At the present day, blockchain technology is affecting various aspects of our life, from commerce to voting. This innovative technology opens up fresh opportunities for secure instant transactions, low transfer fees, and data stability.
Current State of Blockchain Technology
At the present day, blockchain technology is affecting various aspects of our life, from commerce to voting. This innovative technology opens up fresh opportunities for secure instant transactions, low transfer fees, and data stability. This technology is decentralized and secure by definition. In a blockchain, computers are not linked to any central server. Instead, they are connected to each other, which makes the computer network decentralized. Any data that needs to be added to a block on the blockchain undergoes a verification process, carried out by the miners. This way, it is impossible to manipulate the blockchain data in any way.
Overview of Blockchain Architecture
Generally, the concept of blockchain architecture can be explained as follows:
- Miners (nodes) verify transactions on a given blockchain
- After the verification process is completed, the information is posted into blocks
- These blocks preserve the information behind the operations and the participants of the transactions anonymously
- All of the transactions are added to the blockchain in the consecutive order
Promising Industries for Blockchain
Blockchain can be used successfully in many industries. It opens possibilities for real estate, banking, politics, healthcare, charities, education and more. One of the best examples of blockchain technology application is the healthcare industry.
Blockchain can boost the whole industry by solving numerous issues that the healthcare industry now faces. For example, its implementation can facilitate the data accessibility and security, drug integrity and medical supply chain, clinical trials and medical research. Also, blockchain technology in healthcare can ensure transparency, and security, which is a huge problem for the industry nowadays. This technology is highly prospective when it comes to preventing security breaches, securing medical data, and handling medical data in general.
Blockchain Architecture Under the Microscope
Broadly speaking, blockchain can be best described as an application, powered by distributed decentralized servers. This system receives transaction information from all the nodes, connected to it, and stores it. Each of the connected nodes can download the whole blockchain. On the one hand, it makes the system transparent. On the other hand, it means that any miner can run blockchain locally on their server.
What makes blockchain the most secure modern technology?
The answer to this question is cryptography. A single blockchain network has plenty of nodes. Each node keeps their copy of the blockchain. Therefore, it is next to impossible to take the whole system down.
How Does Blockchain Work?
The workflow of a blockchain network can be best described with the following set of steps:
- A request for a transaction occurs
- A block for the transaction representation is built
- Every node in the network receives the block
- Every node validates the transaction
- Every node earns rewards by proving the work
- The verified block is added to the available blockchain
- After this, the transaction is finalized
What is a Transaction and How Does it Occur?
A transaction is the smallest block of a blockchain. It gives blockchain a purpose. The information in a transaction is similar to what you would see on a credit card statement: a recipient address, a sender address, and a value. Any person holding a wallet and wishing to transfer some funds through a blockchain can request the transaction and trigger it. The transaction includes encrypted business data in it. When nodes receive the transaction block, they verify it through completing advanced mathematical calculations. Having finished them, they receive rewards. In a nutshell, this is how the system stays secure, decentralized and inviolable.
Final Thoughts
To sum it all up, a blockchain is a mesh network that consists of computers linked to each other. There is no central server in the blockchain. Each computer in the network performs the functions of a server and has to agree on a shared state of data in a blockchain.
Blockchain systems are promising for many industries. To work with them, one needs to have a strong background in Computer Science or Engineering or find the specialists with relative experience. As of now, it looks like businesses and organizations that embrace blockchain technology sooner will receive a lot of opportunities to get ahead of their competitors.
This complex, innovative technology has transparent mechanisms perfect clarity, that allows it to bring transactions on a new level globally. With blockchain, individuals, businesses, and even countries would get a chance to carry out their data storage and exchange operations without involving any centralized authorities.
One thing is for sure – it wouldn’t hurt a professional in any industry to learn the basics of blockchain technology. Who knows, maybe the unfamiliar innovative technology would change the way the world operates in the nearest future. Understanding blockchain will give you a significant advantage over your competitors in many industries. Potentially, it can help you make your business processes more secure, transparent, independent, and cost-effective.
Author Bio
Maria Redka is a Technology Writer at MLSDev. It is web and mobile app development company in Ukraine. Our focus area includes a full range of services in mobile and web app development as well as design, consulting and testing.