Mini Crypto Program Part 3 ||Understanding of Blockchain| 10%goes to steem.education

source
license
Hello everyone,
I just found out about this mini crypto program and as a newbie I think this will help me build myself for the steemitcrypto academy. I’ll like to thank the @steemeducation and @liasteem for this great initiative.

What do you know about blockchain?

A blockchain is an electronic platform or a system that serves as a database for digital data in a way that makes it invulnerable(unable to hack or compromise). A blockchain contains a records of transactions made which are cloned and made accessible across a blockchain network. Basically a block is a decentralized database of transactions which allows every user access to new and old records of transactions so as to prevent dupery or other unlawful behaviors on the network. It contains records of time , dates, places etc of every single transactions conducted on the system.
A blockchain is a series of interconnected blocks
Which makes impossible to modify as you’ll need to change each block which will take a lot of time.
A blockchain comprises of Blocks,Nodes and Miners.

Block:
A block is a unit of storing data and also keeping records of transactions on a blockchain network.data stored on blocs cannot be modified as blocks are linked by hash and it day block 3 changes block 2 still stores the old hash.

Nodes:
Nodes serves as means of interaction in a blockchain. They play a very significant role in the blockchain network. A node is more like a ledger of all records of transactions in a blockchain.node are responsible for creating and verifying blocks.

Miner
Mining refers to the act of creating new blocks in a blockchain, a miner therefore refers to the individual involved in the mining process.

Describe one type of blockchain!

Public Blockchain is an open platform available to anyone without any limitations . public blockchains are Decentralized platforms that makes people to have full control of whatever they do without any third party interference. People can join public blockchains without certain requirements and also activities on a public blockchains are made visible to everyone on the network like transactions and other activities so as to notify unusual and unlawful activities.

Explain the advantages and disadvantages of the type of blockchain you choose!

Advantages of public blockchains

• public blockchains allows users to make autonomous transactions and decisions without any interference and public blockchains is not centralized on one particular individual or group to be active.

• public blockchains as said earlier on doesn’t need any requirements for joining everyone can join a public blockchain anytime and any where he wants to join.

• public blockchains are transparent in such a way that every single activity is stored and also made visible to every other person on the blockchain so as to monitor every single activity on the network.

Disadvantages of public blockchains

• there’s going to be a lot of load on public blockchains because there’s unrestricted access which makes you it very slow.

• Due to the autonomous nature of public blockchains people can make any transactions with which ever person they want to transact with without any third party, criminals can use it as an opportunity to conceal money.

Visit Blockchain Demo, and what did you learn from that page? (screenshot required)

The blockchain demo menu consists of Hash, blockchain,Block,Distributed, Tokens, Coinbase in that order. As shown below.

So you can filter the block demo to any of the above and then exploit or toggle with it.

Under Blockchain:
We can see from blockchain that there are 5 blocks each having a Nonce , Prev(previous Hash) and then Hash. Each block also has a box for data.
All blocks in the blockchain are connected with the hash all they way up to the Genesis Block which is the first block (block 1) the blockchain 2 references the hash of block 1 and block 3 that of block 3 in that order in the prev text box. The prev in block 2 contains the hash in block 1 and the prev in block 3 contains the hash in block 2 till block 5 the prev of block 1 has a hash of 0000 which means it has no previous hash.

The hash is just the digital representation of the data entered so in a case data is entered in any block the hash of that particular block changes as indicated below.

As you can see as I entered “mrmoney7” the hash value change and also the blocks turn red showing that the data is invalid or is not recognized.
to make the data valid you have to enter mine so the data will be recorded. Below every block turns green again when I click on mine on each block.

In case when you change the data in a particular block that block and the subsequent blocks turn red becomes the other blocks are linked with the hash and as the data changes the hash also change so the data must tally and be mined before they can become valid.

Under Hash:
The Hash is just a digital representation of data generated randomly.

As you can see above here , the empty data also
Has a hash and ever character or word you enter will have it’s own specific hash. For instance

From above I entered mimicrypt and it had a hash value then I went ok and added the letter O then the hash changed again.

Explain the advantages and disadvantages of using blockchain technology!

Advantages

• Blockchain works with decentralization meaning
  Power is not centered on one person to control all activities of the network. everyone is allowed to make autonomous decisions without third party interference.

• Transparency is a very significant feature in blockchain technology as every activity, transactions, data etc are stored on the block and made accessible to everyone else so any act of misconduct will be noticed .

• Blockchain documents records of everything so all assets can be traced step by step. Unlike in industries were there’s mostly problems concerning quality and other rights surrounding a product with blockchain data is shared directly to customers this will help eradicate the weakness in a supply chain.

• Unlike banks transactions on blockchains are faster as they wouldn’t so many questions asked. For instance a person is to transfer for money to a diff account in a different bank it take so much time.

Disadvantages

• Since users needs no permission to join a blockchain and there’s no central power to verify users, criminals can take this opportunity to conduct illegal transactions or launder money.

• Since Blockchains cannot be modified all information needs to be accurate. So if say on steemit you lose your keys you won’t be able to access the network again.

• Blockchain networks are considered to be mainly for people with knowledge about Technology because you have to be very skilled in >technology to be able to trade,mine, store crypto and other activities on the Network.

Conclusion

The World in transforming with Technology and Blockchain Technology is here to simplify tasks for us . Adapting to
Blockchain technology will fasten up transactions and also will provide us with security. The idea of Blockchain technology is a good initiative and we should welcome it.

Thanks to professor @liasteem for the assignment and I hope I’ve covered all parts of the questions asked and I’ll be looking forward for your review.