WHAT IS A BLOCKCHAIN? HOW DOES THIS WORK? WHY BITCOIN IS SO SECURE?

 So, today's article is all about blockchain, how the system works, some advantages, and a lot more. So, let's start,

WHAT IS A BLOCKCHAIN?

: A blockchain is a decentralized system that stores data, information, which is shared with lots of computers at the same time. For example, nowadays blockchain is heavily used in cryptocurrencies, let's take the example of Bitcoin, so in Bitcoin, there will be data related to transactions are happening in bitcoin. And because it is decentralized, so there is no need for any third party who can set rules and regulations, for that we don't need to believe in anybody else. At the same time, all the transactions are secured and safe, because it is happening on the blockchain technology and it is next to impossible to tamper with the blockchain.

                                         

                                                           So, let's discuss the topic in detail,

* HOW DOES A BLOCKCHAIN WORK: 

A blockchain is a group of blocks, in a single blockchain there are millions of blocks, if I would talk about a single block, then mainly three things are there, first data, related to the thing, for example, in bitcoin there will have data related to transactions, who buy and who sell the Bitcoin, the second thing is hash, it is a unique code, you can compare this with your Aadhar card number, every block have their own unique code & the third thing is that previous hash, means if there are some blocks in a blockchain, so the 2nd block will have its hash and 1st block's hash as well, the 3rd block will also have its hash and 2nd block's hash as well and the process continues. 

The goal of a blockchain is to provide safe and secure data. If you want to understand blockchain in a very simple way then I can say here, for example in a shop there would have a ledger where all the accounts related to that shop are having, so you can think this blockchain is a digital place to store data or information. In a ledger, people can change the information but in the blockchain, it is near too impossible to alter with the data.

*BANKS VS BITCOIN IN THE BLOCKCHAIN 

Blockchain was invented in 1991 but the first real use of blockchain happened in 2009 when an anonymous person named Satoshi Nakamoto had invented Bitcoin with the help of blockchain. Basically what happened, in 2008 there had come a great recession worldwide for some banks mistakes, probably those banks had given some bad loans, or they had some bad deals, many people think that was the reason for that recession, so in order to solve that problem this guy had invented Bitcoin, here what would happen that you won't have to trust any third party to send your money to anybody else, in banks what happens, for example, if you want to transfer money from India to the USA, so, first of all, you have to transfer your money from rupees to the dollar then your money will be transferred, by doing that banks will charge a fee and this process takes a lot of time, by the way, that's why this unknown guy tried to solve that problem, he invented Bitcoin, now anyone can send bitcoin to anybody from any part of the world, and because here will be no headache to transfer rupees to the dollar, for that this process charges a very small fee and takes very less time as well compared to the banks. Here is an extra benefit is that you can totally rely on the blockchain technology, because this is decentralized means no third party will have the right to interfere here, just like for our banks all the rules and regulations are fixed by RBI ( Reserve Bank of India), but in the blockchain, there isn't a single buddy who can set regulations for us. We all who are a part of this network, are types of owners of this blockchain technology. So if I send any bitcoin or a little amount of Bitcoin to you then nobody will ever be able to find out the persons behind the transactions, they just can see that transactions are happening but they aren't able to find out the identity. You just need to have Bitcoin or you can buy it to send another human being.

*WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO CHANGE THE DATA OF ANYTHING IN THE BLOCKCHAIN?

: As I mentioned earlier that it is so difficult to tamper with the data into the blockchain, the reason behind this is that if anyone wants to change the data then that guy has to change that data from millions of blocks because all the blocks are interconnected with each other, if you change any block's hash then the next blocks previous hash will not be the same, and in that way it will not work, that's why you have to change all the hashes and it is going to take a lot of times because there is a concept named ' proof of works' are played a very important role, for example, if you want to change a block then it usually takes 10 min, you have to prove that you actually have given 10 min to change each block in that system, if there are a million blocks then you can calculate how much time it would take! It can take some decades easily if anyone is capable to do that, still, there will have another challenge because we all are a part of this community so if anybody wants to change something and have done all the previous thing which is needed to alter the data, so after that, there will have a kind election amongst the people, if more than 50 percent of people would agree with the change then only that change will happen, if they think you are trying to do something wrong with the data then they will not give you the permission to do that, and these people are from the different parts of the globe. That's why it is next to impossible to change the data in the blockchain system.

*THE PLACES WE CAN USE THIS TECHNOLOGY:

1) IN HEALTHCARE: We can use this blockchain technology in healthcare to protect information. Usually, we save our health-related data in files, but it is not so secure, anyone can change the data according to their motives, but if we start using blockchain to save our information then it would be next to impossible to alter the data.

2) IN ELECTIONS: In elections what happens, people have the right to vote whoever they want but still in this physical voting process it isn't so tough to change the voters' votes or after giving votes still these votes wouldn't reach their right place sometimes, so in that way, in order to avoid these kinds of frauds we can use this blockchain technology, so it would be very tough to tamper with. Some countries have experiment that process also like Russia, Sierra Leone, etc. 

In that way, we can use this technology in each and every field just like in education, banking, property records, etc. 

Till now if we see the data then blockchain has been used heavily in the crypto world more than any other industry. Now there are more than 10k cryptocurrencies out there. Bitcoin was invented for the purpose of solving problems related to transactions but now people have started seeing bitcoin as an investment & it's a good thing because people think bitcoin has some value, in the near future bitcoin may start seen as a currency. The only thing that worries about bitcoin is that no one can identify the people behind those transactions so it can go wrong, for example whenever some kind of big transaction will happen, maybe behind those transactions will have some wrong intentions just like terrorist attacks, etc.

☑️SOME ADVANTAGES OF BLOCKCHAIN:

1) It is secured and safe.

2) It is decentralized that's why it is hard to tamper with.

3) Cost & time reduction.

❎Some drawbacks are also there just like,

1) Technology cost, 2) low speed of transactions, 3) Illegal activity, etc.

So overall, in the future, this blockchain technology would have a great impact.....