To get the most out of this book

For most parts of the book, you don't need anything beyond what is mentioned in this section. It goes through all of the things that you'll need to implement a blockchain yourself. I have taken the approach of using free services and tools wherever possible. I will explain in greater detail the different tools and services throughout the book, but let's start by introducing what is needed at minimum:

• For implementing a blockchain smart contract, we will use software from Hyperledger Fabric (https://www.hyperledger.org/projects/fabric).
• Our blockchain will run on Oracle Autonomous Blockchain Cloud Service, but you can also run the Fabric blockchain on-premises using Docker images. To run on-premises, you need to download and install the pre-requirements (https://hyperledger-fabric.readthedocs.io/en/release-1.1/install.html).
• Oracle Cloud Account: A trial of the Blockchain Cloud Service will be sufficient for most things (as long as you have try running the blockchain within the trial period).
• We also make use of Postman (https://www.getpostman.com) as a tool to talk with the APIs supplied by the blockchain software. Postman is a free download.