{"id":120290,"date":"2018-01-24T06:45:47","date_gmt":"2018-01-24T11:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ict-pulse.com\/?p=120290"},"modified":"2018-01-24T08:23:40","modified_gmt":"2018-01-24T13:23:40","slug":"blockchain-101-demystifying-technology-transform-aspects-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2018\/01\/blockchain-101-demystifying-technology-transform-aspects-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"Blockchain 101: demystifying the technology, and how it will transform all aspects of our lives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Globally, the tech space is excited about blockchain, However, many of us just do not understand the concept. Here, we try to break it down, and explain why blockchain is likely to transform how we perceive and use the Internet.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Unless you have been living under a rock, at the very least, you should have heard the term \u2018Bitcoin\u2019 over the past year, which was also highlighted in our <strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/2qXJasr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Top 5 ICT\/tech Trends for 2018<\/a><\/em><\/strong>. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, which means it is\u00a0a digital currency in which encryption techniques are used to regulate generation of the currency and to verify the transfer of funds.<\/p>\n<p>Cryptocurrencies use decentralized control; hence, there is no single body or source that oversees the currency or the transactions performed, as is the case with a central bank, which oversee traditional currencies and transactions. Instead, cryptocurrencies are managed using blockchain technology, which is likely to drive the next wave of technological advancement. However, very few people actually understand what blockchain is about. \u00a0Here we will try to simplify the concept, and briefly discuss why people are so excited about it.<\/p>\n<h3>What is blockchain technology?<\/h3>\n<p>In a nutshell, blockchain technology, which is also known as distributed ledgers, is a means by which a group of transaction records, known as blocks, are ordered, linked and secured using cryptography. However, the genius of blockchain is the fact that the records of transactions are decentralised, meaning that records are not stored in just one place \u2013 on one device, or one server, for example \u2013 but instead are replicated across a network of devices, all using the same protocol to, among other things:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>validate each new transaction (or block of transactions)<\/li>\n<li>correctly order and connect the most recent data blocks to earlier ones<\/li>\n<li>synchronise the data block on all devices on the network., and<\/li>\n<li>corroborate that each device on network has an identical log (ledger) of the data blocks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This decentralised approach means blockchains are inherently secure. It is difficult to (surreptitiously) alter an earlier transaction, as the record of that transaction, and more importantly that data block, would need to be altered across the entire network, and all subsequent transactions (and data blocks) would also be affected. Further, no one device is considered a trusted source, or having an official copy, and so has greater influence, or determines what is consider true or correct. The devices on the network must all confirm a transaction, and that strengthens the authoritativeness of blockchain.<\/p>\n<p>In summary, the strength of blockchain, and hence its integrity, comes from two things. First, the size of the network and the volume of data replication required. The larger the network, the greater the likelihood it cannot be corrupted. Second, the use cryptography, and its coordination across the network, increases the security of the data, which is crucial to the authentication process. As a result, no data is ever destroyed, and through blockchain technology, there is a permanent, chronological and secure audit trail of all transactions, which is why Bitcoin, along with the other cryptocurrencies that are on the market today, are considered highly secure digital assets.<\/p>\n<h3>Enough of the theory, how does blockchain work in practice?<\/h3>\n<p>One of the most pervasive challenges we have today is cybercrime and network security; networks are being breached; data is being stolen; files\/records are being altered. As more of our systems become digitised and go online, data \u2013 especially critical or sensitive data \u2013 it is becoming increasingly vulnerable. Blockchain technology can offer a robust solution.<\/p>\n<p>First, the typical practice is to have data stored on a server, and although there might be back-up and some redundancies, the approach is inherently centralised. Hence, if the server is compromised and data is altered, those changes may not be immediately flagged, and this modified data can become the new authority. For example, if a sum of money is stolen from a bank account, the unauthorised withdrawal and the corresponding balance are what obtains (are seen to be true), unless or until the account owner complains, or the bank uncovers the breach and tracks it through their system.<\/p>\n<p>If blockchain technology is applied, hacking a server and changing the records there will no longer be effective. Transaction records are saved across multiple (hundreds, thousands, millions of) devices, and changes to any one record must be corroborated across the network. Hence, to successfully fool the network, most if not all of the devices on the network would need to be hacked and their records changed, which if properly decentralised would be near impossible to accomplish.<\/p>\n<p>Further, when blockchain technology is applied, as currently occurs with cryptocurrencies, transactions can be completed without having to go through an intermediary. For example, if jack want to send some money to Jill online, he either transfers the fund via an intermediary, such as his bank, a digital wallet (e.g. via PayPal), or some other third party exchange (such as Western Union). On the other hand, in the cryptocurrency space, Jack solely controls his digital wallet and all of the steps needed to facilitate the successful transfer of funds to Jill are confirmed by the network itself \u2013 without any third-party intervention.<\/p>\n<h3>So why are people so excited about blockchain technology?<\/h3>\n<p>Thanks to the security blockchain technology offers, it is seen as being able to revolutionise how records and transactions are stored in areas including, but not limited to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>banking and finance<\/li>\n<li>healthcare and medial<\/li>\n<li>education<\/li>\n<li>business and law<\/li>\n<li>elections and voting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>However, and in a wider context, evidenced by the ability to transfer monetary value in a decentralised\/distributed manner (as currently obtains with cryptocurrencies), blockchain is ushering a new trust platform, which does not rely on specific institutions, or countries, or some other third party, to manage, authenticate or validate transactions. Currently, these entities can manipulate the system in which they operate, and can also be compromised by others, which in turn undermines our trust in them.<\/p>\n<p>Hence, the seemingly incorruptible nature of blockchain technology is beginning to change how we conceptualise and believe a broad range of systems and technologies should operate. However, adjusting our mindset to incorporate a distributed approach in areas such as cloud computing, the Internet of Things, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and big data, to name a few, is still several years away\u2026 but it is coming.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>For those wanting to learn more,\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.siliconcaribe.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SiliconCaribe<\/a> will be discussing blockchain and cryptocurrencies on 31 January 2018:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"120294\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2018\/01\/blockchain-101-demystifying-technology-transform-aspects-lives\/silicon-caribe-_-block-chain-talk-jan2018\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Silicon-Caribe-_-Block-Chain-Talk-Jan2018.png?fit=1024%2C765&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1024,765\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Silicon Caribe _ Block Chain Talk (Jan2018)\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;http:\/\/www.siliconcaribe.com\/&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Silicon-Caribe-_-Block-Chain-Talk-Jan2018.png?fit=300%2C224&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Silicon-Caribe-_-Block-Chain-Talk-Jan2018.png?fit=1024%2C765&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Silicon-Caribe-_-Block-Chain-Talk-Jan2018.png?resize=1024%2C765\" class=\"wp-image-120294 size-full\" height=\"765\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Silicon-Caribe-_-Block-Chain-Talk-Jan2018.png?w=1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Silicon-Caribe-_-Block-Chain-Talk-Jan2018.png?resize=300%2C224&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Silicon-Caribe-_-Block-Chain-Talk-Jan2018.png?resize=768%2C574&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Silicon-Caribe-_-Block-Chain-Talk-Jan2018.png?resize=200%2C150&amp;ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Silicon-Caribe-_-Block-Chain-Talk-Jan2018.png?resize=690%2C515&amp;ssl=1 690w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Image credit:\u00a0 geralt (<a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pixabay<\/a>); <a href=\"http:\/\/www.siliconcaribe.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SiliconCaribe<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>________________<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Globally, the tech space is excited about blockchain, However, many of us just do not understand the concept. Here, we try to break it down, and explain why blockchain is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[283,336,71,332,105,38,324,330,32,316],"class_list":["post-120290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ict-tech","tag-bitcoin","tag-blockchain","tag-businesses","tag-cryptocurrency","tag-cybercrimecybersecurity","tag-data-protection","tag-digital-currencies","tag-digital-transformation","tag-information-society","tag-network-security","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/block-chain-handshake-geralt-Pixabay.jpg?fit=1024%2C680&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2iE1G-via","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120290"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120366,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120290\/revisions\/120366"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}