An introduction to the future of secured transactions
Have you ever wondered what a Blockchain is? Yeah, well, you might think that Blockchain is interchangeable with Cryptocurrency. It is definitely linked with cryptocurrency but Blockchain is a lot more than that. We hope scrolling down will help you know stuff about Blockchain. Let’s dive in!
A Blockchain is a technology that has its core focus to record transactions. Well, okay it’s not only about money transactions; it speaks transactions of anything and everything that literally matters around you.
It is a wide growing list of records, called blocks that are linked using the term ‘cryptography’.
WHAT IS MEANT BY THE TERM ‘CRYPTOGRAPHY’?
Well, in simple words, cryptography is a technology used to secure information and communications through the use of lines of codes encrypting a text or a message that only the intended receiver can see it.
Imagine, x and y want to share a secret message that no one other than them should know. But z wants to look into them. So x communicates to y via secret codes in a locked box that only x and y could understand the codes.
HOW BLOCKCHAIN WORKS?
A Blockchain is just a chain of blocks. A block contains 3 things i.e., data, own hash, previous hash.
The data contains the sender details and receiver details. The hash is a special code for every block and each block contains the hash of a previous block.
By design, a Blockchain is resistant to modification of its data. This is because the hash is a unique fingerprint for each block. If you make any change to the data (I.E., the block) the fingerprint will change and that is why modifying data in a Blockchain is a challenging task. Even though the data are unalterable the Blockchain is considered secure as it illustrates a computing system with a high architect of fault tolerance. It is an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties in a structured way. This technology is complex yet exciting because of its feature and immutable contracts.
Technology is an ocean of waves and tides. There is a lot more to explore in this ocean. We hope you have gained something on what Blockchain is in this context.
-Harini Nandhakumar.
