These days, technology is scaling new levels of success at an incredibly fast pace. One of the latest triumphs in this direction is the evolution of Blockchain technology. New technology has greatly influenced the financial sector. In fact, it was initially developed for Bitcoin, the digital currency. But now, it also finds its application in many other things.
Getting here was probably easy. But do you still need to know what Blockchain is?
A distributed database
Imagine an electronic spreadsheet, which is copied many times across a computer network. Now, imagine that the computer network is so intelligently designed that it regularly updates the spreadsheet on its own. This is a broad overview of Blockchain. Blockchain holds information as a shared database. In addition, this database is continuously reconciled.
This approach has its own benefits. It does not allow to store the database anywhere. The records they have there have a genuine public attribute and can be verified very easily. Since there is no centralized version of the records, unauthorized users have no means to manipulate and corrupt the data. Blockchain’s distributed database is hosted simultaneously by millions of computers, making data easily accessible to almost anyone via the virtual web.
To clarify the concept or technology, it’s a good idea to talk about the Google Docs analogy.
Google Docs analogy for Blockchain
After the advent of email, the conventional way to share documents is to send a Microsoft Word document as an attachment to a recipient or recipients. Recipients will take their sweet time to go over it, before resending the revised copy. In this approach, you have to wait until you receive the return copy to see the changes made to the document. This happens because the sender cannot make corrections until the recipient has finished editing and resends the document. Contemporary databases do not allow two owners to access the same record at the same time. This is how banks maintain the balances of their customers or account holders.
Unlike established practice, Google Docs allows both parties to access the same document at the same time. In addition, it also allows both to view a single version of the document simultaneously. Just like a shared record, Google Docs also acts as a shared document. The distributed part only becomes relevant when the sharing involves multiple users. Blockchain technology is, in a way, an extension of this concept. However, it is important to note here that Blockchain is not meant for document sharing. Rather, it is just an analogy, which will help to get a clear idea about this cutting-edge technology.
Blockchain Highlights
Blockchain stores blocks of information across the entire network, which are identical. By virtue of this feature:
- The data or information cannot be controlled by any particular entity.
- Nor can there be a single point of failure.
- The data is kept on a public network, which guarantees absolute transparency in the overall procedure.
- The data stored in it cannot be damaged.
Demand for Blockchain Developers
As mentioned earlier, Blockchain technology has a very high application in the world of finance and banking. According to the World Bank, more than US$430 billion in remittances were sent in 2015 alone. Hence, Blockchain developers are in significant demand in the market.
Blockchain eliminates the profit of intermediaries in these monetary transactions. It was the invention of the GUI (Graphical User Interface), which made it easier for the common man to access desktop computers. Similarly, the wallet application is the most common GUI for Blockchain technology. Users make use of the wallet to buy things they want with Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency.