DAO Basics

The “D” in DAO: Decentralized

When we hear decentralization positioned in cool tech terms such as “the Decentralized Web” or “Decentralized Apps (Daaps),” many of us fail to visualize what it means. Some of us even struggle to appreciate the significance of “decentralization.”

In my cryptocurrency and blockchain course, I explain the concept of a blockchain as a network. This network contains nodes that communicate and reconcile with one another programmatically so that upon completing a transaction on one node, the entire network is aware of every transaction and action.

Geek Sidebar: Decentralization as Blocks in the Blockchain

What makes the blockchain decentralized — from a programmatic perspective is the way blocks are connected — in a chain.

• Block one is connected to Block 2, which is connected to Block 3. Block 1 has a unique “hash” generated when it was created — as do Blocks 2 and 3.
• Blocks 2 and 3 also contain the previous block’s hash and the time the miners created their blocks.
• These “hashes,” their connection to previous blocks, and their creation times make the blocks — and the relationship between the blocks, unique.