers and 15+ years of teaching experience

• 10+ years of working professionally as a Linux System Administrator -- including 5+ years of provable track record on UpWork (with 5.0 star rating there)

What you need to know:

No prerequisites are assumed.

*** UPDATES ***

• Updated videos and files for commands changed in the next release of the official docs (just 5 days after the release of the course).

• Added Fabric 2.x details now.