Blockchain for Business.

Understand the abstract nature of blockchain

Blockchain is an open-source ledger, distributed
across millions of computers and secured using cryptography.

Each block is added to the chain and acknowledged by the network to confirm it. They all hold a record of the chain and validate it by having the same chain of records on their ledger.

Each block contains the information from previous blocks in correct order to create a chain of blocks. while this gives us a secure and immutable ledger of past transactions it does make it harder to keep adding blocks as the chains get bloated with information and run into scaling issues for all of the information held on the chain.

As a new and emerging technology, blockchain holds the potential to revolutionize online transactions and change businesses across all sectors.

“What the internet did for communications,
blockchain will do for trusted transactions.”

• Ginni Rometty, IBM CEO

How the blockchain works.

Step 1: A transaction is registered.
Step 2. The transaction becomes a new block in the digital ledger.
Step 3. This block is broadcasted to all participants on the network.
Step 4. Validators approve the transaction.
Step 5. This validated block is added to the chain.
Step 6. The transaction is verified and completed.

Characteristics of a blockchain.

• Immutability
• Programmability
• Transparency
• Decentralized consensus
• Distributed trust
• Access. Permissioned/ Permissionless.

All of these characteristics can be contained within a blockchain and hold both negative and positive connotations. There are both public and private blockchains which can be told apart be your right to access them. Do you need permission from the network validators or can you access without permission.

Bitcoin is a great example of a permissionless or public blockchain. One that allows for peer to peer transactions without needing permission from network validators to own, hold or transfer Bitcoin.
It is a decentralized digital currency, meaning that compared to traditional fiat currencies it operates without a central bank.

Transactions are verified by nodes and secured using cryptography. Each transaction is stored on a public ledger which makes it transparent and immutable.