Table of Contents
What is Bitcoin’s Blockchain?
Bitcoin blockchain is the first and one of the largest blockchain that records Bitcoin transactions. bitcoin is just a native currency of Bitcoin Blockchain.
Bitcoin with
a capital letter ‘B’ is a platform that carries a digital cash or currency
called bitcoin with a lowercase ‘b’
Bitcoin is a
distributed digital ledger called Blockchain, so when we say bitcoin Blockchain
we mean a distributed digital ledger that runs the Bitcoin protocol
Bitcoin was
first released in January 2009 as open-source software. being released as open-source software it allowed people to download, and read its blockchain and come up
with their own different blockchains that go beyond Bitcoin itself as
you can see today we have a lot of cryptocurrencies with different blockchain
knowledge but both steal the knowledge from satoshi Nakamoto who is the founder
of Bitcoin Blockchain and improve to create their own system
Anyone can run the Bitcoin protocol and mine
the token because it is an open-source software that allows any to participate
in the mining process.
Bitcoin
networks become secure because of the large number of independent nodes that
participate in the mining process that are globally distributed.
What is the difference between Bitcoin, Bitcoin’s Blockchain, and Bitcoin with lowercase ‘b’ and
Blockchain technology?
- Bitcoin
with an uppercase B refers to the software that facilitates the transfer of
Bitcoin currency, which starts with a lowercase b.
- Bitcoin
equals software.
-bitcoin
equals currency.
-Bitcoin’s
Blockchain is a database that records the flow of Bitcoin transactions
-Bitcoin’s
blockchain is a distributed, cryptographic, and immutable database
-Bitcoin’s Blockchain uses a proof-of-work consensus mechanism to make the network secure and avoid double spending problems.
Distributed P2P Network
-Being
distributed allows computers from different locations to join the network and
start to validate the Bitcoin transaction by solving proof of work problems.
-It is a way
in which computers access and maintain Bitcoin’s Blockchain
-Normal old
databases we always use to control who can access which information because they
are not distributed so that any can join instead they are centralized and
placed in one place where are monitored and controlled.
-This
feature makes bitcoin as a global currency because can be accessed anywhere by
anyone without any limitation or failure.
Everyone around the world wherever they are can join Bitcoin’s Blockchain to see the record of bitcoin transactions of different accounts. This ensures trust because everything is transparent and seen globally to anyone.
Cryptographic
Cryptography
is the science of creating secure communication. It involves taking
information and scrambling it in such a way that only the intended recipient can
understand and use that information for its intended purpose.
The process
of scrambling the message is encryption, and unscrambling it is decryption, performed
through complex mathematical techniques
Every
transaction recorded in Bitcoin’s blockchain must be cryptographically verified
to ensure that people trying to send Bitcoin actually own the Bitcoin they are
trying to send.
Cryptography
also applies to how groups of transactions are added to Bitcoin’s blockchain.
Transactions are not added one at a time, but instead in “blocks” that are
“chained” together, hence the term blockchain
Immutable
Once information
gets added to a Bitcoin’s Blockchain becomes permanently recorded forever and cannot
be removed, erased or no one can change such information. This is because after
the transactions are validated by miners, they can be added in an append-only
fashion, in which information added cannot be reversed or removed.
No information
in any past block, even if it was created years ago, can be changed without
changing all of the blocks after it.
Proof-of-Work
Proof-of-work(PoW) combines the concepts of a distributed, cryptographic, and immutable database,
and is how the distributed computers agree on which group of transactions will
be appended to Bitcoin’s blockchain next.
PoW mainly deals
with how transactions are grouped in blocks, and how those blocks are chained
together, to make Bitcoin’s blockchain
Computers or
miners compete with each other by solving complex mathematical cryptographic
problems, the one who succeeds in finding the solution is a winner and is rewarded
some amount of bitcoins for doing the job, and this is how new bitcoins are generated
from the Bitcoins’ Blockchain by a process of mining because mining is nothing
in Bitcoin’s Blockchain that solving proof-of-work problem and get rewarded
bitcoins for doing the job.
Each time
miners add a block, they get paid in Bitcoin for doing so, which is why they
choose to compete in the first place. This Competition for a financial reward
is also what keeps Bitcoin’s blockchain secure
If any bad
actors want to change Bitcoin’s Blockchain, they would need to compete with
all other miners distributed globally who have invested millions of their money
into equipment and machines necessary to perform proof-of-work
The miners
compete with each other by finding the solutions to a cryptographic puzzle which
when found can be able to add such a block of transactions to a Bitcoin’s Blockchain
and reward the amount of bitcoins.
The solution
to the cryptographic puzzle needs to combine four variables which are time, type
of transaction, Hash of the previous block, and a nonce.
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