What made the Blockchain special anyway?
To understand the importance of the blockchain we first need to understand WHY it was invented in the first place and to do that we just need to turn to the most famous successful application of it in action: BITCOIN.
Bitcoin is not the first digital currency and the idea of money in cyberspace has been around since the 80's. What made it the first of its kind however was that it was the first UNSTOPPABLE and independent digital currency.
Previous attempts at creating digital currencies have failed because no matter how much security software was implemented some hacker could one way or another manipulate its code into creating multiple copies or stealing from people's accounts.
To tackle this problem the creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, studied the history of the traditional banking system and identified the STRENGTH and WEAKNESS of a bank packaged into one: The bank's ledger, a book which contained ALL of the information of the bank's financial records.
It was a STRENGTH because with it the bank could operate efficiently.
But at the same time it was a WEAKNESS because if it ever got destroyed or stolen the bank itself would be paralyzed.
So the key for Bitcoin to operate was to have a Ledger. But the problem however was in keeping the Ledger safe from hacker manipulation and this problem was never solved before -- until Bitcoin and it's Blockchain came along.
In the pre-bitcoin era creators of digital currencies tried to keep their digital currency as safe as possible by securing their programs and computer servers as isolated from hackers as much as possible by hiding it and keeping it as secret as possible -- which sooner or later failed.
So what did Bitcoin do? The exact opposite: Instead of keeping it secret in some isolated area.. The blockchain imitated the technology behind Bittorrent and made Bitcoin transaction records as public or as accessible to as many people as possible by distributing the ledger online over the internet for the world to see.
This is the Blockchain also known as Distributed Ledger Technology
Hackers previously could manipulate a digital currency by targeting the central server or computer that contained the records. But this time, with the Blockchain, the hacker's target becomes untouchable. Even though he could take down a computer or two several more computers, somewhere around the world, have backup copies that keep updating and distributing more and more records to many more computers. All attempts of trying to trick the system would be automatically rejected by the Blockchain records own historical evidence.
The blockchain has since been adopted by the world like a fire given by Prometheus to mankind (in this case Satoshi Nakamoto) to bring back hope and new opportunities never seen before.
The blockchain has since unlocked not just the opportunity to return us to free-market money but many more recently unimagined opportunities like the opportunity to empower the talents of content creators like you guys here on Steemit!
Blockchain technology is still relatively new but has the potential to disrupt the way the world works and hopefully for the better!
Let's not miss this great time to be alive fellow Steemians! Cheers! :)
