Blockchain – a rapidly evolving and disruptive emerging technology affecting business and society
What is it? A good standard definition of Blockchain from medium.com:
– ‘A Blockchain is a cryptography-based, tamper-resistant distributed ledger that stores data in a consensus driven, peer-to-peer network.’
Characteristics of a Blockchain
– Uses cryptography to ensure privacy and security of transaction data.
– Very difficult and expensive to change or manipulate the data that it stores.
– It stores data in blocks (each containing information on one or more transactions).
– The distributed ledger for the Blockchain is managed by several members of the Blockchain referred to as nodes or peer nodes.
– There must be a consensus of the validity of a new block agreed upon by the peer nodes prior to block being added to all the ledgers in a Blockchain.
The core technology of Blockchain started in 1991 and gained adoption in 2008 when Satoshi Nakamoto decided to use it to build the first Blockchain as the core component and distributed ledger technology for his ground-breaking cryptocurrency, Bitcoin.
If you want to learn more there are many free or inexpensive references available online including https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/blockchain.asp
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