The record of an event, cryptographically secured with a digital signature, that is verified, ordered, and bundled together into blocks, form the transactions in the blockchain. In the Bitcoin blockchain, transactions involve the transfer of bitcoins, while in other blockchains, transactions may involve the transfer of any asset or a record of some service being rendered. Furthermore, a smart contract within the blockchain may allow automatic execution of transactions upon meeting predefined criteria.
Cryptography has a key role to play both in the security, as well as in the immutability of the transactions recorded on blockchains. Cryptography is the study of the techniques used to allow secure communication between different parties and to ensure the authenticity and immutability of the data being communicated. For blockchain technologies, cryptography is used to prove that a transaction was created by the right person. It is also used to link transactions into a block in a tamper-proof way, as well as create the links between blocks, to form a blockchain.
Differences between Blockchains and Databases
Blockchain technology has some key differentiators from databases.
A blockchain is a write-only data structure, where new entries get appended onto the end of the ledger. Every new block gets appended to the block chain by linking to the previous block's 'hash' (you can check the Glossary tab for a refresher on hash functions). There are no administrator permissions within a blockchain that allow editing or deleting of data.
In a relational database, data can be easily modified or deleted. Typically, there are database administrators who may make changes to any part of the data and/or its structure. Additionally, blockchains were designed for decentralized applications, whereas relational databases, in general, were originally designed for centralized applications, where a single entity controls the data.
Cryptography has a key role to play both in the security, as well as in the immutability of the transactions recorded on blockchains. Cryptography is the study of the techniques used to allow secure communication between different parties and to ensure the authenticity and immutability of the data being communicated. For blockchain technologies, cryptography is used to prove that a transaction was created by the right person. It is also used to link transactions into a block in a tamper-proof way, as well as create the links between blocks, to form a blockchain.
Differences between Blockchains and Databases
Blockchain technology has some key differentiators from databases.
A blockchain is a write-only data structure, where new entries get appended onto the end of the ledger. Every new block gets appended to the block chain by linking to the previous block's 'hash' (you can check the Glossary tab for a refresher on hash functions). There are no administrator permissions within a blockchain that allow editing or deleting of data.
In a relational database, data can be easily modified or deleted. Typically, there are database administrators who may make changes to any part of the data and/or its structure. Additionally, blockchains were designed for decentralized applications, whereas relational databases, in general, were originally designed for centralized applications, where a single entity controls the data.
No comments:
Post a Comment