Terry “Blockchain” is a collection of concepts and technologies based on distributed systems and cryptography, and is a product of the rapid development of the Internet and information technology as always. Blockchain technology is a networked trust tech.
Putting aside the technical implementation details, from a macro perspective, blockchain system adopts a multi-centered distributed deployment method, where each center does not have a master-slave relationship, but is equal to each other: equal deployment of the same system; equal sharing of the same data; no centralized control, equal collaboration to complete data verification and consistent storage.
From a micro perspective, the data records of each center and the execution codes (or scripts, scripts) associated with them are logically stored in blocks, which are logically and sequentially linked together to form a chain, in which cryptographic technologies such as digital signatures are applied to ensure the authenticity, timing, and integrity of the data.
Blockchain designs a rigorous and orderly data structure at the micro level, and introduces a strong mechanism of common construction, sharing and supervision at the macro level, which can prevent malicious operations such as forgery, tampering, repudiation and revocation, that is, it builds a system to increase trust.
In concrete practice, the application of blockchain is bound to take the form of alliance collaboration and sharing, and the alliance parties draw up the scope of data (critical, simple, and small amount) that need to be stored in the alliance blockchain according to the actual situation of business, as well as the rules of co-construction, sharing, and co-monitoring.
Under the supervision of the public or just the participants, any non-compliance with the rules or even evil attempts will be immediately detected, and will be stopped or suspended. Consumers outside the alliance (if any) will be more likely to recognize the overall credit of the alliance and therefore more willing to buy the goods or services it provides.
All in all, the credit of the alliance is enhanced by the adoption of blockchain technology, which satisfies the right to know and monitor at different levels.
Based on the understanding of the essence of blockchain “network credit enhancement”, more and more teams have started to try to apply blockchain to practice, hoping to break through the limitations of the original system or even create new application scenarios with the help of blockchain as a credit enhancement tool. On the other hand, after a lot of investment in R&D, blockchain technology has made great progress in terms of scalability, throughput, security, privacy protection, etc., and can meet the needs of many financial services.
As the underlying technology of Bitcoin, blockchain emerged with the birth of Bitcoin, blockchain is a series of data blocks generated using cryptographic methods. In the Bitcoin system, each data block contains the information of all Bitcoin network transactions in the past ten minutes, which is used to verify the validity of its information and generate the next block.
Ideally, the blockchain is a perfect mathematical solution for building a trust mechanism, for all parties to a transaction by replacing the current Internet reliance on a central server with data blocks. Under this mechanism, anyone who does not know each other can achieve peer-to-peer bookkeeping, data transfer and authentication by joining an open and transparent database, without the need to use intermediate parties to reach credit consensus.
All transaction records, historical data, etc. are stored in a distributed manner and are transparently accessible, and are guaranteed against illegal tampering by means of cryptographic protocols. Specifically, blockchain technology has the following characteristics.
(1) Decentralization
Decentralization, i.e., polycentricity, does not require centralized control to reach consensus, and implementation is distributed as much as possible.
The rights and obligations among the nodes of the system are equal, a pivotal management and operation organization is not required, and the system functions are jointly maintained by the nodes. Damage or failure of any one node will not affect the normal operation of the whole system.
(2) Openness
The information and operation rules of the system are highly transparent, and the data are open to all, so you can query the blockchain data and develop related applications through the public interface. At the same time, the system program is open source. It attracts more institutions and individuals to participate in the operation process of the whole system, through the open-source community, thus forming a network effect and rapid collaborative development.
(3) Privacy protection
Nodes establish mutual trust with each other through encryption and tamper-proof mechanisms. Only the interaction information needs to be open, the nodes themselves do not need to disclose their identities, and transactions can be completed anonymously.
Encryption mechanisms ensure that transactions cannot be rejected or broken and protect the privacy of user information and records as much as possible.
In addition, smart contracts can be combined with the blockchain to provide more functionality than just transactions (the Bitcoin blockchain already supports simple scripted computations), and more flexible contract functionality to perform more complex operations.
The blockchain has been extended in this way to go beyond the function of mere data logging.
(4) High autonomy
Blockchain adopts public consensus-based protocols or algorithms, to enable all nodes in the whole system, to exchange data automatically and securely in a de-trusted environment, without any human intervention.
(5) Untamperable
The data will always exist after consistent submission and cannot be destroyed or modified.
By publicly distributing the database, each participating maintenance node is able to replicate to obtain a copy of the complete database. Unless it is possible to control more than 51% of the nodes in the whole system simultaneously, modifications to the database on a single node are invalid and cannot affect the data content on other nodes. Therefore, the more nodes and computing power in the system, the higher the data security.
(6) Enhanced security
Blockchain technology will facilitate safe and secure audit management and account clearing, reducing the possibility of crime and various risks.
Blockchain is not a new technology born out of thin air, but more like a product of the evolution of technology to a certain extent to break through the application threshold.
Therefore, its business application scenarios are closely related to the environment that promotes its emergence. Based on blockchain technology, the cost of any digital transaction-based activities and tracking costs will be reduced, and security can be improved.
