What is the Blockchain?
In today’s digital world, there are a vast selection of buzzwords, terms of jargon, and just plain nonsensical words, usually ending in “LY”. The question is, whether or not the blockchain is different than those fleeting buzzwords, does it have such value that it will be ingrained in our society for years to come?
The short answer is, yes! The blockchain is equally as important as the actual token, and each have their own uses, users, and capabilities. Think of the entire Bitcoin network like this:
Miners<——————–>BLOCKCHAIN/TRANSACTIOSN<——————->WALLETS/USERS/BITCOINS
In the above visual representation, we see three objects. The one most everyone is familiar with is the Wallet, or the Bitcoins themselves. These could exist with or without the blockchain, for instance, on a bank’s internal database, or even a wallet file in cold storage.
The part on the left is the second of the two core components that run the “Bitcoin Network”. These are the miners, and they are usually a large, decentralized group of people from all over there world living in different countries, with either graphics cards/ASICs/CPUs, or large stakes of ownership in the coins on the network with a small amount of CPU power. This allows for verifying, adding, and processing all of the transactions and minting of Bitcoins or any other cryptocurrency.
The final part, the blockchain, is the primary core of the “Bitcoin Network”. This is just a file, and inside this file is a large database, of the entire history of all transactions that have occurred on the network, how many coins have been mined, and stores all notes and other additional data stored via transactions.
The blockchain is the living and growing history of the entire network, packaged in a database file that can be accessed by users, with wallets, or miners, with special mining software that allows for them to put their hardware to work.
The blockchain is not limited by simple financial data, transaction history, and that sort of thing either. The blockchain can be used to power any service that traditionally uses a database to handle data. The only major difference is, the history is always recorded, which ensures accuracy and verification for all wallet balances.
So as you can see, FaceBook, your WordPress Site, an E-Mail Server, anything can be stored on the blockchain. There is a future that is completely decentralized that is possible. But will companies and government allow it? Only time will tell.