The majority of ordinary people who, thanks to the media, have had contact with the term “blockchain”, perhaps have interpreted it as a kind of device, some other mysterious technological device of this era, to which spectacular powers are attributed . Blockchain is sold to the public as a synonym of the “last panacea” that can do everything and everything.
But far from the incandescent reflectors of the media, which, when convenient, all praise and magnify, the so-called block chain technology is one of those technical advances that the sleep of the just was sleeping for a long time. Ten years ago, thanks to the good offices of an individual with utopian ideas about the financial self-determination of the people and a Japanese mask, the blockchain technology came out of the shadows to put the planet on its head. The blockchain revolution promises to change not only the way money is defined, but many other elements of our current life.
SO, WHAT IS BLOCKCHAIN?
A chain of blocks is a distributed database, which means that a copy of the same information structure is hosted and maintained by many devices that are not subject to some common central control. This database supports a growing list of sorted records, called blocks. Each block has a timestamp and a link to the block that precedes it.
INTEGRATED SECURITY IN THE CHAIN RECORDS
Blockchains are secure databases by design. The concept was introduced in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto (pseudonym, he still does not know his true identity), and was implemented for the first time in 2009 as an essential part of the Bitcoin protocol, the first cryptocurrency. It is precisely thanks to the appearance of Bitcoin at that time, that the underlying technology of block chains has become, along with virtual currencies, the most recent technological phenomenon, snatching the headlines that previously occupied Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IOT).
Blockchain serves as the public ledger for all Bitcoin transactions and many other cryptocurrencies. By using blockchain technology, Bitcoin was the first digital currency to solve the problem of double spending, without a central authority or main server having to intervene. Unlike money and real currencies, electronic files can be copied (duplicated), which implies a potential double expense.
In a chain of blocks, security is reinforced through the distributed time stamp service (one of the elements that makes each block unique) and a peer-to-peer network. The result is a database that is managed autonomously in a decentralized manner. This makes the blockchains excellent tools for recording events, such as transactions, identity management, proofs of origin and medical records. Essentially, blockchain technology contains the potential for large-scale disintermediation in transaction processing and commercial exchanges.
HOW THINGS WORK IN A CHAIN OF BLOCKS
Anyone can post what they want on the Internet and then others can access that information from anywhere in the world with the appropriate device. Through a blockchain news and updates, an individual can send value to any place on the planet where a copy of the chain can be accessed. As mentioned before, the trick is to have a private key, created through encryption functions, which gives us the ability to modify those blocks where the key has authority.
Using our private key and another person’s public key, we can transfer the value of what is stored in a specific section of the block chain.
Therefore, following the example of Bitcoin, the keys are used to update information contained in the blocks, which refer to units that represent financial value, that is, digital currencies. The occurrence of the transaction, which was traditionally controlled by the banks, is recorded and sealed by the block-chain.
