Blockchain is a transformational technology with the potential to extend digital transformation beyond a company’s walls and into the processes it shares with suppliers, customers, and partners. At its core, a blockchain is a data structure that’s used to create a digital transaction ledger that, instead of resting with a single provider, is shared among a distributed network of computers.
The cool thing about blockchains is that they use cryptograpy to make sure that we notice it when any information on any page in the book is changed. This property makes it a good data structure to keep track of records of anything of value.
As the blockchain has been used to keep track of the movement of all Bitcoins since their inception, the ledger can be checked to know exactly who owns which Bitcoin at any time.
To use a blockchain as a ledger for transactional data, I have to be able to check in the blockchain if someone actually made a transaction to my address or wallet.
Blockchain technology is essentially just a new way of maintaining agreements. The big difference between blockchain technology and existing methods, is that a blockchain agreement is not maintained centrally by one authority.
The blockchain itself does not have any power outside its own agreement, it can’t break someone’s legs if the physical gold represented on the blockchain isn’t accounted for. But it is still possible to use Blockchains as the way of maintaining these agreements if the agreement is given legal precedence or a trusted third party “backs” it.
A blockchain is a magic computer that anyone can upload programs to and leave the programs to self-execute, where the current and all previous states of every program are always publicly visible, and which carries a very strong crypto economically secured guarantee that programs running on the chain will continue to execute in exactly the way that the blockchain protocol specifies.
Blockchain is a highly disruptive technology that promises to change the world as we know it. The technology is not only shifting the way we use the Internet, but it is also revolutionizing the global economy.
Blockchain will profoundly disrupt hundreds of industries that rely on intermediaries, including banking, finance, academia, real estate, insurance, legal, health care and the public sector — amongst many others.
Blockchain promises to democratise and expand the financial system.
