Quick Insights to Blockchain Technology

A blockchain is just a database for recording transactions-and the same database is copied to all the computers in a participating network. In short, blockchain is an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value. It’s a distributed database.

Picture a spreadsheet that is duplicated thousands of times across a network of computers. Then imagine that this network is designed to regularly update this spreadsheet and you have a basic understanding of the blockchain. Information held on a blockchain exists as a shared- and continually reconciled database. This is a way of using the network that has obvious benefits. The blockchain database isn’t stored in any single location, meaning the records it keeps are truly public and easily verifiable. No centralized version of this information exists for a hacker to corrupt. Hosted by millions of computers simultaneously, its data is accessible to anyone on the internet.A blockchain is thus called to as a ‘distributed ledger’. Data in a blockchain is stored in fixed structures called ‘blocks’. The important parts of a block are:

its header, which includes metadata, such as a unique block reference number, the time the block was created and a link back to the previous block

its content, usually a validated list of digital assets and instruction statements, such as transactions made, their amounts and the addresses of the parties to those transactions.

Here's How Bitcoin Blockchain Works

“blockchain enables two entities that do not know each other to agree that something is true without the need of a third party. As opposed to writing entries into a single sheet of paper, a blockchain is a distributed database that takes a number of inputs and places them into a block. Each block is then 'chained' to the next block using a cryptographic signature. This allows blockchains to be used as a ledger which is accessible by anyone with permission to do so.  If everyone in the process is pre-selected, the ledger is termed 'permissioned'.”- Sunny Ray, Unocoin.

The USP of blockchain is that it allows two parties to execute a transaction without any intermediary. Blockchain allows financial institutions to execute and verify transactions discretely without any human intervention. The electronic ledger of transactions is continuously maintained and verified in 'blocks' of records. With the help of cryptography, the tamper-proof ledger is shared between parties on computer servers.

Source: Deloitte, Business Today, VCCircle. Compliled and presented by:  Preetham Shetty & Co. Chartered Accountants