You must have heard the term blockchain. If you do some research on the internet, you will come to know that blockchain was basically invented by a highly intelligent person or a group of intelligent people that call themselves Satoshi Nakamoto. Ever since the invention, blockchain has quickly evolved into something of great value. This has made many people wonder what exactly blockchain is. A little bit of research will tell you that blockchain was initially devised for Bitcoin, which is a digital currency. Blockchain technology gave rise to a new type of internet by allowing digital information to be distributed but not copied.
Often you will hear people address Bitcoin as “digital gold” as it is referred to at Crypto Intel Hub. If you take a closer look at the value of Bitcoin in today’s world, you will come to know that the total value of Bitcoin is almost $112 billion US. Blockchains can easily make various other types of digital value. If you can gain the basic knowledge of how this technology works, you will understand why it is often considered as revolutionary.
What Do You Mean By Blockchain Technology?
According to Don and Alex Tapscott, the authors of Blockchain Revolution, the blockchain is basically an incorruptible digital ledger of various economic transactions that can easily be programmed to record virtually everything apart from the financial transactions.
How Does Blockchain Technology Work?
Simply picture a spreadsheet that has been duplicated over a thousand times across a complex network of computers. Also, imagine that this network is truly designed to update this given spreadsheet on a regular basis. This will give you the basic idea of blockchain. All the information that is held on a blockchain basically exists as shared and also continuously reconciled database. This is primarily the way of using the network, which also has various benefits. It is good for you to know that the blockchain database is not stored in a single location. This simply means that all the records kept are easily verifiable and truly public. Since there is no centralized version of such information, hackers will find it tough to corrupt. Just because it is hosted by millions of different computers at the same time, the data is easily accessible to any person on the internet.
Robustness and Durability of Blockchain
If you compare the internet with blockchain, you will notice one similarity amongst them. They both have built-in robustness. Since the information is stored in blocks across the network in identical forms, the blockchain has no single point of failure and it cannot be controlled by any one person. It is good for you to know that Bitcoin was invented in the year 2008. Ever since its invention, the Bitcoin blockchain has worked without any major or significant disruption. This is simple for you to understand since the internet, itself, has remained durable for more than 30 years now. This is a track record that proves a plus point for the entire blockchain technology.
Incorruptible and Transparent
You will be amazed to know that the blockchain network lives in a pure state of consensus. This means that it automatically checks itself at a time gap of every 10 minutes. You may say that it is a self-auditing ecosystem. The entire network reconciles each and every transaction that takes place at equal intervals of ten minutes. Each of these transactions is referred to as blocks and it gives rise to 2 important properties. Firstly, all the transparency data is embedded within the network itself as a whole. Secondly, it is not possible to corrupt or even alter any of the unit of data or information on the blockchain. Changing any unit of the information will result in utilizing a large amount of computing power in order to override the entire network.
Enhanced Security and the Blockchain
Simply by storing a large amount of data across the network, the blockchain gets rid of any possible risks that may arise if data were held in a centralized manner. The network of blockchain lacks centralized points of vulnerability, which can easily be exploited by computer hackers. Every person on the internet relies on username and password in order to protect their assets and identity online. However, the blockchain security method uses encryption technology, which is far safer than the username and password system. Even if you store all your data on the blockchain, it is incorruptible. This makes blockchain extremely safe and secure to use. You will get a “private key” which is like a password. It gives access to you to your Bitcoin or any other digital assets.