Blockchain
– the mysterious buzzword of the current times… let us now go just a bit deeper
into this term, and place it in the proper perspective with respect to the
modern Business World we all know so well. In the public understanding, this is
a distributed ledger, in which an entry once made – cannot be altered. This
simplistic definition is at the real core of the misunderstanding / debate
around blockchain; it just doesn’t do justice to the term, creating a debate,
at times even a passioned debate. This is why I went into reading about it –
and picked up “Blockchain: From Concept
To Execution”
WHAT IS BLOCKCHAIN
In
order that we understand & appreciate Blockchain and its implications, we
need to first understand its salient features, or what makes Blockchain so
different, and so special:
1. It is
simply a type of database which is running a distributed ledger system around
the whole cloud of internet.
2. It could be
public, private; Permissioned or open; limited or otherwise – that depends on
the specific use case
3. Every node
in the ledger carries a copy of the data
4. No single
point of failure
5. No down
time
6. Data is
immutable, and cant be altered once stored
7. Data stored
through hashing, which ensures the security and tamperproofness, as even a small change will alter the
resultant hash
8. Each record
in the database {block} points to a new block, thus creating a chain…
GOING
DEEPER INTO BLOCKCHAIN, AND THE BOOK
Further
to the above, each “block” {simply speaking, in layman’s language – entry} has,
among other things – something called a hash, and a timestamp. Understanding
these two are critical if we are to understand Blockchain Basics. {Only
weakness that I could spot for this book - A Hash is the, {Again, simply
speaking; for understanding concept. This is not properly explained in the book}
– end product of a computer algorithm that gives a standard output for any
input put into it. There are many accepted algorithms for this; Blockchain uses
one of the best known for hashing. The beauty of the concept is that even a
very small change in input will produce a large change in output. Thus, data
stored is encoded, and secure. And, as it has multiple copies on multiple
nodes, tracing errors and attacks becomes easy, ensuring enhanced
security. The word timestamp is
self-explanatory, and provides an additional authentication layer.
This
is the advantage you get from reading this book… it explains everything in very
simple terms, bringing you much closer to the technology everyone is talking
about. These are the things most books
don’t explain – and this book does this in very simple terms. After reading
this, you get a basic working knowledge of, and far more important –
appreciation for the blockchain technology, what it is exactly – something not
one mainstream news article has managed to do so far.
Having
got a small glimpse of the hardcore basics, the book goes on to look one or two use-cases in order to appreciate
the power of the blockchain; as well as
the basic actual tools and software solutions that are either in vogue or being
developed – “the frameworks”. In computer programming, a software framework is
an abstraction in which software providing generic functionality can be
selectively changed by additional user-written code, thus providing
application-specific software. {Wiki Definition}. The best part is that this
entire section – much of the book to be honest – gives actual use cases.
CONCLUSION
This
is a new technology; a lot remains to be seen, invented, developed and/or
discovered; that is most significant
point that comes through. Secondly, it is nothing less than an ecosystem;
thirdly, specific use cases are there – this book helps us get an rough idea of
the limits of this technology, what it can do – and thus by definition, what it
cannot do yet, though that last part is my assumption. The book is an excellent
resource for programmers, coders, enthusiasts as well as people wanting to know
more – coding examples are also present; as are details of the frameworks….
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