These days, technology is scaling newer heights of success at an unbelievably fast pace. One of the latest triumphs in this direction is the evolution of the Blockchain technology. The brand new technology has greatly influenced the finance sector. In fact, it had been initially developed for Bitcoin – the digital currency. But now, it finds its application in several other things as well.
Sounding this far was probably easy. But, one is yet to know what is Blockchain?
A distributed database
Imagine an electronic spreadsheet, that is copied umpteen number of times across some type of computer network. Now, imagine the computer network was created so smartly that it regularly updates the spreadsheet on its own. worldoftechnicalanalysis.com is a broad overview of the Blockchain. Blockchain holds information as a shared database. Moreover, this database gets reconciled continuously.
This approach has its benefits. It does not allow the database to be stored at any single location. The records inside it possess genuine public attribute and may be verified quickly. As there is no centralised version of the records, unauthorised users have no methods to manipulate with and corrupt the info. The Blockchain distributed database is simultaneously hosted by an incredible number of computers, making the data easy to get at to almost anyone over the virtual web.
To help make the concept or the technology clearer, this is a good idea to discuss the Google Docs analogy.
Google Docs analogy for Blockchain
After the advent of the eMail, the conventional way of sharing documents is to send a Microsoft Word doc as attachment to a recipient or recipients. The recipients will need their sweet time to proceed through it, before they send back the revised copy. In this process, one needs to wait till receiving the return copy to start to see the changes made to the document. This happens because the sender is locked from making corrections till the recipient is done with the editing and sends the document back. Contemporary databases do not allow two owners access the same record at the same time. This is one way banks maintain balances of these clients or account-holders.
As opposed to the set practice, Google docs allow both parties to access the same document concurrently. Moreover, it also allows to see a single version of the document to both of these simultaneously. As being a shared ledger, the Google Docs also acts as a shared document. The distributed part only becomes relevant once the sharing involves multiple users. The Blockchain technology is, in ways, an extension of the concept. However, it is very important point out here that the Blockchain is not designed to share documents. Rather, it is just an analogy, which can only help to have clear-cut idea concerning this cutting-edge technology.
Salient Blockchain features
Blockchain stores blocks of information across the network, that are identical. By virtue of this feature:
The data or information can’t be controlled by any single, particular entity.
There can’t be no failure point either.
The data is hold in a public network, which ensures absolute transparency in the overall procedure.
The data stored inside it cannot be corrupted.
Demand for Blockchain developers
As mentioned earlier, Blockchain technology includes a very high application in the world of finance and banking. Based on the World Bank, more than US$ 430 billion money transfers were sent through it only in 2015. Thus, Blockchain developers have significant demand in the market.
The Blockchain eliminates the payoff of the middlemen such monetary transactions. It was the invention of the GUI (Graphical INTERFACE), which facilitated the normal man to gain access to computers in form of desktops. Similarly, the wallet application is the most typical GUI for the Blockchain technology. Users make use of the wallet to buy things they need using Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency.