Something About Blockchain You Should Know To Earning More From It

Types of blockchain

Blockchain platforms can be either permissionless or Permissioned blockchains require approval to access, making them essentially private blockchains. Permissionless blockchain does not require permission to enter the blockchain network. In a public, permissionless blockchain like Bitcoin, every node in the network can conduct transactions and participate in the consensus process. In a private, permissioned chain like Multichain, every node might be able to perform transactions, but participation in the consensus process is restricted to a limited number of approved nodes.

Numerous blockchain Platforms are available, but three of the most prominent are Ethereum blockchain, Hyperledger Fabric and OpenChain.

Ethereum blockchain is a widely used, open source and custom-built blockchain platform considered to be an industry-leading choice for enterprise applications.

Hyperledger Fabric is another open source blockchain platform. Used by industries such as finance and manufacturing, it is designed for permissioned networks. Hyperledger Fabric can also be used for decentralized hosting and storage of applications that employ smart contracts.

OpenChain is an open source blockchain platform for organizations that want to manage and preserve digital assets. An administrator of an OpenChain blockchain will define the rules used in the ledger. Users can then exchange value on the ledger by adhering to the rules.

Advantages of blockchain

Experts cite several key benefites to using blockchain.

Security is probably the most significant advantage. It is almost impossible to corrupt a blockchain because the information is shared and continually reconciled by thousands, even millions, of computers. Blockchain also has no single point of failure.

Transactions can be more efficient than in non-DLT-based transactional systems, though public blockchains can sometimes suffer from slow speed and inefficiency.

It's resilient: There is no problem if one node goes down because all the other nodes have a copy of the ledger.

It provides trust between participants on a network. Confirmed blocks are very difficult to reverse, which means data is difficult to remove or change.

It can be cost effective because it often reduces the expense associated with transactions by eliminating middlemen and third parties.

Disadvantages of blockchain

Experts say blockchain also hhas potential drawbacks, ricks and challenges

With public blockchains, there are questions about ownership and who is responsible when problems arise.

There are also questions about whether organizations are capable of or willing to invest in the infrastructure needed to build, participate and maintain a blockchain-based network.

Changing data in a blockchain typically takes a lot of work.

Users have to keep track of their private keys to avoid losing their money.

Storage can grow to be very large over time, which risks the loss of nodes if the ledger becomes too large for users to download.

Blockchain is susceptible to 51% attacks, which is a specific attack designed to overwhelm other participants in the network and change blocks.

Blockchain privacy and security

Security is seen as one of the major advantages of blockchain. Blocks are always stored chronologically, and it is extremely difficult to change a block once it has been added to the end of the blockchain. Each block has its own hash code and the hash code of the block that comes before it. If a hacker tries to edit a block, the block's hash will change, meaning the hacker would have to change the next block's hash in the chain, and so on. Therefore, to change one block, a hacker would have to change every other block that comes after it, which would take a massive amount of computing power.

Despite the use of consensus algorithms, blockchain is still susceptible to 51% attacks in which an attacker has more than 50% control over all the computing power on a blockchain, gaining the ability to overwhelm the other participants on the network. This type of attack is unlikely, though, because it would take a large amount of effort and a lot of computing power to execute.

History of blockchain

A protocol similar to blockchain was first proposed in a 1982 dissertation by David Chaum, an American computer scientist and cryptographer.

In 1991, Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta worked on furthering the description of a chain of blocks secured through cryptography. From this point on, some individuals began working on developing digital currencies.

In 2008, a developer or group of developers working under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto developed a white paper that established the model for blockchain, including the hash method used to timestamp blocks. One year later, in 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto implemented a blockchain using the currency Bitcoin. To this day, no one knows for sure who Satoshi Nakamoto really is.

Interest in enterprise application of blockchain has grown since then as the technology evolved and as blockchain-based software and peer-to-peer networks designed for enterprise use came to market.

Enterprise leaders started to look more seriously at the technology early on, seeing more and more potential as early as 2014, when blockchain technology started to become more distinct from the idea of a specific currency. At that time, experts started to see blockchain's potential for financial transactions in general as well as its potential for other organizational transactions.

Actual adoption was slow. In 2019, Gartner found that just 1% of CIOs were adopting blockchain. Just a little more than that -- 8% -- were in short-term planning for looking into or implementing blockchain, with financial services, life sciences and healthcare among the industries with the highest rates of blockchain adoption.

The 2020 Global Blockchain Survey from Deloitte showed further growth in enterprise interest in the technology: In 2018, 43% of responding C-suite executives said blockchain will be critical and a top-five strategic priority. The number climbed to 53% in 2019 and to 55% in 2020.