BLOCKCHAIN
Blockchain is a term which refers to an ever-growing digital ledger which is immutable (unalterable), and is secured using cryptography and incentivization. Incentivized by receiving ‘block rewards’, participants (or nodes) on a specific blockchain go through a cryptographic procedure to create digital ‘blocks’ of data that can be thought of as pages of a digital ledger. Entries are made to the ledger by systems using the blockchain. Once an entry is made onto a blockchain ledger, every node participating in that blockchain checks its legitimacy, and uses a form of consensus to verify and group the ledger entries into a confirmed ‘block’. Each ‘block’ cryptographically signs the next block, which makes altering prior entries impossible.
PUBLIC VS. PRIVATE BLOCKCHAINS
Some blockchains are public (bitcoin, ethereum), which means anybody has the ability to participate in the block-creation and consensus mechanisms. While other blockchains are private (Quorum by JP Morgan, or HyperLedger), which means that only certain participants are allowed to generate blocks and act as ‘nodes’ for the system.
HYBRID BLOCKCHAIN
Dragonchain is implementing Hybrid Blockchains and Proof of Existence to store and access private data in an extremely secure way.
VIDEO: The Hybrid Blockchain
DECENTRALIZATION
Another capability of blockchain which makes it so revolutionary is its ability to decentralize processes that would previously require trusting third party institutions such as banks or governments for things like currency issuance or voting.
There are many uses for blockchain within Information Technology systems, and the next few years will be full of innovation in this field.
Bryan Brodsky
Co-Founder of Kryptostarter LLC
Related link:
Train Tracks and Blockchains | Business Process Reengineering (BPR) vs Business Process Management