Blockchain for Beginners
‘Blockchain’ is now a term I come across every day. And even though everyone knows that it is some secure technology used by crypto blah blah blah, I still believe that many of us do not know about its truly humongous capabilities and what lies behind that name. So let me take you through a journey where we slay the dragon, walk over lava, and extricate princess Blocky. (Yes, that is a pun on the immense security of blockchain.)
Developed in 1991, blockchain technology was created to prevent tampering with files stored online. It was not much in use back then (presumably because the internet was not a big deal in the ’90s). It was only in 2009 when the big boy Bitcoin came into play, one of the first cryptocurrencies deemed safe enough by society to be used for transactions, all thanks to the safety of blockchain. But what did blockchain do differently which made it so reliable? For that answer, we need to delve into the functioning of blockchain.
As the name suggests, blockchain consists of a long chain of blocks, which can be compared to a pearl necklace, just infinitely long. Considering the case of transactions, each pearl in this necklace is a record of a transaction that has taken place and contains data such as the sender, receiver, and amount. Moreover, every pearl stores a unique identification code called the ‘hash’, and the hash of the pearl before it. This hash code changes whenever the stored data in the pearl changes. Therefore, if a pearl is tampered with, all subsequent pearls will demonstrate that the hash of a previous pearl is incorrect, and this misconduct would be detected. To understand better, here’s an example. Say that the hash of a block is ‘A’, and the hash of a subsequent block is ‘B’. If Cinderella’s wicked step-mother mends the data stored in the first block, its hash will change to, say, ‘C’. Now, remember that block ‘B’ also contains the former hash of the previous block, which was ‘A’. Upon verifying, it is evident that the hash of the first block has changed, causing the hashes stored in all subsequent blocks to be invalidated. Through this, any form of toying with the records is easily detectable. Now since we know that blockchain is dependable, it is only a matter of the magnitude of security. With the above implementation, exactly how secure is your transaction data? The simple answer is not much.
There exists an obvious way to replace your original, precious pearl with an imposter: using a computer! The modern computational prowess is so high that it allows processing millions of tasks in a split second. With all that power, one simply needs to create a program that changes the hash of the target pearl and the corresponding hashes of all subsequent pearls so that no record is invalidated. Boom! Mischief managed! Easy, right? Obviously, it could not have been this easy. You are correct. Is there a better security measure implemented? You are correct, again. We are now entering the final layer of protection, thanks to which blockchain is worthy of being the word on every tongue. Remember the necklace? Well, within the digital world, pearls are not rare. Everyone who uses a service built on blockchain tech has an exact copy of it, and all of them keep on updating themselves. So even if an entity decides to cause havoc in the records, they would have to do it for at least 50% of them globally stored by millions of blockchain users. It is impossible to conduct such manipulation because any alteration in a single or even a few chains would stand out from the majority and get marked as an anomaly.
Now we essentially have the answers to the questions such as what blockchain is, its functioning, and the resolutions it provides. Blockchain is indeed worthy of the attention that it receives and even now, it is evolving to place more stringent protocols. Today, blockchains serve the purpose of storing medical records, confirming digital IDs, and even collecting taxes. The uses seem countless for now, and even though the future security of the coming generation appears blurry, we can be sure that ‘secure’ is indubitably the future.
