What is blockchain?

Blockchain is no walk in the park and wrapping your head around certain ideas can sometimes feel like a challenge.

Fortunately, our new series is here to break down even the most complex topics into easily chewable chunks ??

“Sounds peachy, but what’s blockchain?!” you might ask.

Don’t worry, we’ll make it make sense.

Let’s take a specific example. Imagine a digital book tracking every gummy bear in existence and every transaction involving gummy bears that ever took place, from buying it at the corner store to trading it for Skittles.

As opposed to your average diary tucked away on a bookshelf, this book has some pretty special properties:

? It’s digital and public - anyone can access it online.

??It’s secure - every transaction is verified by gummy bear watchers before being added to the book, (so you can’t say you’ve passed 2 bears on to Bobbie but actually kept them to yourself)

??It’s unchangeable (immutable) - once something was written in the book it can’t be changed. At specific intervals a new page is added. Each page contains a summary of all the previous pages + all the verified transactions that happened during that specific interval.

??It never skips a beat - The book records every transaction, day and night, Monday through Sunday.

Now you might be asking yourself “OK, but how is this useful?”. Well, think of it as a truth machine. Because of its transparent and immutable nature, this book makes sure everyone can see all the gummy bear transactions ever made, and no one can lie about their history. How many pieces they own, where they got them from, how much they paid for it, and so on.

Like this book, the blockchain brings invaluable trust wherever trust is lacking. It matters less whether it’s transactions with gummy bears, chewing gum, digital gold, pictures of rocks, chains of distribution or country elections. The possible use cases are boundless.