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Cryptolearnwhat Is Blockchain
Cryptolearnwhat Is Blockchain
Cryptolearnwhat Is Blockchain
What is a Blockchain?
What’s a blockchain?
Most normal databases have someone in charge who can write or change
the entries. A blockchain is a different kind of database because nobody is
in charge.
changed.
In this lesson, I will explain what a blockchain is, how they work and
why it’s special.
What is a blockchain?
The type of data recorded on a blockchain can take on any form and
depends on the blockchain type.
These blocks are added according to a set of special rules (known as the
“consensus mechanism”).
Each block uses two things to be able to “link” or “chain” to each other:
Once a block gets created, a hash gets generated. A hash of the block is
similar to a numerical “fingerprint” that identifies the block and its contents.
If you’re not familiar with what a “hash” is. Please read my “Beginner’s Guide to
Hashing“.
Because blocks build “on top of each other”, I usually prefer to envision a
blockchain in a vertical form like a tower of blocks.
But to save space, let’s rotate the blockchain in our minds and view it in a
horizontal form like a sideways tower…
Or a train…
So the blockchain looks like this:
As you can see, every block includes a reference to the block that came
before it, and you can follow the links backward from the most recent block
to the very first block (known as the “Genesis Block”).
The unique way in which blocks are linked means that altering one block
would require all previous blocks to be altered as well. This makes it
(almost) impossible to compromise previously written data.
For example, let’s take a look at the earlier image again where the hash
acts as a block ID number.
This blockchain has a “length” of 102 blocks. Or to be more accurate, it has
a “block height” of 102 blocks.
If a single piece of Block #100 is altered, Block #100’s hash will change,
causing Block #101’s hash to change and so on, all the way until Block
#102.
Every block after Block #100 will be invalidated. This design prevents
anyone from altering a block once it is part of the blockchain without
completely rebuilding the blockchain.
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This is why it’s hard to change the data once recorded on a blockchain.
In order to change the data and have the altered blockchain become the
“official” copy of the blockchain, you would have to alter YOUR copy of the
blockchain that’s stored on your computer AND also get more than half of
all the nodes on the Bitcoin network to update theirs as well.
Bitcoin’s blockchain keeps track of the ownership of all bitcoin (BTC). This
ensures that everyone knows which bitcoins belong to whom.
As transactions take place over the network, transaction data are grouped
together into “blocks” and added chronologically to the network’s ongoing
chain of “blocks”.
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If you think of the blockchain as a “book” that stores the record of every
transaction that has ever occurred on the Bitcoin network, then a block is
like a “page” that gets added to this “book” whenever bitcoins are moved
from one address to another.
The Bitcoin network uses the blockchain as a ledger to organize the history
of all transactions that have ever taken place between Bitcoin addresses.
This ledger is publicly visible, allowing anyone to verify that it has not been
tampered with.
Each Bitcoin node stores a full copy of the blockchain, and nodes
communicate among themselves to ensure that everyone is up to date with
the latest changes to the blockchain.
Nodes do not rely on trusted third parties to tell them whether transactions
are valid or not. Instead, they independently validate fresh transactions
themselves using the rules of the Bitcoin network.
Satoshi Nakamoto never actually used the term, “blockchain”. In his white paper, the
word “block” is used 67 times, and the word “chain” is used 27 times, but “blockchain”
and “block chain” never appear.
Because the blockchain and Bitcoin were invented together, they are often
mentioned together, but Bitcoin is NOT blockchain.
When Bitcoin was first released in 2009, it was the first working example
of a blockchain being used in the real world.
Bitcoin wouldn’t be possible without blockchain technology, but the two are
completely different.
While Bitcoin was the first, there are now many other cryptocurrencies with
their own blockchains.
The ledger does not reside in one place. It is copied across nodes that are
geographically distributed across the world.
They just have to be shared with other computers across the network. This
means that the ledger no longer exists in a central location (on a
centralized “server”) but instead, is “distributed” across multiple locations.
Just like every iPhone is a smartphone, not all smartphones are iPhones.
Or every Kardashian is an influencer, but not all influencers are
Kardashians.ὠ
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