What is a BlockChain ? Block Chain Technology Explained !

Block + Chain  = A Chain of Blocks 

Blockchain is a continuous chain of blocks which are linked together sequentially. For understanding purpose consider the trains. All the bogies are blocks and the train itself is the blockchain. Just like the bogies of train are connected to one another, all the blocks are linked with a Hash. Biggest use-case of a blockchain is with Cryptocurrency / Bitcoin.

In every block, there will be some fields which hold respective data corresponding to the field. 

Fields in a Block:

1. Index
2. Time Stamp
3. Previous Hash
4. Hash
5. Data

If a new block is to be added to the chain, then it must hold the hash value of the last added block in the chain. Then this new block's hash value is copied to the next new block that will be added to the chain after some time.

A new block is added to the existing chain only if a miner validates that block using a process called Mining. Anyone on the internet can do mining and earn bitcoins (BTC). (Know more about the Mining process in this article)

In Computer Science field, this is familiar and follows the same principle of a Linked List Data Structure. 

A Blockchain is decentralized, which means there won’t be any governing authority which can hold ultimate rights over the data. Everybody on the Internet can look up the data in the Blockchain whenever they want. 

Blockchain acts as a distributed ledger for Bitcoin transactions. 

The concept was first introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto. Know more details about this mysterious man in next post.

Go to next post - Who is Satoshi Nakamoto ?

You might also be interested in Other Technologies Bechind Bitcoin / Cryptocurrency 

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What is CryptoCurrency ? Everything you need to know about Crypto, Blockchain and Trading.

 What is Cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency is a virtual form of money which cannot exist physically. All the transactions can happen only on the internet. Users will have a wallet in which the crypto coins are stored securely and users can transfer or receive coins through peer to peer mechanism (without any mediator in between). All they transactions are registered on a digital ledger called Blockchain.

Generally, the money related transactions are made through banks acting as mediators between sender and receiver. There is no such system in Cryptocurrency transactions. They follow a Peer to Peer mechanism of protocol. 

Cryptocurrency is Decentralized system, which means all the users have complete rights over their data. 

The most popular and first cryptocurrency that came into existence is Bitcoin (Know more about Bitcoin here)

But what exactly is the use of cryptocurrency?

The most popular reason is that the transactions are anonymous. We can’t know the personal details of sender or receiver of bitcoins. Only things which are visible to everyone on the block chain are: Public keys, transaction amount and transaction ID.

How do the Cryptocurrencies come into existence ?

All the coins (including Bitcoins / btc or other ALT Coins) are created by Mining. (Check this article for more about Mining)

Sounds confusing? Don’t worry it will be explained in later articles. Just keep gaining the knowledge. Jump to next post.

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