Time for plan B?
Tags: Open Source, Technology, Cryptography, Finance, Blockchain

Blockchain Technology

What Is A Block-chain and why does it matter?

A blockchain is a digital ever growing list of data records. Such is a list comprised of many blocks of data, organized in a chronological order. The blocks are linked and secured by cryptographic proofs.

Blockchain providence of excellence proof of prior existence

As a distributed ledger technology(DLT), the blockchain is intentionally designed to be highly resistant to modification and frauds(such as double-spending)

A famous writer and cryptographer has been quoted to say that the result of it, is a distributed system with no single point of failure. For example peeps transacting directly with each other with the help of p2p network to check for double-spending.

Assuming…

A seller goes into the chain and deletes something from the records. How do you handle the situation?

As much as beauty is dangerous, intelligence is lethal .

Blockchain intelligence will compare the seller’s records to all other records. When the alteration is noticed, then it will require rebuilding of all blocks above the changed one. The combination of these blocks provides immunity to unofficial changes.

So…what kind of data does blockchain accommodate?

Think of everything and anything that has value. From financial transactions, identity management, Internet of things(IoT), smart contracts, supply chain auditing, land title registration and last but not least among the few mentioned is governance!

Similar to how the Internet revolutionized the way people process information and connect with one another, smart contracts for example, promise to fundamentally change the way societies make and keep agreements among individuals and groups. They are deterministic. Once added to the blockchain, they execute as coded. Because the contract is self-executing, neither party can alter the clauses or decide to renege on their end.

A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots~Marcus Garvey

History of Blockchain

The first prototype of a blockchain dates back to the early 1990s when computer scientist, Stuart Haber and physicist, W. Scott Stornetta applied cryptographic techniques in a chain of blocks to secure digital documents from data tampering. The work of Haber and Stornetta certainly inspired the work of Dave Bayer, Hal Finney and many other computer scientists and cryptography enthusiasts.

Eventually this led to the creation of bitcoin, the first decentralized global electronic cash system(or simply the first cryptocurrency). The Bitcoin whitepaper, an open source project was first published in 2008 under the pseudonym, Satoshi Nakamoto.

Although the blockchain technology is older than Bitcoin, it is a core underlying component of most cryptocurrency networks, acting as a decentralized distributed and public digital ledger that is responsible for keeping a permanent record(chain of blocks) of all previously confirmed transactions

This being my episode zero of blockchain series in the new decade, i’m looking forward to doing another episode, one, with you!