Blockchain Technology Detailed Guide For Beginners¶

Blockchain Has Become The Buzzword For The Digital World. Its popularity increased when Elon Musk showed great interest in Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies.

Here is what Elon Musk has to say about ‘Blockchain technology And Digital Currencies’ - “Not Possible to Destroy Cryptocurrencies”

Oftentimes, people are just aware of the term because it is trending. Blockchain, Bitcoin, and Ethereum are such terms - People have a brief idea but nothing important in deep. Through the Blockchain Technology glossary, we will help you to know everything about it. So Let’s Get Started!

1. What Are The Key Components Of Blockchain Technology?¶

You might have heard of Bitcoin, right? Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and the best-known application or implementation of the blockchain. You will find a lot of development in the direction of cryptocurrencies. But blockchain technology is not just limited to the application of cryptocurrencies. The are several use-cases of blockchain technology that exhibit the features and functionalities of Blockchain technology. All the use-cases are dependent on the key components of Blockchain technology. In simple words, with the help of blockchain, experts are trying to fix these three essential components in every sector - business, healthcare, education, finance, etc. The key components are

• Value
• Trust
• Reliability

2. How Blockchain Technology Can Fix Value Aspect?¶

Adding Value To The Digital Assets

With blockchain, you have the flexibility to generate value for a digital asset. The value of the digital asset can be maintained or controlled by the person who owns it. Moreover, blockchain allows the unique asset to be transferred over the internet without the interference of a middle centralized agent.

3. How Blockchain Technology Can Fix Trusts Issues In The Digital World?¶

Blockchain technology helps you to securely assign ownership to a specific digital asset. You can access the digital asset, you will require a digital signature. Besides, you will get accessibility only when the tokens verify your identity. Blockchain will allow users to track digital assets and ensure their security. With the support of blockchain technology, you will be able to create a permanent, secure, unalterable record of who owns what. It uses advanced hash cryptography to preserve the integrity of the information.

4. How Blockchain Technology Is Enhances The Reliability In The Digital World?¶

Blockchain is based on the concept of decentralization. Besides, it ensures that the workload will be distributed among thousands of different computers worldwide (especially those available on a specific network). Due to this feature, the blockchain offers incredible reliability. Blockchain does not support the centralization of digital assets. If such things happen, a single point failure will bring down the entire network. But, a decentralized network structure of blockchain will ensure that there is no single point of failure which could bring the entire system down.

5. What Are The Different Types Of Blockchain Technology Versions?¶

Let’s get started to know and understand the types of Blockchain Versions

    * Version 1.0: Cryptocurrency
    * Version 2.0: Smart Contracts
    * Version 3.0: Introduction to dApps
    * Version 4.0: Blockchain for Industry

Understanding the blockchain versions explains how blockchain has evolved in these years. The version includes a progression of blockchain technology from version 1.0 to version 4.0.

Version 1.0: Cryptocurrency¶

The first-ever application of blockchain technology was the implementation of distributed ledger technology. This in turn was responsible for the emergence of cryptocurrency, Bitcoin in the digital world. After Bitcoin, blockchain became the underlying technology for several cryptocurrencies. You can get the entire list of cryptocurrencies that provides financial transaction and are based on Blockchain. Satoshi Nakamoto is a pseudonym for the person who invented Bitcoin. The aim of the creator was to design a currency that is efficient and offers a “trust-less” cash system. Besides, Bitcoin is known for eliminating the dependency on centralized systems or third-party intermediaries. It is nothing like the traditional systems that require mediators to perform digital monetary transfers.

Version 2.0: Smart Contracts¶

After Bitcoin, you can get to see another version of the blockchain technology. This version includes changes beyond the application of cryptocurrency in the blockchain world. Blockchain technology has to face multiple challenges with the application of bitcoin. In version 2.0, the developers and experts have tried to overcome the challenges of Bitcoin. The first version of blockchain technology witnessed wasteful mining. Moreover, version 1.0 did not have any scalability. Smart contracts are designed to overcome the issues of scalability and wasteful mining. Smart Contracts refer to autonomous computer programs that have the potential to execute automatically. The programs execute when the conditions are matched. The contracts make use of the blockchain network without causing any plausibility of downtime, fraud, or error. The matra behind the introduction of the smart contract is to provide security while processing transactions and reduce excess transaction costs and time. Smart contracts are nothing like traditional contracts. Smart contracts ensure that transactional transparency is maintained at a high level. Besides, it has the potential to offer security and confidentiality by making use of cryptographic algorithms. You can apply smart contracts to multiple fields such as trade finance, supply chain, property ownership, and many other domains.

Version 3.0: Introduction to dApps¶

Most people today are aware of the dApps application. The dApps make use of the blockchain features and functionalities. dApps are basically the software that has the potential to communicate with the blocks of blockchain and handle a wide range of status of all network actors. dApps are not like the centralized application on the computer systems. These blockchain-based apps run on a P2P network. You can use these applications for decentralized storage and communication. Moreover, the backend code of the application will run on a decentralized network. They do not need any centralized network. Some of the best top-ranked dApps are ForkDelta, CryptoKitties, Bancor, Ether Shrimp Farm, PoWH 3D, and Moon, Inc., among others.

Version 4.0: Applications Of Blockchain For Industry¶

You cannot define the value of blockchain technology in all industries. You have to understand what types of industries are dependent on the blockchain. Besides, the researchers are working day and night to implement blockchain technology in varied industries. These industries are finance, supply chain, manufacturing, healthcare, and logistics. Blockchain Technology 4.0 exhibits beneficial functions and features that help in demonstrating the strategies that make Blockchain available to business requirements. There is a wide range of organizations, industries, enterprises, and businesses that are eager to adopt the functionalities and features offered by blockchain technology. It is because blockchain is based on a decentralized nature, that distributed ledger technologies like Blockchain can easily resist malicious attacks and frauds. With continuous efforts, Blockchain developers and technocrats are trying to build a scalable, adaptable, and affordable Blockchain for the world.

What Role Do Bitcoin Miners Play In Blockchain Network?¶

Through this informative guide, we will learn more about the roles and responsibilities of Bitcoin miners. Before you understand the roles and responsibilities of Bitcoin Miners, gain knowledge about Bitcoin Mining.

What Do You Mean By Bitcoin Mining?¶

Bitcoin mining refers to the process of adding and validating the transaction records to manage Bitcoin's public ledger of past transactions. The ledger comprises all the past transactions. This ledger is popularly known as a block. This chain of blocks in a secure network is called a blockchain. The aim of Bitcoin mining is to provide secure, efficient, and faster transactions to the rest of the network.

Understanding The Role of Bitcoin Miners In Blockchain Technology¶

Within the bitcoin networks of blockchain technology, you will find a group of miners who are skillful in mining the bitcoin. In Bitcoin mining, you have to understand the process along with transactions. Anybody who has basic knowledge of blockchain technology, and mining software can apply for the mining Bitcoins. However, the Bitcoin mining process requires powerful computers, software, and industrial electricity to mine Bitcoin. The minors will actually solve complex computational math problems and cryptographic issues because every transaction needs to be cryptographically encoded and secured. After validating the records of transactions in every block, they apply the Hash code to it. These mathematical problems ensure that nobody is tampering with that data.

For mining Bitcoins, miners usually receive Bitcoins as a reward. In the cryptocurrency world, you do not have the right to create digital or regular currency. You have to earn it or mine it. Bitcoin is created by rewarding these minors for their work in solving mathematical and cryptographical problems.

How Does Bitcoin Blockchain Formation happen?¶

The main responsibility of a minor is to build the blockchain of records that forms the bitcoin ledger and also to validate it. These ledgers that contain Bitcoin data are called blocks. Every block or ledger of Bitcoin contains all the different transactions that have taken place. The Bitcoin network generates the blocks every few minutes. These blocks must be verified and validated as soon as the blocks connect to the network. While processing different transactions, the minors are forming the Bitcoin block. Once the blocks are validated and confirmed, it gets added to the blockchain. The bitcoin blockchain provides a permanent record of all bitcoin transactions to the beginning.

What Are The Challenges That Limit The Growth Of Blockchain Technology?¶

Blockchain Is Extremely Complex To Understand And Implement:

The blockchain and cryptocurrency experts consider blockchain complexity as a beautiful aspect of the technology. But the complexity is making it difficult for businesses and enterprises to implement it at a basic level. The complexity of the blockchain will increase when the number of parties associated with a transaction will be high. When the complexity of blockchain increases, its applicability of the blockchain will improve. Ut the complexity of blockchain increases the operationality and cost. Due to the complexity of blockchain, various industrial sectors are not accepting the technology wholeheartedly. Rather they are taking a hybrid approach. They are neither centralized nor decentralized. Furthermore, companies have to employ dedicated blockchain experts, even if their existing applications are small.

You Cannot Replicate The Use Cases For The Blockchain Applications:

Another challenge industries face while implementing blockchain is that you cannot replicate the applications for different industries or businesses. In simple words, a chemical company and a textile company both have accounting sections. But you cannot use the same blockchain application for the companies. Blockchain technology goes deep down to understand each business and applications will be formed based on it.

Blockchain Technology Has To Experience 51% Attack

If you stay updated with the cryptocurrency news or blockchain news, you might be knowing the Ethereum Classic’s 51% attack. In the month of January, Coinbase was able to get hold of the deep chain reorganization of the Ethereum Classic blockchain. The issues resulted in the immediate pausing of the operations and interactions with the ETC blockchain.

Besides this, in the year 2016, Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO), responsible for handling Ethereum was attacked. The attack resulted in a financial loss of $50 Mn. In simple words, DAO lost almost one-third of the funds.

TO avoid such issues, the Ethereum community along with DAO undertook major measures to hard-fork or break the blockchain to create a new blockchain. The new hard-forked cryptocurrency was then called Ethereum (ETH) with the theft reversed Blockchain, and the original continued as Ethereum Classic.

What was the 51 percent attack that shocked the blockchain network?

A 51% attack refers to the malicious miner or a group of malicious miners who took control of almost 50% or more of a network’s mining power. The mining power was also regarded as the hash rate. When the miner (or most likely a group of miners) develops control of over 50% of the network’s hash has the power to block and manipulate the history produced by the rest of the network and can even define a new canonical transaction history.

Energy Consumption For Blockchain Technology Is Quite High

Implementation of blockchain technology requires a high energy supply. Here is an example that will help you to understand the circumstances in a better way. You are familiar with the cryptocurrency - Bitcoin. While mining Bitcoin or Bitcoin core, you need approximately 200 GB of storage space in every node as a part of the blockchain network.

Along with the above requirement, you will need 5 GB upload and 500 MB download every day. Do you think, you would be able to meet this requirement? Well, India and other third-world countries are not in the position to provide such high energy consumption. Even countries like US and China are struggling to provide uninterrupted energy for the mining and implementation of Blockchain technology. This shows that blockchain implementation certainly needs a massive infrastructure upgrade.

Similarly, in other cryptocurrencies and use-cases of blockchain technology, energy consumption remains one of the biggest issues with miners.

Note: According to Researchers at the University of Cambridge, it has been stated that the energy consumption of a single Bitcoin blockchain is equivalent to the entire nation of Switzerland. The energy is required to keep the entire blockchain network active throughout the day.

Conclusion:¶

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