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:
- Index
- Time Stamp
- Previous Hash
- Hash
- 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 ?
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