Welcome to The Blockchain Revolution

What is Blockchain? Why are we talking about it?

The idea behind this magnum opus is to decentralize finances and create a trade that operates without intermediaries and more as an electronic ledger. The actors would not be people anymore but machines. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is generating discourse that revolves around creating a safer technology and the need to work on trust. Word around is that Bitcoin keeps getting lost or stolen, yet its purpose in the first place was an actual transition to make it more mainstream.

Persistence and transparency were the founding elements behind Blockchain as well as the idea of not changing previous data as a way to defraud the system but only to add data. Thus, parties on negotiating ends may not trust each other but can rely on this mechanism that is operating on a peer-to-peer basis, making it all the more difficult to defraud. Once its legalities are set in place and its terms are made clearer, Blockchain will revolutionize the modus operandi of society today, making it much more viable during peak load periods.

How did the initial idea take off?

This was pretty straightforward in the beginning as it could function to launch new cryptographically secure "tokens" or "coins", which are easy to transfer peer-to-peer. These coins could be traded to fund software start-ups that people regard as substantial but are too intricate to finance within a traditional structure. However, these coins could serve as shares and thus, allow these projects to finance themselves far more efficiently, without any third-party intersections that take fees and require a convoluted process. These coins may not only have a monetary purpose but could be deployed for uses such as accessing a network or a gigabyte of storage.

An Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is a means of creating digital certificates with their regulations, particularities, signatures, programs, and other features which are manipulated cryptographically. The digital version of a check or an IOU is credentialed equivalent to a security, a product, or a simple financial transaction. In a traditional structure, all of these elements have different risks and assessment bodies monitoring them. Some of these regulations are set as a means of protecting the investors, customers, and society alike. These rules have not caught up with ICOs yet and thus, ICOs are being camouflaged as the hidden jackpot that once discovered will make you instantly rich- a gold rush mentality that is harming individuals, developers, and organizers alike simply because the legal, normative, and technical procedures have not been established yet and thus, many are manipulating the situation in their favor.

How does Blockchain work?

Blockchain is based on a link of blocks containing information. The basis of understanding lies in the fact that once data is blocked inside the Blockchain, changing that data becomes increasingly difficult. Each Blockchain contains a hash, data, and the hash of the previous block. The hash identifies a block as well as all of its contents, which are unique like a fingerprint. Once a block is created, the hashes can then detect any changes made to the block. All sequential blocks contain the hash of the previous block minus the genesis block. Blockchains also operates on a proof-of-work mechanism that can ably demonstrate the creation of these blocks. It only takes 10 minutes to add a new block to the chain. To tamper with one block, you would need to recalculate the rest of the following blocks.

Blockchain also creates a P2P (peer-to-peer) network, where everything is still in order. Each node then verifies the block to check it has not been tampered with. To successfully tamper with a block, 50% of the P2P network needs to be in agreement, which is highly impossible. This is where the role of the DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organisation) comes into play, which is run through rules-encoded computer programs called "Smart Contracts". Smart Contracts are completely machine-based and machine-drawn and operated by the DAO. Again, the legal compliance systems upon which the DAO operates, are still hazy.

Conclusion

Blockchain could constitute a complete overhaul of the way things are done, where what is today considered a long-drawn-out transaction could be finalized in a matter of minutes. It could completely revolutionize the way things are organized, recorded, and managed. Blockchain is all for a system where digital information favors free libertine tendencies yet makes it harder for digital data to go rogue. Thinking of buying a car without that pesky car dealer? Thanks to Blockchain, this is possible and what is more, there is less chance of identity theft or that things will go wrong when making transactions. Blockchain will be apocalyptic when it comes to several things: banks that want to invest in it, the way data is verified and encrypted in Cyber technology, less human errors in Supply Chain Management, more transparency in voting systems as well as transactions when it comes to charity donations, and the management of public and government documents. Blockchain could be the only way of guaranteeing and managing the trust.