Blockchain in Brief - GeeksforGeeks (2024)

Blockchain is the technology that covers digital currency (like Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and others). This technology allows digital information to be distributed and decentralized, but can’t be manipulated. That means each data piece can have only one owner but many holders of the same data.It is a distributed immutable ledger that is completely transparent, decentralized, and immutable.

Blockchain is a block that is a record of new transactions. When a block is completed, it’s added to the chain. So, Blockchain is a way to save data and make it immutable. That sounds great, but the big question, of course, is: how does that work? The work is quite complex, you can check Wikipedia for this.

What is the Need for Blockchain?

• Blockchain will enhance the reach of businesses
• It will ensure swift transactions
• Blockchain highly restricts fraud
• Blockchain is reliable and transparent
• Immutability
• It is Cost-effective
• Healthcare
• International money transfer takes less time and fees
• Product tracking

The distributed ledger technology used in blockchain offers multiple benefits to businesses that make a difference when implementing a solution that requires a high degree of trust for business transactions.

Blockchain cannot process transactions faster because it doesn’t use a centralized infrastructure and also because it uses 256-bit encryption. The distributed nature of blockchain provides a huge level of trust. The unchangeable property of blockchain and its public availability among its users, whether in a public ledger or a private one, provides transparency. Any user of the system can query transactions on a real-time basis.

In short, by adopting Blockchain people across the world can say goodbye to the middleman, and dependence on banks, legal agencies, and hackers.

Uses of Blockchain Technology

• Payments: Cross-Border Payments
• Blockchain Internet-of-Things (IoT)
• Smart Appliances
• Blockchain Healthcare-Health care providers can leverage blockchain to securely store their patients’ medical records.
• Blockchain music
• Personal Identification
• Birth, wedding, and death certificates
• Passports

Blockchain mining

When a blockchain transaction takes place, miners have to solve a hard mathematical problem for mining of the transaction. When a miner solves the problem first, block is created. Other miners verify the validity of the block to prevent the chain from hackers. When the block is verified successfully by the miners, it is added to the chain and miner who solved problem gets rewarded.

Why it is almost impossible to hack the blockchain?

Huge effort is required to add the block to the chain. If a hacker adds malicious block to the chain it will required to spend a lot of time and eletricity to do that. After the block is created, other miners rejects the block and the hacker is not rewarded as well as spend a lot of efforts. Algorithm runs on whole node to verify the blok so it is almost impossible to add malicious block to the chain.

Also, blockchain runs on the principle of Byzantine Generals problem. It says that a block will be added to the chain if and only if it is verified by 2/3rd of the miners.

Future of Blockchain:

The future of finance could be dominated by blockchain technologies. The future of security is in the blockchain because the current methods of keeping the data are not reliable enough. Blockchain is the revolutionary tech of the future, for future security aspirants, it will be the best for them to understand the working of blockchain. Some Sector that is affected by Blockchain:

• Financial Services: It is an area that seems to be affected much as the blockchain gives secure payment facilities for a particular transaction, as it removes third-person dependency.
• Real-estate: Real estate transactions are expensive and lots of paperwork is to be required. Blockchain finds its potential to remove the middleman, making the process, more transparent and securable.
• Legal Fields: Blockchain uses smart contracts to validate the ownership of the documents, as well as to authenticate and secure the criminal justice system.