Blockchain Technology

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Headline : Blockchain Technology
Details :
Details:  Blockchain Technology
The Blockchain technology has become a regular news item with the emergence of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Now, this technology is disrupting almost all markets, changing the way we do our day to day business. Yes, the blockchain technology is changing our world.

Blockchain: Introduction
Blockchain is a digital ledger. Ledger is a book containing accounts to which debits and credits are posted from books of original entry. A blockchain is a digitized, decentralized, public ledger.
The blockchain is an incorruptible digital ledger of transactions that can be programmed to record virtually everything of value. Each list of record in a blockchain is called block. So a blockchain is a continuously growing list of records called blocks, which are linked and secured.
Blockchain Technology was invented by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 for use in the cryptocurrency bitcoin, as its public transaction ledger. Satoshi Nakamoto’s aim in creating the decentralized Bitcoin ledger the blockchain—was to allow users to control their own money so that no third party, not even the government, would be able to access or monitor it.
Bitcoin Is To Blockchain As Email Was To The Internet:
In the 1990s, when the internet technology (TCP/IP or HTTP) was in the native stages, email was the first major application. Later new applications like web browsers came. Websites became popular. People started using chat software like Skype. Now if you look at your mobile, see how many different applications are run using the Internet.
Similarly, when blockchain technology emerged, bitcoin was the first major application which used it. Other cryptocurrencies followed the trend. Now, blockchain technology is used in a variety of applications like security, online voting etc.

Technologies behind blockchain technology:
  • Private Key Cryptography
  • P2P Network (Peer-2-Peer)
  • Program (the blockchain’s protocol)

Need of blockchain technology:
  • The blockchain is a mechanism to bring everyone to the highest degree of accountability. No more missed transactions, human or machine errors, or an exchange that was not done with the consent of the parties involved.
  • Blockchain helps to guarantee the validity of a transaction by recording it not only on the main register but a connected distributed system of registers, all of which are connected through a secure validation mechanism.

Blockchain technology can find applications in the following areas in future:
  • Supply chain management – Whenever value changes hands or the status of asset changes, blockchain is ideally suited for managing the process.
  • Smart contracts – Any industry heavily reliant on contracts, such as insurance, financial institutions, real estate, construction, entertainment, and law, would benefit from blockchain’s indisputable way to update, manage, track and secure contracts.
  • Asset protection – Whether you’re a musician who wants to ensure you get royalties when your music gets played or a property owner, blockchain technology can help you protect your assets by creating an indisputable record of real-time ownership.
  • Personal Identification – Governments manage vast amounts of personal data from birth and death records to marriage certificates, passports and census data. Blockchain technology offers a streamlined solution for managing all of it securely.
  • Payment processing – Blockchain has the potential to be highly transformative to any company that processes payments. It can eliminate the need for intermediaries that are common in payment processing today.
  • Crowdfunding – As with traditional crowdfunding, a blockchain powered crowdfunding campaign seeks to secure investment for a new project from an interested community. But in this instance, funding is most likely to come in the form of bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.

Blockchain technology – Criticisms and Challenges:
  • Huge power required: Remember all that computing power required to verify transactions? Those computers need electricity. Bitcoin is a poster child of the problematic escalation in power demanded from a large blockchain network. That’s not appealing given today’s concerns about climate change, the availability of power in developing countries, and reliability of power in developed nations.
  • Security about the private key: The private key must remain secret at all times because revealing it to third parties is equivalent to giving them control over the bitcoins secured by that key. The private key must also be backed up and protected from accidental loss, because if it’s lost it cannot be recovered and the funds secured by it are forever lost, too.
  • Transaction speed: Transaction speed is also an issue. As we noted above, blocks in a chain must be verified by the distributed network, and that can take time.

Blockchain technology – opportunities:
  • The blockchain allows our smart devices to speak to each other better and faster.
  • Blockchain solves the problem of manipulation. It brings everyone to the highest degree of accountability.
  • Online identity and reputation will be decentralized. We will own the data that belongs to us.
  • Cryptocurrencies take the power away from governments to control the value of currencies and hand it to people.
  • The potential is great for people in the informal economy to exploit the blockchain’s middleman-free way to exchange asset.
  • Blockchain technology can more equitably address issues related to freedom, jurisdiction, censorship, and regulation, perhaps in ways that nation-state models and international diplomacy efforts regarding human rights cannot.
  • Blockchain-based systems allow for the removal of intermediaries involved in the record keeping and transfer of assets.
  • The removal of intermediaries and settlement on distributed ledgers allows for dramatically increased transaction speeds compared to a wide range of existing systems.
  • Data entered on the blockchain is immutable, preventing against fraud through manipulating transactions and the history of data. Transactions entered on the blockchain provide a clear trail to the very start of the blockchain allowing any transaction to be easily investigated and audited.

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