Blockchain technology is changing our world as we speak. It is basically a very very very accurate database. Blockchain is a system of recording information in a way that makes it nearly impossible to change, hack, or cheat the system. It is divided into blocks and each block in the chain contains a number of transactions. Every time a new transaction occurs on the blockchain, a record of that transaction adds itself to every participant’s ledger. The decentralised database managed by multiple participants is known as Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). For this reason blockchain is safe, because since it is available to all it has to procetc itself with cryptography technology. But what else don’t you know about this technology? Let’s take a look at the top 5 things we bet you didn’t know about Blockchain technology.
A new hope for a transparent and affordable future
Creating a safe and effective digital identity is one of the future’s most important challenges. It is a challenge that sees human sentiment at its core, sort of speak, and not only business. Many people in poor countries can’t afford to reach an office to get an ID, so what is the solution? Bring the ID to them. Many companies are studying ways to put reliable and uncrackable digital IDs in the hands of people. By doing so, people who normally would find it difficult even to have an identity, could actually get access to financial services or even start a business. Microsoft is working to launch services like such, their app “Authenticator” came to light with the very purpose to satisfy the needs we just mentioned.
Think about what changes safe digital IDs could bring to our society, one surely concerns political elections. Remember when Trump said “there was no way he could lose the elections”? Well, we do not care whether he was right or wrong, nor do we wanna take political sides, but the point is that with blockchain technology we will have no doubts.
The technology is so safe that it makes it almost impossible for criminals to hack it. Blockchain is almost impossible to hack, but since many people have access to it, it gives blockchain a better line of defense. To alter a chain, someone would need control of about half of all the computers in the same distributed ledger. Hoping that such technology would make citizen feel safer when it comes to voting, companies are investing in such technology. One of those companies is Voatz. It aims to make voting safer and easier for everyone even if everyone can do it from the sofa at home. Until now only Sierra Leone tried to adopt blockchain technology for political elections. The results were encouraging in terms of security and speed when counting votes.
Blockchain is not Bitcoin
Many people think that blockchain and Bitcoin are the same thing, but they aren’t. There is one fundamental misconcaption. If it is true that they are two separate things it is also true that one cannot exist without the other.
I don’t wanna get too technical but let’s try to see a bit. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, whereas blockchain is basically a decentralized database. Bitcoin uses blockchain technology, but blockchain has found many uses beyond Bitcoin. In fact, even if Bitcoin uses blockchain technology and blockchain at the same time was created specifically for Bitcoin by an unknown person under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto, blockchain can serve several other different purposes.