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What is Blockchain Technology, and How Does It Work?

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Are you a Blockchain enthusiast? Want to gain in-depth knowledge about it? This guide will help you in understanding what this technology is all about its benefits and how it works. 

So let’s get started. 

Table of Contents

  • Blockchain: In Most Simple Words 
  • Bitcoin and Blockchain: How They are Related?
  • Working Mechanism of Blockchain
  • Benefits of using Blockchain Technology
  • Concluding Lines: How to Learn Blockchain?

Blockchain: In Most Simple Words 

Blockchain is a peer-to-peer decentralized distributed ledger technology that makes the records of any digital asset transparent and unchangeable and works without involving any third-party intermediary. It is an emerging and revolutionary technology that is attracting a lot of public attention due to its capability to reduce risks and frauds in a scalable manner. 

Now here comes the question why is Blockchain a distributed, decentralized P2P network? A decentralized network offers multiple benefits over the traditional centralized network, including increased system reliability and privacy. Moreover, such networks are much easier to scale and deal with no real single point of failure. The reason why Blockchain is distributed is because of shared communication and distributed processing.

The P2P architecture of Blockchains provides several benefits such as greater security compared to traditional client-server based networks. A distributed P2P network, paired with a majority consensus requirement, provides Blockchains a relatively high degree of resistance to malicious activities. 

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Bitcoin and Blockchain: How They are Related?

Although the advent of Blockchain has taken the world by storm, many people still get confused about these two terms. Thus, it is important to understand how these terms differ and how they are interrelated.

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, which is an application of Blockchain, whereas Blockchain is simply an underlying technology behind Bitcoin that is implemented through various channels. So if you are working on Blockchain and learning Blockchain, then you are not actually learning cryptocurrency but learning how cryptocurrency works. 

Working Mechanism of Blockchain

Blockchain can be defined as a shared ledger, allowing thousands of connected computers or servers to maintain a single, secured, and immutable ledger. Blockchain can perform user transactions without involving any third-party intermediaries. In order to perform transactions, all one needs is to have its wallet. A Blockchain wallet is nothing but a program that allows one to spend cryptocurrencies like BTC, ETH, etc. Such wallets are secured by cryptographic methods(public and private keys) so that one can manage and have full control over his transactions. 

Now, this is how Blockchain works. Initially, when a user creates a transaction over a Blockchain network, a block will be created, representing that transaction is created. Once a block is created, the requested transaction is broadcasted over the peer-to-peer network, consisting of computers, known as nodes, which then validate the transaction. 

A verified transaction can involve cryptocurrency, contracts, records, or any other valuable information.

Once a transaction is verified, it is combined with other blocks to create a new block of data for the ledger. 

 Here it is important to note that with each new transaction, a secured block is created, which are secured and bound to each other using cryptographic principles. Whenever a new block is created, it is added to the existing Blockchain network confirming that it is secured and immutable.

Benefits of using Blockchain Technology

We have learned a lot about Blockchain technology. Now let’s explore what its benefits are.

Immutability

In a traditional database, you have to trust a system administrator that he is not going to change the data. But with Blockchain, there is no possibility of changing the data or altering the data; the data present inside the Blockchain is permanent; one cannot delete or undo it. 

Transparency

Centralized systems are not transparent, whereas Blockchain (a decentralized system) offers complete transparency. By utilizing blockchain technology, organizations and enterprises can go for a complete decentralized network where there is no need for any centralized authority, thus improving the transparency of the entire system.

High Availability 

Unlike centralized systems, Blockchain is a decentralized system of P2P network which is highly available due to its decentralized nature. Since in the Blockchain network, everyone is on a P2P network, and everyone has a computer running, therefore, even if one peer goes down, the other peers still work.

High Security 

This is another major benefit that Blockchain offers. Technology is assumed to offer high security as all the transactions of Blockchain are cryptographically secure and provide integrity. Thus instead of relying on third-party, you need to put your trust in cryptographic algorithms. 

Concluding Lines: How to Learn Blockchain?

Learning Blockchain is easy now, all thanks to reputed online courses and training sessions. Blockchain Council is one such organization that offers online training and certification programs to aspiring trainees to render them desired competencies so that they have a successful career in the Blockchain space. Keeping the rising demands of blockchain professionals in mind, Blockchain Council certifications are diversified to meet each aspirant’s discrete needs. Right from understanding what Blockchain is, the certification covers a variety of basic and advanced level topics.

To get instant updates about Blockchain Technology and to learn more about online Blockchain Certifications, check out Blockchain Council.  

What is Blockchain Technology, and How Does It Work?

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Ledger’s recent security audit was unconnected to their data breach in June

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Popular hardware wallet company Ledger recently announced that they had passed a notable security evaluation, known as SOC 2 Type 1. This certification came following a significant data breach the company suffered in June. Ledger did not, however, decide to conduct its security audit because of the breach, according to comments from a Ledger representative. 

“Ledger is always seeking to raise the security standards and has been working on getting the attestation prior to the data breach,” the representative told Cointelegraph. 

News of Ledger’s completed SOC 2 Type 1 audit came in October, essentially giving the market a level of confidence based on a trusted mainstream security benchmark.

“The SOC II attestation refers both to the System, in this case, Ledger Vault only, and the Organization: Ledger as a whole,” the representative explained. “Hence, if the SOC 2 Type 1 only applies to Ledger Vault, the Ledger organization as a whole has been audited (onboarding of collaborators, third party interactions, etc.).”

Ledger was made aware of a database weakness in July, which they quickly patched. The company, however, also uncovered a previous large data breach that occurred in June, which leaked thousands customers’ names, addresses, and other potentially sensitive information. 

Kristy-Leigh Minehan, Former CTO of Core Scientific, told Cointelegraph “SOC2 Type 1 is about assessing the design of a security process (or processes) at a specific point in time (or, as of a specified date).” She clarified:

“They would only be evaluated up until the point when they executed it, not necessarily when they were awarded it.”

Ledger’s recent security audit was unconnected to their data breach in June

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Crypto​.com reverses ‘illegitimate trades’ amid prolonged downtime for the exchange

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A database issue has led to prolonged downtime for the Crypto​.com exchange. According to a series of tweets published by platform’s CEO, Kris Marszalek, the exact cause of these issues remains unknown. Marszalek did confirm, however, that some users had taken advantage of the situation by manipulating the ETH/USDT price prior to the outage.

These users locked in gains by selling other crypto “en masse”, allowing them to conduct what the CEO referred to as “illegitimate trades.” After discovering the situation, the company placed its services into offline mode.

Attempts to withdraw these ill-gotten funds were luckily prevented by the website’s risk management system, allowing the company to roll balances back to a previous state. Crypto​.com published an update on September 21, explaining that its app was “back online and is fully functional,” and that “all funds are safe.”

Crypto​.com’s CEO told Cointelegraph:

“The Crypto​.com App has been live since yesterday and the Exchange is about to go back online. No customer funds were at any risk at any time. We’re growing rapidly and the systems are naturally under stress. In response, we have strengthened the infrastructure to provide more capacity to accommodate growing demand.”

In recent news, the exchange released versions of its app and exchange that were localized for both a French and Spanish speaking audience.

Crypto​.com reverses ‘illegitimate trades’ amid prolonged downtime for the exchange

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Indian State of Tamil Nadu Becomes First State to Announce Blockchain Infrastructure Plan

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According to the recent announcement, the Indian State of Tamil Nadu becomes the first state to present a Blockchain infrastructure plan. The idea of revealing new infrastructure is to transform the way government services are provided to citizens.

Chief Minister Edapaddi K Palaniswami highlighted Tamil Nadu as a “Destination of Choice” for the IT and IT-enabled services sector and unveiled the Tamil Nadu’s adoption of an ethical blockchain policy. 

Apart from the Blockchain infrastructure plan, the Indian state also introduced Tamil Nadu Safe and Ethical Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity policies in the country.

Talking about Blockchain Technology, it is a Peer-to-Peer, decentralized, distributed ledger technology that mitigates third-party risks. Tech giants and enterprises are adopting distributed ledger technologies like Blockchain to scale their businesses and to leverage one another’s resources and knowledge.

Blockchain Infrastructure to Revolutionize Government Process

In order to revolutionize government processes, the state aims to roll out a project to provide Knowledge Proof Identity-based services delivery. The Chief Minister mentioned that the project would be implemented by leveraging the State Family Database (SFDB) and Blockchain Backbone infrastructure.

According to the Chief Minister,

“This pioneering initiative will take the Government to the Citizens, thus eliminating the citizens’ need to request G2C (government to citizen) services.” 

Blockchain Infrastructure acts as a single source of fact for all government processes and can also be used to re-imagine governance and to promote blockchain use in the state. 

Information Technology secretary Hans Raj Verma believes that these policies are the foundational policies in leveraging AI and Blockchain technology.

Santosh Mishra, Chief Executive Officer of the Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency, also believes that unveiling such policies is the transformative phase for emerging technologies in Tamil Nadu state.

The state also recognizes the need to set up a forum for Blockchain ecosystem growth by launching the Blockchain Backbone infrastructure to foster collaborations between multiple industries, startups, and academia and create a mature Blockchain ecosystem.

India’s Vigorous Efforts to Adopt Blockchain 

In September 2020, Crypto exchange CoinDCX also announced two new professional training courses, Certified Cryptocurrency Traders and Certified Cryptocurrency Experts, in partnership with Blockchain Council. These certifications will extend CoinDCX’s educational platform, “DCX Learn,” and will allow aspirants practice sessions using the exchange’s interface for simulated trading experience.

During this month, it was announced that Indian IT giant Tech Mahindra is planning to collaborate with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to build Blockchain-based supply chain solutions. It plans to build blockchain solutions for various sectors, including aviation, healthcare, and telecom sectors for global customers. 

Last week, a decentralized notification protocol called Ethereum Push Notification Service (EPNS) was developed by an Indian startup that enables DApps to send push notifications to the Ethereum wallet users. 

To get instant updates about Blockchain Technology and to learn more about online Blockchain Certifications, check out Blockchain Council.  

Indian State of Tamil Nadu Becomes First State to Announce Blockchain Infrastructure Plan

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How Should Businesses Develop Blockchain Apps?

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Codezeros

Blockchain has disrupted the capabilities of industry operations. Therefore, many businesses are trying to integrate blockchain in their ongoing operations.

However, should all companies use the blockchain? How would you know whether this technology can bring you benefits or not?

Let us take a look at several conditions that can help you decide whether blockchain technology is needed in your business or not.

Why are many companies stepping towards Blockchain App Development?

Basically, blockchain is a long chain of recorded data and managed by a cluster of different computers. The blocks of blockchain are secured and cryptography makes them connected to each other.

There are many reasons that have made blockchain so popular. Some of them are:

  • It runs on a decentralized system i.e. not owned by a single entity.
  • Every data here is securely and cryptographically stored.
  • The data stored cannot be tampered or hacked.
  • Blockchain is a transparent technology that makes it easily trackable.

Due to all these reasons, many companies want to incorporate the blockchain technology. In a survey by Juniper Research, 76% of employees of big companies were interested in integrating blockchain technology and thought that it will be useful in their operations.

When is the right time for your business to dive into blockchain?

Without a doubt, we can say that the blockchain solutions provide many use-cases. But, some of them are in the theoretical or PoC (Proof of concept) stage.

Though private blockchain which is owned and controlled by a single entity, is said to be a fancy type of shared database, it has become largely popular in industries like finance. However, according to critics, it is simpler to implement a shared database than blockchain. So, you should look into the following questions before considering blockchain in your business:

– Does the alternate solution or other new technology will take more years to fulfill its promises?

– Is this the right time to implement blockchain technology?

– Is your company dependent on the third party which takes away a major part of an investment?

If these answers are positive, then you can go with blockchain. But, if your company deals with a large amount of data and the importance of speed and time is immense in it, then blockchain app development may not be the best thing for your company as of now.

Moreover, more factors that affect your decision regarding blockchain implementation. For instance:

Operations– For some companies, blockchain does wonders in terms of operation quality and speed.

Auditing– Blockchain creates a permanent record of every transaction which makes it easy to follow a paper of trail for auditing matters.

Quality assurance– This transparent technology allows you to scrutinize and investigate every part of the chain.

However, to make everything work in your company, you need to make sure that your employees are blockchain savvy to run it without a hitch. According to George Levy, you need to train a group of managers and software developers, before you integrate Blockchain in your business system. As managers need to know how blockchain is changing the business process. On the other hand, to build and maintain it, the IT department and software developers need to have coding skills.

Human beings are not really open to change. Many companies believe that integrating new technology will disrupt their relationship with existing customers. So, in such a scenario, it is better to study your market before taking any action.

Take small steps

If you don’t possess all the necessary resources, you can use solutions and tools that already exist to create applications. These solutions don’t cost much and give the opportunity to test if this actually works for your business or not.

Many emerging tech companies in India are working to make this blockchain technology more accessible to the companies that are willing to integrate blockchain in their business operation. However, let’s take a glimpse at how these businesses are developing blockchain application:

Firstly, it is very crucial to understand your business and the need of blockchain technology in it. Take notes of the primary goal of developing the blockchain application so that you can use its features and functions to the fullest.

Then, review what system will work for your application: Public/decentralized platform, private/permissioned infrastructure, and hybrid/consortium platform.

You can use the following solutions: Open blockchain like Bitcoin/Ethereum. Install a private blockchain network to run it without a third party or network with partners or peers. You can also use cloud-based solutions like IBM BlueMix, and Amazon Web Services (AWS). After creating your application, make sure you test your approach.

Final Thought:

The majority of the businesses are going or will incline towards blockchain technology. However, not every business needs this technology. You don’t need to join the herd because everyone around you is doing so. It is better to take advice from blockchain technology consulting before taking any step. You need to take a hard look at your requirements and consider many factors. If your business process is already in a great place, don’t need to disrupt it. If you are capable of the investment, then only take the step forward. If your client is happy and satisfied with the current process, why take the risk.

How Should Businesses Develop Blockchain Apps?

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5 Things You Need to Know Before developing blockchain applications?

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Codezeros

Currently, blockchain technology is majorly affecting the design, financial markets, and the construction industry. However, developers are trying to integrate this technology into other industries too. Many companies are putting their hands in this technology to certainly have a competitive edge over their competitors. Also, no one wants to miss out on the amazing opportunities that this next-generation technology can bring to the businesses.

Blockchain is an evolving technology, so it is important to understand the basics of it. Keeping that in mind, let’s learn about things you should know before developing blockchain applications:

Simply a database

If you will search about blockchain on Google or ask a developer, you will get responses like distributed ledger technology, mining, global ledger, or immutable record. Quite confusing, right? But, when you look into all these technological terms, you will learn blockchain is simply a database.

Moreover, this groundbreaking technology posses a special design feature that changes the base layer of the internet to secures the users’ data. Blockchain pairs a private and a public key to enable decryption and one-way encryption.

Reduces the risk of hacking

In the blockchain, a decentralized transaction ecosystem has been used to provide a real-time database to multiple parties. Here, the parties have a complete copy of the latest as well as the previous history of transactional data.

The access is distributed as decentralized and the risk is reduced to an extent that no single party can breach or temper the data. Therefore, no hacker can record ransom, or hold any data as everyone involved has a complete copy of the database and its history.

No middleman needed

Blockchain provides tokens with digitized services and those tokens can be shifted through the internet without any help of the third party to verify or proceed with the transaction. An algorithm is used to process the decentralized blockchain technology.

Even the medical industry is trying its hands on blockchain innovations relating to the womb to tomb medical records. The industry experts are researching to enhance and improve the record-keeping system of the medical history of every patient. This can help patients to seek holistic care and securely manage their health records. However, the patient can provide access to their health care history to the healthcare centers through a private and cryptographic key. So, the days are gone when patients need to recollect the paper files about their past health records for their future health care provider’s use.

Became popular across the country

In 2018, legislation related to the potential of blockchain software development is in consideration of passing in 14 state legislatures. Most of them have explicitly mandated for the agencies to utilize blockchain technology or establish the study to understand blockchain technology. When compared with last year’s data of active legislatures exploring this technology, this year the increased number of exploration has indicated that the blockchain is here to stay and continue to grow.

Represent transformational changes

The design and construction industries are using several use cases to connect to the blockchain. In these industries funding, planning, designing, maintenance, operation, and construction is needed to manage different projects. Blockchain might ease the communication between stakeholders to streamline this complex process.

Another blockchain area to look into is the Smart Contract. Enabled with blockchain development services, it is an automated self-enforcing contract. Similar to the traditional contract, it governs the relationship between the parties but also governance-on-wheels as the flow and funds are connected to help and automate a series of events.

A complex transaction for the construction or design industry can be brought down with blockchain development services into a series of actions that are connected to the payments. Therefore, the document can govern the service agreement between parties and behaves as a project management platform. For example, after the payment of one blockchain services is automatically done, the other is notified to start with the work.

Blockchain is designed with advanced accessibility and enables investors to invest directly through the purchase of tokens. The investors can also redeem their interest on the bonds through tokens rather than cash. Moreover, it is difficult to predict the future applications of this fast-paced technological development and machinations. If you are planning to integrate the blockchain application, you can consult an enterprise blockchain development company. It will help you to understand where this technology can fit best in your business.

5 Things You Need to Know Before developing blockchain applications?

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