Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 brought Blockchain into picture through his bitcoin white paper. In recent times, the development of blockchain has become very rapid because of its applicability, that is not only limited to the Bitcoin network but also in various other domains due to the features like being highly secure and robust. It has already received the attention of big companies and they have started implementing it in financial services and supply chain management. This technology can further prove to be a great help in areas like logistics value chain, banking, cryptocurrencies, healthcare, smart contracts, and voting as well.
Blockchain is known to offer a distributed ledger that exhibits tamper-proof transactions in a decentralized network. It can be rightly called a database in the decentralized network to validate and store all transactions in a consensus that is agreed upon by all nodes in the network, without any central authority. The complete and valid transactions are added to the distributed ledger with a timestamp and other details. Hence, the blockchain technology can exchange tangible and intangible data among the participants of the public ledger. Each stakeholder maintains a copy of the synchronized ledger, which prevents a single point of system failure or data loss. When changes are made, such as adding a new block, all copies in the network are simultaneously updated, and records registered. These changes thus create a chain. Each block contains information about one transaction and is linked to another block through a hash pointer. Each block header has a merkle root through which other block contents originate. Each block also stores the hash pointer of the next block it is linking to. With many technologies and domains working to explore the blockchain, the technology is making a big name for itself. As a buzzword on the tongue of every other IT professional, blockchain stands to make operations more accurate, efficient and secure.