Blockchain Technology: Know it all

Blockchain Technology is the talk of the town and if you are here to learn about the latest technology made revolutionary changes. We have some interesting news for you. In simple words, Nithin wants to buy a cup of coffee from Pradeep. Pradeep is waiting to sell Nithin the cup of coffee at $3. Up on agreement, the transaction details will be recorded in a ledger. This is exactly the principle behind blockchain.

When it comes to website development and AI and Automation IT products, we often see how the role of Blockchain can be embedded for the client. This helps them in respect of easy manageability and security not only in the home office but wherever they operate onsite or remotely. 

What is Blockchain Technology?

A blockchain is a distributed ledger that is completely open to anyone. They have an interesting property, once entered information can never be erased. So the blockchain contains a verifiable record of every single transaction ever made.

Features of Blockchain Technology

• Blockchain technology treats each transaction as separate blocks. So let me explain how does Blockchain work? Well, Let us take a closer look at a block.
• A block is the current part of a Blockchain that records recent transactions. Once it is verified it becomes a permanent part of the growing Blockchain. Each block of a Blockchain contains the data, the hash of the block, and a hash of the previous block.
• The data that is stored inside the block depends on the type of Blockchain . For example, a Bitcoin Blockchain stores the details about a transaction in the data section of the block such as sender, receiver, and number of coins.
• The hash is a unique identification key, which is used to identify a block and all of its contents. Once a block is created, its hash is calculated. And changing something inside a block causes its hash to change. These hashes are also used to detect the changes that happened to blocks.
• The third element of each block is the hash of the previous block. This actually creates a chain of blocks and this technique that makes a Blockchain so secure.

Let us take an example; we have a chain of three blocks as you can see each block has a hash and hash of the previous blocks.

 So here we can see block 3 points to block 2 and block 2 points to block 1. It is very clear that the first block is not pointed to the previous block because it is the first one and this block is known as the genesis block.

 Now let us say that if somebody is trying to alter the second block, as I mentioned earlier the hash of the block to change as well. I am just illustrating the block as a color change and in this case the changed block points to yellow color. As we can see in the below picture, the hash of the block 2 is changed from 7BYI2 to H62Y7.

 So the change in block 2 makes block 3 and all its following blocks invalid because they no longer store a valid hash of the previous block. So altering a block will make all following blocks invalid. That's how the blockchain eliminates intruders.

 If you read a case study taken up at IBM (https://www.ibm.com/downloads/cas/DQPLDP8N) in healthcare, it describes how each segment of analysis, treatment, and patient care can be set into blocks and worked upon. This way, they should see the opportunities and problems that each situation experiences in a more systematic manner.

What are the types of Blockchain Technologies used?

In general, the Blockchain runs on three important technologies like:

• Distributed Peer-to-Peer network - Distributed machines on the Peer-to-Peer network help in maintaining the consistency of the public ledger.
• Private Key Cryptography - Blockchain uses private key cryptography to secure identities and hash functions to make the Blockchain immutable.
• Proof of Work - The mathematical principle of proof of work ensures that the nodes automatically and continuously agree to the current state of the ledger.

Conclusion

Having read this, we hope to have given a fair idea about the Blockchain technology concept. Now, if you are into retail sales, healthcare, fashion, research, and any industry, this can be used. We help curate tailor made websites that are backed by Blockchain and the latest tech stack. This aids companies in that development and profit generation can be accelerated and optimized. A detailed consultation with Our IT experts can help you get more clarity on these subjects.