Background
Blockchain: Despite the inherent “block” in it, the name has traversed more miles than any other technical term in the recent past. It is echoed in almost all existing IT infrastructures, posing a potential threat to the very existence of the present establishments. The blockchain
is said to be the technology of the future. Here I am trying to explain some facts to all those
who wish to understand the technology.
Satoshi Nakamoto is accredited as the brains behind blockchain technology. Very little is
Nakamoto is a person or a group of people that people believe could be a person or a group of people that worked on Bitcoin, the first application of digital ledger technology.
Nakamoto conceptualized the first blockchain in 2008 from where the technology has
evolved and found its way into many applications beyond cryptocurrencies. Satoshi
Nakamoto released the first whitepaper about the technology in 2009. In the whitepaper, he
provided details of how the technology was well equipped to enhance digital trust given the
decentralization aspect that meant nobody would ever be in control of anything.
The Introduction of Blockchain Technology
Blockchain technology is used by many people to do different things. Sometimes they
Sometimes it’s about Bitcoin, sometimes it’s about cryptocurrencies or digital tokens, or it
may be about smart contracts. The fact is that often the term “blockchain” is used.
Consequently, not only the word “Blockchain Technology” but the whole terms and terminologies related to it have become confusing for many. However, all these usages have a common thread, which is the distributed ledger technology theme. In distributed ledger technology, the transactions are copied and stored across individual computers on the network rather than being stored on a central server.
The Structure of Blockchain
Then the blocks are linked together with cryptography and secured from modification. The
The whole process will create an immutable record of the transactions that happened across the network. Additionally, these blocks of records are copied to every participating node in the
network, so everyone will have access to it. The great advantage of blockchain is that it can
store any kind of asset, its ownership details, history of the ownership, and location of assets.
in the network. The powerful feature of blockchain is that we can create a shared reality
across non-trusting entities. That is, all of the participating nodes in the network do not need
They do not need to know each other or trust each other because each can monitor and validate the chain for themselves.
The Data Structure of Blockchain
The data in a blockchain is stored as individual blocks. That’s why it is called a blockchain. Just
Like a linked list, the blockchain is a collection of blocks linked together. So what does the
What does this block contain? Each block in a blockchain will have the following fields:
- Data: Stores the data.
- Previous hash: Stores the hash of the previous block.
- Hash: Hash value for the current block which can be used to refer to this block.
- Nonce: Number or value that can only be used once.
As far as the user is concerned, the data field is the most important thing. The actual data
(like transaction details, asset details, etc.) are stored in this field. The previous hash will be
Then it stores the hash values of the previous blocks (consider it as a link to the previous block), and the blocks are connected through this value.
These are some of the facts you need to know about blockchain technology. These facts do not include everything you may come across while dealing with blockchain; rather, it is a starter pack as more of the facts will be elaborated on in the next blockchain articles.
