What is Blockchain? Blockchain is the next big thing happening right now after the internet. Those who understood the potential of the internet in its early days are millionaires if not billionaires already. Amazon is the perfect example that started as an online book-selling company and now ruling the e-commerce industry.
You will learn everything that you need to know about Blockchain in this article. There is a shortage of Blockchain developers and companies are willing to pay lucrative salaries. There are so many opportunities for developers, investors, students, or researchers right now in the Blockchain space, If you’re planning to learn about Blockchain, this is the perfect time to do so and reap the benefits in the future.
If you are afraid that you don't have any background in this technology, do not worry you're not the only one. I myself did not know anything about this technology before I started my journey, I did not even have any background in the OOP language but still, I managed to learn. If I can switch my career path from Mainframe to Blockchain, I am confident that you can easily do it and do not forget, I am here to make your journey smooth. If you're reading this article you have already taken one step forward. Let's understand, what is Blockchain?
There have been attempts to create digital money in the past but they have always failed. In 2009, Bitcoin was designed anonymously under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin is the first application on Blockchain that enabled users to transfer money without going through any Bank or third party. You can send money to anyone in the world in Bitcoins instantly.
On August 6th, 2020, Someone transferred a Billion Dollars in Bitcoin for less than $5, isn’t that awesome? You cannot imagine transferring this amount of money in our traditional Banking system without paying a hefty amount of fee and then waiting for days. Check out below video to understand how Blockchain Works?
In simple terms, Blockchain is a chain of blocks in which all the blocks are connected with each other via Block Hash. Each Block has a reference to its previous Hash. Since all the blocks are connected with each other, it is very difficult to change anything in Blockchain without mining all the following Blocks, and the bitcoin proof of work algorithm makes it extremely difficult to change anything in a Blockchain. Blockchain is a peer-to-peer network, which means each and every node has a copy of their own Blockchain to validate the information independently.
Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology. What do I mean by Distributed Ledger Technology? Unlike traditional ways, companies stored data on a centralized location, Blockchain stores data on 1000’s of nodes or servers. Even if 1 or 10 nodes go down because of any issue, your applications will still be served by other nodes available on the network which means no government has any control over Bitcoins and no one can shut this down because of its decentralized architecture.
On 4th October 2021, all Facebook services were down because of a network outage which took 6 hours to resolve. So many businesses lost money because of their business dependency on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp. If your business is running on Blockchain then you don't need to worry about this kind of Network failure. This is not the only feature of Blockchain, there are many, lets dive right into it.
A blockchain is essentially a digital ledger of transactions that is duplicated and distributed across the entire network of computer systems on the blockchain. Each block in the chain contains a number of transactions, and every time a new transaction occurs on the blockchain, a record of that transaction is added to every participant’s ledger. The decentralized database managed by multiple participants is known as Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT).
Immutable and Distributed design is the backbone of Blockchain. Once a Transaction is recorded in Blockchain it cannot be changed by any means, even if you manage to change the transaction on your computer other Computers won’t accept your changed transaction as they have their own record of the transactions.
Why blockchain is important?
Business runs on information. Blockchain is ideal for delivering that information because it provides immediate, shared and completely transparent information stored on an immutable ledger that can be accessed by anyone in the network. A blockchain network can track orders, payments, accounts, production, and much more. And because members share a single view of the truth, you can see all details of a transaction end to end, giving you greater confidence, as well as new efficiencies and opportunities.
I hope this article and video gave you some insights into Blockchain technology. If you have liked this article then do not forget to share it with your friends and connect with me on Twitter for quick updates on Blockchain and Web3 Technology. I am preparing an advanced Blockchain course which will be out soon. If you have not checked my Beginners Blockchain Guide course, I recommend you to check it now. It is FREE and you will also get your certificate of completion. I wish you all the best in your Blockchain Journey.