What is Blockchain?

In the blockchain network, there is no centralized hardware or management organization, the rights and obligations of the entire network nodes are equal, and the data in the system is essentially jointly maintained by all the nodes in it.

When it comes to blockchain, many consider it mysterious and complex. What exactly is it? What is this for?

A blockchain in a narrow sense is a chained data structure that combines data blocks and information blocks in chronological order, and records the blocks in encrypted form to form a distributed ledger that cannot be tampered with and cannot be forged. Broadly speaking, blockchain technology uses block-type data structures to verify and store data, uses distributed node consensus algorithms to generate and update data, and uses encryption to secure data transmission and access. Script code contains smart contracts for programming and manipulating data in new distributed infrastructure and computing models.

At present, information storage is mostly centralized. Once a server goes down or crashes, not only will the server stop running, but also websites or applications that rely on the server will be affected, resulting in a large amount of data loss. may be lost. For example, on December 7, 2021, Amazon Web Services (AWS), a cloud computing service owned by Amazon, suffered a large-scale failure, and multiple website services that depended on AWS cloud services were simultaneously interrupted.

Blockchain, on the other hand, is a database of linked blocks where information is shared and stored together. In the blockchain network, there is no centralized hardware or management organization, the rights and obligations of the entire network nodes are equal, and the data in the system is essentially jointly maintained by all the nodes in it. That is, even if one block goes offline or fails, other blocks can still maintain the normal operation of the blockchain network.

In a traditional centralized network, an attack on the central node can disrupt the entire system. However, in a decentralized blockchain network, an attack on a single node cannot control or destroy the entire network, and controlling more than 51% of the nodes in the network is only the beginning of gaining control.

Of course, we are talking about a blockchain network in an ideal state. In application practice, it is difficult for most blockchain projects to meet the requirements of decentralization, security and scalability at the same time. For example, private and consortium blockchains must rely on centralized servers.