Blockchain for Dummies: A starter's guide to understand the Blockchain Part 1 - The Blockchain and its features

thebatmanbiker (62)in #blockchain • 7 years ago

Over the last couple of months, there have been more and more users on Steemit, no doubt enthused by the ability to earn money by creating and curating stuff. Most of the new users are quite ignorant about what the block chain is, or consider bitcoin one and the same as the Blockchain. It is a new thing to most people and it is something of mystery to most people who are new to the platform and the world of crypto. Heck, when I started, I was a noob too. But you got to start somewhere.

As I started getting serious about Steemit, I started reading up on the Blockchain to understand what it was all about, and what is it like. It is one of the most interesting things I've read, next to motorcycle tech and aircraft. I understood it better by relating it to the things I've noticed here on Steemit. It was the dummy way to learn and I think I understand them quite well, and would like to share them here for the starters on crypto and the Blockchain.

A Blockchain is a digitized, decentralized public ledger of all Cryptocurrency transactions, all transactions being recorded and added to it in chronological order - Investopedia

Translating that, I understand the Blockchain as data that is assembled into blocks, each block followed by another in one defined sequence. Just like a book. Page 2 follows page 1 and so on. If one of the pages is removed from the book, it will end up making a different story at all. Similarly, it is not possible to delete a record from the Blockchain without having to rewrite the chain. That means, it is not possible to remove something that is added to the Blockchain.

The same as you not being able to delete a post once the submit button is clicked on the Steem Blockchain.

One of the things of the Blockchain is the added layer of safety. Anything that needs to be added to the chain needs to be verified as being part of the chain. It is a time consuming effort to verify all transactions. The same way any additions to the Steem Blockchain are upvoted by other users, thus verifying the content as being part of the chain.

On Steemit, the verification process (or in Steem's case, the payout) takes 7 days. That's why all posts have a 7 day payout period.

Features of the Blockchain

One of the advantages of the Blockchain is that the database is distributed across many different computers. It is also independent of any single entity in terms of controlling the Blockchain, since any user on the Blockchain can access the database.
Blockchain communication is peer-to-peer. Any data does not go through a single designated node, but is forwarded to all computers on the node. That means data is safe (or safer) from hacking.
Any activity on the Blockchain by any user is visible to all users of the Blockchain. ANYTHING. But you can still keep your private details private. Each user has an unique identification address which can be shared with other users in the chain if needed.
User data is permanent. Any and all submissions to the Blockchain are time stamped and stored in chronological order.

That is the dummies introduction to the Blockchain and its features. Stay tuned for the next post on the Blockchain for Dummies series, where I will write about how the Blockchain is better than the traditional ways of storing data take a peek at how the Blockchain works (this was the hardest part for me to understand back then!)

Cheers!

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You may like to check out some of the other posts in my blog via the links below:

Solo Backpacking journey across the UK - Amazing London

If you are Generation Y or a millenial, these are the cartoons you would've watched as kids

What determines the outcomes of our life?

Follow my Steepshot account - @lifewithanr3

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