What Is Blockchain Technology?
Blockchain is a cutting-edge database technology that drives transparent data-sharing over a network. Blockchain databases retain chronological consistency, preventing data from being deleted or modified without network consensus. Developers can use this feature to create a secure, immutable ledger for tracking values such as payments, orders, and user accounts.
Blockchain gets its name due to its architecture: data is stored in ‘blocks’ connected in a ‘chain’. The block is the structure that records transactions, while the chain consists of numerous databases connected over a network using peer-to-peer nodes. Such a configuration, also known as a ‘digital ledger’, allows the system to support built-in mechanisms for preventing unauthorized entries. Users can access a consistent ‘shared view’ of data with it.
Despite its recent popularity, blockchain originated in the late 1970s. Ralph Merkle, a computer scientist, created the base for modern-day blockchain by patenting Hash trees. Also known as Merkle trees, these computer science structures store data using cryptography to link blocks.
Just before the turn of the millennium, W. Scott Stornetta and Stuart Haber created a system that used Hash trees to prevent document timestamps from being modified arbitrarily. And thus, the first instance of blockchain came into existence.
Today, blockchain is leveraged to record data securely. Making unauthorized changes to the information stored in a blockchain database is challenging. This is possible because the ‘distributed ledger’ created by blockchain duplicates and transmits the records of every transaction across the computers that are a part of the blockchain network.
Continue reading: https://www.spiceworks.com/tech/devops/articles/what-is-blockchain/
Blockchain is a cutting-edge database technology that drives transparent data-sharing over a network. Blockchain databases retain chronological consistency, preventing data from being deleted or modified without network consensus. Developers can use this feature to create a secure, immutable ledger for tracking values such as payments, orders, and user accounts.
Blockchain gets its name due to its architecture: data is stored in ‘blocks’ connected in a ‘chain’. The block is the structure that records transactions, while the chain consists of numerous databases connected over a network using peer-to-peer nodes. Such a configuration, also known as a ‘digital ledger’, allows the system to support built-in mechanisms for preventing unauthorized entries. Users can access a consistent ‘shared view’ of data with it.
Despite its recent popularity, blockchain originated in the late 1970s. Ralph Merkle, a computer scientist, created the base for modern-day blockchain by patenting Hash trees. Also known as Merkle trees, these computer science structures store data using cryptography to link blocks.
Just before the turn of the millennium, W. Scott Stornetta and Stuart Haber created a system that used Hash trees to prevent document timestamps from being modified arbitrarily. And thus, the first instance of blockchain came into existence.
Today, blockchain is leveraged to record data securely. Making unauthorized changes to the information stored in a blockchain database is challenging. This is possible because the ‘distributed ledger’ created by blockchain duplicates and transmits the records of every transaction across the computers that are a part of the blockchain network.
Continue reading: https://www.spiceworks.com/tech/devops/articles/what-is-blockchain/
