What is a Blockchain?
A Brief History
Blockchain is a new kind of database. It structures the data storage in collection tables which are time stamped, otherwise known as blocks. Every few seconds a new block is created containing information which participants of that Blockchain have submitted for entry. These numbered blocks are linked to each other forming a chain, hence Blockchain! This data is open for anyone to read, but cryptographically locked.
To interact with a Blockchain, a user must create a wallet. This wallet serves two functions:
- It creates a public address where others can send things (similar to an email or social handle).
- It gives the user/key holder the ability to interact with the Blockchain by informing it that this public address is open to receive and send information.
Controlling information and commands sent to the Blockchain:
All wallets have control to send information or commands to the Blockchain from their address and anyone can send information to addresses. You may have heard the popular phrase “not your keys, not your crypto”, meaning, if you have a crypto wallet such as coinbase.com they have your private keys centrally stored (custodial wallet) and therefore you aren’t in full control.
The coinbase wallet, however, is non-custodial, meaning when you create the wallet you generate a 12-word seed phrase which is locally stored so only you have the ability to send commands to interact with your public asset address on chain.
Where the Blockchain began:
Blockchain is the backbone of cryptocurrencies, the most famous cryptocurrency being Bitcoin.
The first Blockchain was the bitcoin protocol, it was a proof of concept, created by a group of anonymous people giving themselves the cryptonym satoshi nakamoto.
Since then, a young man named Vitalik Buterin and some of his friends expanded on the Bitcoin Blockchain, creating a revolutionary concept, namely Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). This idea was to use the Blockchain structure to create a decentralised computer which could be interacted with by multiple people at the same time and give far more complex tasks than simply moving balances and comments from one address to another.
Thus, the smart contract was born…
Smart contracts are able to upload a series of commands and parameters to the Blockchain which stipulate the parameters of how anyone can interact with that smart contract on chain.
This evolution gave birth to the whole “alt coin” craze where people would create an ERC20 standard smart contract defining a new token and put it on the ethereum chain in hopes that people would interact with it.
The next big smart contract standard that was developed was the ERC721 standard. This was different because unlike the ERC20 token, the ERC721 token is non fungible. What does that actually mean? Well, the ERC20 token (like PatronageDAO’s PTRN token) is fungible, meaning every token is equally exchangeable for one another, they are not unique and just one of many. The ERC721 tokens are unique, each one has its own serial number and can have different values even though they come from the same “series” or smart contract. The ERC721 tokens are called NFTs for short and so far, their main application has been to attach a digital work of art to each token in a series.
But the ERC721 contract has many more application possibilities than art. Since each token can have its own characteristics and information, they can be used for tickets at a cricket game, or movie theatre, or airplane. You can even use them as deeds for real estate, so you no longer would need those pesky notaries since the chain would be the source of truth and provenance would be clear for everyone to see on chain.
PatronageDAO is building a decentralised museum, both physical and digital. We want to use NFTs as ownership certificates for physical art as well as attach digital art to those NFTs. Our aim is to increase access to art ownership through lowering barriers to entry through the ease of NFTs, while simultaneously ensuring theft and counterfeiting become much harder over time as the change of ownership of the asset backed NFTs (our artNFTs) will be transparent on chain.
Come join us, and help us curate our decentralised museum while owning a piece of history, both physical and digital
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