Blockchain is a technological advance that will have wide-reaching implications that will not just transform the financial services but many other businesses and industries.
A blockchain is a distributed database, meaning that the storage devices for the database are not all connected to a common processor. It maintains a growing list of ordered records, called blocks. Each block has a timestamp and a link to a previous block.
Cryptography ensures that users can only edit the parts of the blockchain that they “own” by possessing the private keys necessary to write to the file. It also ensures that everyone’s copy of the distributed blockchain is kept in synch.
The security is built into a blockchain system through the distributed timestamping…show more content… Let’s have a look on Bitcoin.
It is one of the most known and most used digital currencies in the world. More than 150,000 businesses around the world accept BitCoin as acceptable currency method, including Amazon. BitCoin is widely used by individuals and businesses.
One of the attractive features of BitCoin is that one can exchange BitCoin currency by being anonymous and without any government oversight or regulations, though this feature also makes it very unsafe as there is no oversight.
The blockchain serves as the public ledger for all bitcoin transactions. By using a blockchain system, bitcoin was the first digital currency to solve the double spending problem (unlike physical coins or tokens, electronic files can be duplicated and spent twice) without the use of an authoritative body or central server.
So, to use the bitcoin example, keys are used to access addresses, which contain units of currency that have financial value. This fills the role of recording the transfer, which is traditionally carried out by…show more content… WORKING OF BLOCKCHAIN:
• On the internet, anyone can publish information and then others can access it anywhere in the world. A blockchain allows anyone to send value anywhere in the world where the blockchain file can be accessed. But you must have a private, cryptographically created key to access only the blocks you “own.”
• By giving a private key which you own to someone else, you effectively transfer the value of whatever is stored in that section of the blockchain.
APPLICATION OF BLOCKCHAIN:
• A smart thermostat might communicate energy usage to a smart grid; when a certain number of wattage hours has been reached.
• In case of Electric meter, Blockchain automatically transfers value from your account to the electric company, effectively automating the meter reader and the billing process.
• if a doctor or patient issues a private key to a medical device, say a blood glucose monitor, the device could automatically and securely record a patient’s blood glucose levels, and then, potentially, communicate with an insulin delivery device to maintain blood glucose at a healthy