Dear all,
For those who are still getting their heads around the New World Order of cryptocurrency, here is a short introduction to blockchain.
Who invented it?
Blockchain was creates by a person or group of people known by the pseudonym, Satoshi Nakamoto. This unknown person or persons developed bitcoin and in doing so authored the bitcoin white paper ( an authoritative report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision.) Satoshi Nakamoto created and deployed bitcoin's original reference implementation. As part of the implementation, they also devised the first blockchain database.
What is it?
Blockchain allows digital information to be distributed but not copied. Blockchain technology created the backbone of a new type of internet. However, the tech community is now finding other potential uses for the technology. For example, in January 2016, ASX selected Digital Asset as a technology partner to develop, test and demonstrate to ASX a working prototype of a post-trade platform for the cash equity market using DLT (an example of which is commonly referred to as 'blockchain').
To date, Bitcoin's total value of the currency is close to $9 billion US. Hence, blockchain is definitely worth learning about.
"One positive aspect of blockchain technology is that it is an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value.” - Don & Alex Tapscott, authors Blockchain Revolution (2016).
Blockchain is essentially a spreadsheet that is duplicated thousands of times across a network of computers. Information held on a blockchain exists as a shared — and continually reconciled — database. This is a way of using the network that has obvious benefits.
Benefits
- The blockchain database isn’t stored in any single location, meaning the records it keeps are truly public and easily verifiable.
- No centralized version of this information exists for a hacker to corrupt.
- It is hosted by millions of computers simultaneously, its data is accessible to anyone on the internet.
- The blockchain cannot be controlled by a single entity.
- It has no single point of failure.
- It is transparent.
- It cannot be corrupted.
Why don't people try to take control of Blockchain?
If one person or a group of people did try to do so (assuming their incentive is financial benefit) it would destroy the value of the technology, Bitcoin and altcoins. Therefore, there is no personal incentive to do so.
“Blockchain solves the problem of manipulation. When I speak about it in the West, people say they trust Google, Facebook, or their banks. But the rest of the world doesn’t trust organizations and corporations that much — I mean Africa, India, the Eastern Europe, or Russia. It’s not about the places where people are really rich. Blockchain’s opportunities are the highest in the countries that haven’t reached that level yet.” - Vitalik Buterin, inventor of Ethereum
A network of so-called computing “nodes” make up the blockchain
Node = a computer connected to the blockchain network using a client that performs the task of validating and relaying transactions) gets a copy of the blockchain, which gets downloaded automatically upon joining the blockchain network. Together they create a powerful second-level network, a wholly different vision for how the internet can function.
Decentralization
By design, the blockchain is a decentralized technology. By creating a new way to verify transactions aspects of traditional commerce could become unnecessary. Stock market trades become almost simultaneous on the blockchain, for instance — or it could make types of record keeping, like a land registry, fully public. And decentralization is already a reality.
Reference: https://blockgeeks.com/guides/what-is-blockchain-technology/
I hope this helps.
Thanks,
Emma.