Introduction to Blockchain Technology | Topic 1: by professor @yohan2on

Blockchain Technologyis simply a distributed ledger of data, arranged in form of blocks and secured with cryptography. This has worked successfully with the Bitcoin network.

Image source:Pixabay

Blockchain can also be defined as a series of information arranged in form of blocks and secured by Cryptography. Cryptography is simply a process of securing data through the use of complex mathematical hashing algorithms. Each block carries a unique hash name with information that links it to the other block in the network.

Blockchain data is encrypted and publicly distributed. It requires someone with a private key to encrypt and decrypt data/crypto sent, stored, or received on an account. Therefore Blockchain technology enhances maximum data security and privacy. Every block is uniquely created and consists of hashing algorithms, and data transaction. These are confirmed by miners through a concept called "proof of work" and are rewarded for ensuring the proper running of the network.

Problems that blockchain technology is seeking to resolve

Delays in transactions

Before the launch of the bitcoin blockchain in 2009, there had never been any direct digital transactions made from one user to another. Whenever someone wanted to transfer monetary value electronically from one person to another, they had to rely on a third party including financial institutions such as the bank.

Let’s take for instance with the centralized system, If I want to transfer monetary value to Tom who is overseas, I have to use an intermediary like western-union in order to get the money transferred to Tom. It can take 2 to 3 days for Tom to receive that money. This system takes quite a long time as compared to Bitcoin blockchain which can only take a few minutes for the transaction to be completed just because of the exclusion of the third party.

According to the TRON whitepaper, the Bitcoin blockchain can process 3Transactions per second (TPS), Ethereum Blockchain 15TPs, and the TRON blockchain is currently able to process 2000TPS. This showcases how blockchain has a much quicker transaction rate. This is saving the time-resource and at the end of the day ensuring effectiveness in people’s daily business operations.

High costs of Transactions

There is a problem of high costs in transactions in the current centralized financial systems such as the banks. For example, if I want to withdraw my money from my bank account using another different bank from the one I deposited my money with, I am oftentimes charged with some high costs of processing that transaction just because these institutions are monopolists and exploitative.

Blockchain technology is offering lower fees in processing transactions. Sending and receiving money is direct and therefore eliminates the extra costs charged by these 3rd parties.

Image source:Pixabay

Private details exploitation and compromise by the company owners

There is no privacy with the current centralized systems. These can exploit users’ private details. A case in point is the social media platform like Facebook where private data details can easily be compromised by the owner. 2 years ago Facebook was accused of a private data breach in the article here

Insecurity

The current centralized systems are so vulnerable to attacks by hackers. Since information is stored in just one central place, therefore, these are easily targeted by Hackers. With Blockchain technology, the information is highly secured with Cryptographic hashing algorithms that make it impossible for hackers to alter the information on any of the transaction blocks.

Censorship/suppression of certain information

Centrally governed systems have made a few individuals, companies, or governments, possess a highly monopolized power over others. We see this during tense political times, where they have blocked certain information from circulating on social media. Therefore these have always encroached on the fundamental human right regarding the freedom of speech.

Every human being has a right to express themselves the way they want to. Being decentralized in nature, Blockchain decentralized social media applications have been built up where human beings express themselves freely, without anyone interrupting their information.

Image source:Pixabay

The Steem Blockchain

The steem Blockchain is simply the back-end of the steemit platform that powers community building and social interactions by leveraging Cryptocurrencies including steem, steem dollars, and the recently integrated TRX.

Steemit is a social media platform with a content management system built on top of the steem Blockchain. There are so many applications built on the steem blockchain including Steemyy.com, Steemworld.org, Steemscan that aid its users in their daily interactions with the steem blockchain.

Consensus in Steem

Like any other blockchain project, the steem blockchain uses a delegated proof of stake consensus algorithm. This involves the creation of blocks by the 21 witnesses who run 21 witness nodes participating and ensuring the proper running of the steem network ecosystem.

According to the steem whitepaper, Each of these witnesses is incentivized with a certain amount of steem for their work of ensuring the smooth running of the steem ecosystem data base. The steem community votes these witnesses and the vote worth of someone depends on the vested steem interest they have in the future of value of steem.

There are plenty of blockchain projects out there that are offering unique solutions to the various challenges we are faced within the different sectors of our economy.

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Homework - Task

Task Qn. Write about at least one unique project that is powered by blockchain technology. You may write about Steem, Decenternet, or any other blockchain project of your choice. Here is a list of blockchain companies you may also want to write about.

Guidelines

• Be as creative as possible.
• Tag me(@yohan2on) at the end of your blog so that I may easily find your article
• The first 2 tags should be blockchain, crypto.
• Share your blog on Twitter and tag it with #tags blockchain, crypto, crypto academy, steemit
• Your article should be at least 300 words.
• Your homework article should be posted in the Crypto academy community.
• Restrain from plagiarism. Ensure to provide credit to the owner of any borrowed content. Use images from copyright-free sources and showcase the source.
• This homework task will run till 14th-Feb,2021

I am looking forward to reading through your articles.
Feel free to ask me any questions in the comment section below. I will happily respond to them.

All the best and let's learn together.