Blockchain for Beginners
Recently I've gotten a lot of questions about what a "Blockchain" is and how it works. If you are already familiar with databases and encryption, there is a great deal of highly technical information available on this topic. The following post is intended for those who are just starting out. Who hasn't heard of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin? Or NFT's? Maybe you have even invested in them? One thing they all have in common is a database technology called "Blockchain." Data security and integrity are of the highest importance in financial transactions and blockchain is one way we can guarantee this. To understand the way it works, it helps to think of a single Block like a spreadsheet containing data. A collection of these blocks is a called a “Blockchain.” Similar in structure to a ledger, the blockchain is distributed in nodes across a computer network. Each node on the network contains a copy of the entire blockchain. The first...