How to build a blockchain in Rust

Blockchain technology, closely associated with peer-to-peer (P2P) tech, remains a significant topic in IT due to its decentralized infrastructure potential, despite varied interest largely driven by cryptocurrency hype. The tutorial illustrates building a simple blockchain application using Rust, focusing on technical aspects like mining, consensus, and P2P networking, rather than creating a secure or efficient system. The guide emphasizes understanding fundamental blockchain concepts by constructing a decentralized ledger where nodes can add data by mining valid blocks and broadcasting them within a P2P network. The application, built with Rust and libraries like libp2p and Tokio, demonstrates basic blockchain functionality and consensus mechanisms, though it is not suited for production use. The tutorial includes setting up the Rust environment, implementing blockchain and network logic, and testing the application across multiple nodes to demonstrate chain validation and block propagation. This exercise serves as an educational foundation for exploring more robust blockchain applications using frameworks like Substrate.