EXPLAINING BLOCKCHAIN TO KIDS// Part 1:

Hello kids, I am here again. I am @mobibliss and as you know me, I love telling short stories. Today, I am here with an explanation of a common term to which we may have heard severally - Blockchain. How do you kids understand Blockchain?

In this explanation, we are not going to blow big Grammer. We shall keep it as simple as possible.

We often explain Blockchain to be a distributed ledger, which is immutable. It means that it is difficult to alter an information recorded on a Blockchain, once the info has been entered and verified on the network, it is therefore permanently stored, can be traced and not changed. These are true, now let's take it slowly.

First let's understand ledger and digital ledgers.

what is a ledger?

If your parents, guidance, or relatives do business, you may notice that the records of the business transactions are made. The transactions are written down so as to be remembered, like purchases, income and expenditure. The book containing these records are known as a ledger.

is digital format of the above records. The difference is that instead of being written on a paper, it is typed into a computer using a computer program designed for such.

Keeping a digital record of transactions helps business. For one thing, it saves people time and it is easier to locate: one will not need carrying big volume of books about. With simple clicks, the record can be accessed.

One basic disadvantage is that it is centralized. For example, the record are only contained in the computer to which it is computed into. There are some drawbacks to this.

1: Suppose the computer get crashed, the documents might be lost especially when it is not saved on other devices. This will mean huge problem for any firm. When two or more parties involved in the transaction rely on the records, it will be difficult to reconcile.

2: There is also possibility for someone to change or alter the records on the computer since only one computer has the records. These will create trust issues.

As we have observed, there is possibility of loss of data on event of system crashes due to centralization. Another problem is trust issue. Someone might manipulate the data stored since the info is in one central computer. What could be the solution to these issues ?

Distributed ledger solution.

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To solve the above issues comes the use of distributed ledger. Once a transaction is recorded on the network, the information is duplicated and distributed across different computers called nodes. This method makes transaction records more transparent, it solves the trust issue because no single computer controls the records. It equally saves the network unnecessary worry. For example, in a situation one computer crashes other computers still hold the records.

Now, we have understood what a ledger is and the benefit of a distributed ledger. Now let's talk about how the data are stored.

Blocks

If you goto your school library, you will notice how books are stacked. Every shelve has compartments, when a compartment is filled up with books, storage can be shifted to another compartment.

In a similar way, blocks are like individual compartments. Transaction records are bundled into blocks, when a block is filled up another block is created to bundle future transactions. This is made in a way that once a transaction is recorded, it cannot be undone. This is what is meant by immutability. However, a current block is linked or chained to the previous and to the future block, forming the word, Blockchain. It is designed in such a way that when a block in the Blockchain is altered, it will affect the rest of blocks on the chain.

Now let's stop so far .

Try this _ how will you explain Blockchain to your friends?

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