Blockchain Technology - All You Need To Know In A Wheel

2017 is the year of rising of Bitcoin (or cryptocurrency in general) and it seems that the steam is not stopping anytime soon. I am a believer of its underlying technology, Blockchain, hence, even though you might not be interested in cryptocurrency, but I am urging my reader to at least understand this revolutionary technology. 

In fact, Blockchain technology is akin to the underlying technology of TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) for Internet, most of the time, the common users (me included) don't really bother about what's beneath the internet (the technology), we just focus on enjoying the benefits/features that it brought to us. That's why Blockchain is also commonly referred to as Web 3.0. 

In time to come, we will see more and more Blockchain-powered websites/dapp (decentralized application) to be launched in the market, so it's important for us to embrace it now. To help my readers to better appreciate what the Blockchain Technology is, I've created a spin-able wheel detailing the common terms/phrases associated with Blockchain and provide some brief explanation of what each term/phrase mean below the wheel. 

So, have fun and spin it away to learn some of the common terms/phrases associated with Blockchain.       

CLICK ON THE WHEEL TO SPIN!

Brief definition (alphabetical order):

Bitcoin - Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency (digital asset) powered by the Blockchain Technology. It's also THE most valuable cryptocurrency at the moment.  

Cryptocurrency - a digital asset that made use of cryptography for secured transaction.

Cryptography - a technique to ensure secured transmission of data

Decentralized - distributing the computing power to various multiple locations, instead of one centralized location. 

Distributed Ledger - A database that is consensually shared and synchronized across network spread across multiple sites, institutions or geographies.

Double Spending Problem - is a potential flaw in which the same single digital token can be spent more than once  and Blockchain Technology managed to solved this problem.

Ethereum - Second biggest Cryptocurrency developed by Vitalik Buterin in 2015, its underlying Blockchain Technology provides an unique and important feature of Smart Contracts 

ICO (Initial Coin Offering) - It's a new and unregulated way for startups to raise fund (in the form of token/cryptocurrency) for the Blokchain related projects.  

Immutable Record - Record that is permanent and cannot be reversed. Referring to the records in Blockchain Network

Mining - The processing of solving the complex computational problem in Blockchain Technology and at the same time earn the minders some crypto. 

Peer to peer - person/computer systems/devices/equipment which are directly connected to each other

Permissioned vs Permissionless Blockchain - Permissioned Blockchain is a private blockchain of which access to the ledgers are restricted whereby Permissionless Blockchain is the public blockchain that anyone can view/check the records.

Proof Of Work (POW) - A piece of data which is difficult (costly, time-consuming) to produce but easy for others to verify and which satisfies certain requirements. Producing a proof of work can be a random process with low probability so that a lot of trial and error is required on average before a valid proof of work is generated. Bitcoin uses the Hashcash proof of work system (from bitcoinwiki)

Public Key/Address - It's a long string of alpha-numeric field that is associated with the wallet that you've created, used to receive fund.  

QR Code - Commonly used as a supplement to the Public Address (which is too long to remember). 

This is one of the real QR (Public Address) of my wallet

Satoshi Nakamoto - The person (or group of persons) developed the Bitcoin white-paper and hence the founder(s) of Bitcoin Blockchain. The identity of Satoshi Nakamoto is still a mystery. 

Secured - Blockchain is deemed secured because of its decentralization in nature (which is unlikely or less likely to be hacked as compared to the centralized server). 

Smart Contract - is a computer protocol intended to digitally facilitate, verify, or enforce the negotiation or performance of a contract/digital assets (need not be cryptocurrency). Smart contracts allow the performance of credible transactions without third parties

Transparency - All records in the Blockchain (permissionless) can be viewed by the public

Trustless - In Blockchain terminology, it means the "trust" is incorporated within the algorithm of the network and hence there is no need for the parties involved to trust each other. Another way to look at it is that we don't need a third party (usually the trusted party) to transact in Blockchain.

Wallet -  Digital wallet used to store, send, and receive digital currency like Bitcoin.

Note : The above common terms/phrases are only selected few and by no means it is comprehensive. 

Please feel free to comment below whether you find this article is useful or not?

Cheers!