Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Beginner - Types of blockchain

Public blockchain

Public blockchain are one of the most popular types of blockchain in existence today. It is basically a type of blockchain that doesn’t restrict access. It is public which means that anyone can have access to the blockchain and can become part of the validators to validate transactions on the network. Public blockchains are permissionless distributed ledger which means that anyone can run a node and become part of the network. Users who run nodes on a public blockchain become authorized validators and verify transactions on the blockchain network. Two popular examples of a public blockchain are the bitcoin blockchain and litecoin blockchain.

Private Blockchain

Private blockchain are also one of the major types of blockchain. It differs from the public blockchain because it is a closed network. Unlike the public blockchain that is permissionless, the private blockchain is permissioned and runs on a closed network. In this type of blockchain network, only a selected few have access to the network. When it comes to private blockchain, the organization that have access to the network are in control of the security, accessibility, permissions, of the network. This kind of blockchain network are very popular when it comes to voting on the blockchain, digital identity, authenticity of assets. Corda is an example of a blockchain network that operates on private blockchain.

Consortium Blockchain

A Consortium blockchain is another very popular type of blockchain. This type of blockchain is known to be a semi-decentralized blockchain because more than one organization has access to and controls the blockchain network. Unlike the private blockchain that is controlled by one single entity or institution, a consortium blockchain is controlled by multiple entities. More than one entity can control a node and validate transactions on the blockchain network. This type of blockchain is common in the conventional banking system or governmental organizations.

Hybrid Blockchain

The hybrid blockchain is another very popular type of blockchain. Like the name hybrid which means it is created from the combination of two different types of blockchains. A hybrid blockchain is a hybrid of a public blockchain and a private blockchain. The main characteristics of a hybrid blockchain is that it makes use of features from both the public blockchain and private blockchain. This means that it is both permissioned and permissionless at the same time. Simply put, only certain parts of the stored data on the blockchain network is accessible to the public and certain parts of the stored data remains private.

This makes it easy for users who want to be part of the private network of the hybrid blockchain to join, and any transaction on the private network will remain private and can be verified in the private network. However, this transactions on the private network part of the hybrid blockchain can be released in the public network so as to be verified as well. This increases the number of nodes for the verification and increases the security as well. A clear example of a blockchain network that makes use of the hybrid blockchain is the Dragonchain.