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Decoding Blockchains and Bitcoins : What lies above and below ?

Understanding Blockchain and Bitcoins in simpler technologies

Decoding Blockchains and Bitcoins : What lies above and below ?

Monday December 18, 2017,

5 min Read

The world is ready for a disruptive change.

Technology can be highly disruptive. Changing pace and evolving at an impeccable pace. There have been many potential game changers over the past decade.

However, we are all set to witness perhaps a big change in the way , the world transacts, interacts and saves data.

Talk about a breakthrough technology in the Data and financial sector ! Talk about Blockchain !

Most of us see the new buzzword across the web stratosphere and the broadcast media and I am suddenly reminded of the days when the word “Cloud” hit the horizon. We are going to witness a similar frenzy cause here is yet another technological door opener.

The internet comprehends this as follows:A blockchain is a decentralised public ledger of all cryptocurrency transactions. Or the shortest possible definition would be, “ clever coding on distributed database.”

A simpler better definition "A Blockchain is an open source distributed database to combine digital records into blocks that cannot be copied or altered, as the new blocks are added irreversibly in order to secure the flow of data or information."

Ok, now what is a cryptographic transaction?

Let's break it down and put it as a specially knit group of codes to protect confidentiality.

In other words, a set of data or information which cannot be altered and can only be authenticated and comprehended by the one who sent it and received it. They would have to have the unique key albeit to decode.

What primarily is to ponder that, one no longer requires a central administrator or a third party in this exchange and thus the transactions are one-to-one and secure and also cut down on the cost invariably.

Hence, a group of users wanting to share a particular data that resides on a particular block can do so through a special private key that is created according to a cryptographic algorithm.

The DLT is what this is known as or in tech terminologies or distributed ledger technology. Primarily, a chain consisting of blocks connected to each other.

If we were to do a financial transaction without the involvement of an administrator or authority, this technology stands distinguished by the nature of its non-permeability due to the shared information on blocks and cryptographic nature.

Unleashing the Latent Potential and revolutionizing the financial World !!

The industry pundits recognize the undeniable potential for revolutionizing the way we can manage data and do business, but this indeed remains debatable.

Many streams would evolve as a consequence to this technological outburst, such as better process dynamics on contracts and agreements, they would be standardized, methodological and process oriented as they may be shared on a reference block connected to each other in proper linear, chronological order.

Imagine the volume of data we generate when technologies such as the Internet of Things crop up and so do millions and millions of transactions, we truly need a technology that could settle trillions of real-time transactions.

This technology came into being through Bitcoins. Bitcoins is a digital coin or a cryptocurrency which transacts on the internet and this facilitation happens through the Blockchain Technology where the data remains potentially secure and ensures utmost safety.

One estimate says, there are close to 2.9 to 5.8 million unique users using this cryptocurrency wallet.

Does this mean we would someday preposition a formal goodbye to the centralized financial systems and our entire nomenclature is in for a change? I have begun to wonder. This would, however, surely revolutionize the world economy.

The valuation of Bitcoin surges by leaps and bounds. News has it, that it has risen 1850 times since 2015 and therefore highly volatile.

In August 2017 “Bitcoin Cash” came into being to scale up the transaction capacity.

Bitcoin too has its own challenges though! To upgrade the cryptocurrency or to change the software that's used to mine and authenticate transactions, developers need more than 50 percent of the global network of miners to agree with that change as per a research. When they get that support they can create a “fork" which is nothing but a software upgrade.

Bitcoin is indeed an exciting invention but that was only made possible by Block Chain technology. Imagine how the world changes! One thing leads to another !! First, it was "data", then it was "encrypted data" and now "data on a blockchain through cryptography ". Why not?

Especially when we hear giants struggling with cyber safety!

Did we hear recently that North Korean hackers stole a vast cache of data, including classified wartime contingency plans jointly drawn by the United States and South Korea, when they breached the computer network of the South Korean military last year? I am sure this would have been next to impossible, had it been on a blockchain. Now is this technology a win-win?

or would it survive the test of global adoption is a question to be asked especially in the financial context? Governments may find it a challenge to regulate cryptocurrencies of all kinds or legalize it. Bitcoin was intended to be originated due to its capacity to bypass centralized authority. If there is no authority, how would they exercise control over such a cryptocurrency or commodity? we haven't yet talked of acceptance altogether!

But Bitcoin surely is our showstopper !!

Whats amazing is that the world is still keen to understand what lies ahead and what lies below of this technology?

Thank you for reading.

Deepa Sayal

ADG Online

#Blockchain #Bitcoin #Cryptocurrency #DLT #Bitcoincash

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