Everything You Need to Know About Blockchain But Were Too Embarrassed to Ask
It might be radical, but it’s also confusing. So start here
I’m hearing a lot about “bitcoin” and “blockchain.” What’s going on?
Let’s start with the basics. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency — a digital version of an asset, much like gold. In 2017, its value skyrocketed.
Blockchain is the tech that underpins it. It’s a powerful concept and has the potential to change the world pretty drastically.
But what is it?
Blockchain is known as “distributed ledger” technology.
Almost everything we do, whether it’s getting ill, buying a house, using a credit card, voting, traveling by car, or using public transport, involves the creation and movement of data.
Blockchain is a new way of storing and moving that data, where instead of being held all in one place, the information is atomized and spread over thousands of nodes across a network, all locked together with clever cryptography.
That structure allows a lot of cool new opportunities, which we’ll get to in a bit.
