These days, technology is scaling newer heights of success at an unbelievably fast pace. One of the latest triumphs in this direction may be the evolution of the Blockchain technology. The brand new technology has greatly influenced the finance sector. In fact, it had been initially developed for Bitcoin – the digital currency. However now, it finds its application in a number of other things as well.
Coming across this far was probably easy. But, one is yet to know what is Blockchain?
A distributed database
Imagine an electronic spreadsheet, that is copied umpteen number of times across some type of computer network. Now, imagine the computer network was created so smartly that it regularly updates the spreadsheet on its own. bitcoin is a broad overview of the Blockchain. Blockchain holds information as a shared database. Moreover, this database gets reconciled continuously.
This approach has its own benefits. It does not allow the database to be stored at any single location. The records in it possess genuine public attribute and may be verified very easily. As there is no centralised version of the records, unauthorised users have no methods to manipulate with and corrupt the data. The Blockchain distributed database is simultaneously hosted by an incredible number of computers, making the data easily accessible to almost anyone over the virtual web.
To help make the concept or the technology clearer, it is just a good idea to discuss the Google Docs analogy.
Google Docs analogy for Blockchain
After the advent of the e-mail, the conventional way of sharing documents is to send a Microsoft Word doc as attachment to a recipient or recipients. The recipients will take their sweet time to go through it, before they send back the revised copy. In this process, one must wait till receiving the return copy to start to see the changes designed to the document. This is really because the sender is locked out from making corrections till the recipient is done with the editing and sends the document back. Contemporary databases don’t allow two owners access the same record as well. This is one way banks maintain balances of their clients or account-holders.
As opposed to the set practice, Google docs allow both the parties to access the same document simultaneously. Moreover, it also allows to see an individual version of the document to both of these simultaneously. As being a shared ledger, the Google Docs also acts as a shared document. The distributed part only becomes relevant when the sharing involves multiple users. The Blockchain technology is, in ways, an extension of the concept. However, it is very important explain here that the Blockchain is not meant to share documents. Rather, it really is just an analogy, which will help to have clear-cut idea concerning this cutting-edge technology.
Salient Blockchain features
Blockchain stores blocks of information across the network, which are identical. By virtue of the feature:
The data or information cannot be controlled by any single, particular entity.
There can’t be no single failure point either.
The data is hold in a public network, which ensures absolute transparency in the overall procedure.
The data stored in it cannot be corrupted.
Demand for Blockchain developers
As mentioned earlier, Blockchain technology includes a very high application in the world of finance and banking. According to the World Bank, more than US$ 430 billion money transfers were sent through it only in 2015. Thus, Blockchain developers have significant demand in the market.
The Blockchain eliminates the payoff of the middlemen in such monetary transactions. It was the invention of the GUI (Graphical User Interface), which facilitated the common man to gain access to computers in form of desktops. Similarly, the wallet application is the most typical GUI for the Blockchain technology. Users utilize the wallet to buy things they want using Bitcoin or any cryptocurrency.
