Understanding Blockchain
With the increase in awareness around cryptocurrency, you may be familiar with the term “Blockchain”. A lot of people have the misconception that blockchain and bitcoin are the same and that’s understandable. So what really is Blockchain and how does it relate to bitcoins? In this article, you’ll be learning everything you need to know about Blockchain.
What is Blockchain?
As is with most of technology, Cryptocurrencies depend on some type of database that allows and tracks enormous volumes of transactions and keeps them secure. The database used by cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin is called the blockchain.
First used in 2009, the innovation comprises ‘blocks’ that hold bunches of timestamped transactions, with each block connected to the previous one through cryptography, in this way framing a chain.
In a smart world as we have today, cryptocurrencies have become an undeniably alluring option for developing business sectors that might not have the traditional banking framework. A few countries have used blockchain-based national currency, and the innovation is also being used by a few significant charity organizations to help those without traditional bank accounts.
Anyway, blockchain also offers the chance of making cryptocurrency-based transactions fraud-proof. This consequently gives it an amazing potential for use outside of the financial space and attracting industries like Manufacturing and production, Agriculture etc.
How does Blockchain work?
A blockchain framework comprises two types of record, transactions and blocks. Transactions are just the activities completed in a specific period and they are linked together in a block.
What makes blockchain even more amazing is that each block contains the cryptographic hash of the past one, in this manner, framing a chain. What a cryptographic hash does is take the information from the previous block and change it into a simple string. Since these strings are difficult to predict it means that any alteration made to the chain is easily spotted.
The way blockchain works is such that blocks don’t need to have serial numbers, the hash permits them to be easily recognized just by checking their integrity. Each block confirms the legitimacy of the previous one right back to the very first block at the beginning of the chain.
The connecting of blocks isn’t the main thing that keeps the chain secure, instead, it’s the decentralized structure of Blockchain. This means that every PC with the cryptocurrency product introduced has a duplicate of the blockchain which is continually updated with new blocks. There is no unified system holding the transactions and in light of the fact that each new block has to correspond with the existing blocks on the chain, no one can overwrite past transactions.
How secure is blockchain?
Because of its serious cryptographic insurance frameworks, in principle, blockchain offers an unquestionably safer system than conventional banking.
The way that the innovation is decentralized, and can’t be retroactively modified or altered makes it ideal for budgetary transactions and the recording of significant data.
Blockchain is also considered secure because it has the option to protect the identity of the users — anyway this has sadly made it the preferred mode of transaction by cyber illegal transactions, as a Bitcoin network hub doesn’t need to uncover the character of the individual creating or accepting payments.
In summary, Blockchain is just a fancy word for the technology that makes cryptocurrencies like bitcoin possible and it serves as a public ledger for all cryptocurency based transactions.
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