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How is Cryptocurrency used?One of the most well-known uses of cryptocurrency is for sending and receiving payments at low cost and high speed. ...

The low fees associated with transactions using

digital currencies

such as litecoin (LTC), stellar (XLM) or bitcoin cash (BCH) make them

Digital currencies, excellent payment systems for international money transfers.

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What is Cryptocurrency and how it works?How do cryptocurrencies work? Cryptocurrencies use decentralised technology to let users make secure payments and store money without the need to use their name or go through a bank.

They run on a distributed public ledger called blockchain,
which is a record of all transactions updated and held by currency holders...
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Blockchain and cryptocurrency? Main article: Blockchain The validity of each cryptocurrency's coins is provided by a blockchain. A blockchain is a continuously growing list of records, called blocks, which are linked and secured using cryptography. Each block typically contains a hash pointer as a link to a previous block, A timestamp and transaction data. By design, blockchains are inherently resistant to modification of the data. It is "an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way". For use as a distributed ledger, a blockchain is typically managed by a peer-to-peer network collectively adhering to a protocol for validating new blocks. Once recorded, the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without the alteration of all subsequent blocks, which requires collusion of the network majority. Blockchains are secure by design and are an example of a distributed computing system with high Byzantine fault tolerance. Decentralized consensus has therefore been achieved with a blockchain. The public nature of the blockchain ledger protects the integrity of whatever is being transacted since no one entity owns the database. The added work required to solve the encryption in a proof-of-stake system ensures that the public ledger is not modified at random, thus solving the double-spending problem without the need of a trusted authority or central server, To administer the database, Assuming no 51% attack (that has worked against several cryptocurrencies). Mining Hashcoin mine In cryptocurrency networks, mining is a validation of transactions. For this effort, successful miners obtain new cryptocurrency as a reward. The reward decreases transaction fees by creating a complementary incentive to contribute to the processing power of the network. The rate of generating hashes, which validate any transaction, has been increased by the use of specialized machines...
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Blockchain Cryptocurrency

What is Blockchain and Cryptocurrency?

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How do cryptocurrencies work? Cryptocurrencies use decentralised technology to let users make secure payments and store money ob blockchain,without the need to use their name or go through a bank.

They run on a distributed public ledger called blockchain, which is a record of all transactions updated and held by currency holders.
Blockchain is the technology that enables the existence of cryptocurrency(among other things)... A cryptocurrency is a medium of exchange, such as the US dollar, but is digital and uses encryption,

techniques to control the creation of monetary units and to verify the transfer of funds...
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  • What is Cryptocurrency and how it works?How do cryptocurrencies work? Cryptocurrencies use decentralised technology to let users make secure payments and store money,
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Mining

Hashcoin mine

In cryptocurrency networks, mining is a validation of transactions. For this effort, successful miners obtain new cryptocurrency as a reward. The reward decreases transaction fees by creating a complementary incentive to contribute to the processing power of the network. The rate of generating hashes, which validate any transaction, has been increased by the use of specialized machines such as FPGAs and ASICs running complex hashing algorithms like SHA-256 and Scrypt. This arms race for cheaper-yet-efficient machines has existed since the day the first cryptocurrency, bitcoin, was introduced in 2009. With more people venturing into the world of virtual currency, generating hashes for this validation has become far more complex over the years, with miners having to invest large sums of money on employing multiple high performance ASICs. Thus the value of the currency obtained for finding a hash often does not justify the amount of money spent on setting up the machines, the cooling facilities to overcome the heat they produce, and the electricity required to run them. As of July 2019, bitcoin's electricity consumption is estimated to about 7 gigawatts, 0.2% of the global total, or equivalent to that of Switzerland.

Some miners pool resources, sharing their processing power over a network to split the reward equally, according to the amount of work they contributed to the probability of finding a block. A "share" is awarded to members of the mining pool who present a valid partial proof-of-work.

As of February 2018, the Chinese Government halted trading of virtual currency, banned initial coin offerings and shut down mining. Some Chinese miners have since relocated to Canada. One company is operating data centers for mining operations at Canadian oil and gas field sites, due to low gas prices. In June 2018, Hydro Quebec proposed to the provincial government to allocate 500 MW to crypto companies for mining. According to a February 2018 report from Fortune, Iceland has become a haven for cryptocurrency miners in part because of its cheap electricity.

In March 2018, the city of Plattsburgh in upstate New York put an 18-month moratorium on all cryptocurrency mining in an effort to preserve natural resources and the "character and direction" of the city.


Bitcoin

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Updated May 11, 2020
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What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a digital currency created in January 2009 following the housing market crash. It follows the ideas set out in a whitepaper by the mysterious and pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto.1 The identity of the person or persons who created the technology is still a mystery. Bitcoin offers the promise of lower transaction fees than traditional online payment mechanisms and is operated by a decentralized authority, unlike government-issued currencies.

There are no physical bitcoins, only balances kept on a public ledger that everyone has transparent access to, that – along with all Bitcoin transactions – is verified by a massive amount of computing power. Bitcoins are not issued or backed by any banks or governments, nor are individual bitcoins valuable as a commodity. Despite it not being legal tender, Bitcoin charts high on popularity, and has triggered the launch of hundreds of other virtual currencies collectively referred to as Altcoins.

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What Is Bitcoin

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Launched in 2009, Bitcoin is the world's largest cryptocurrency by market cap.2
  • Unlike fiat currency, Bitcoin is created, distributed, traded, and stored with the use of a decentralized ledger system known as a blockchain.1
  • Bitcoin's history as a store of value has been turbulent; the cryptocurrency skyrocketed up to roughly $20,000 per coin in 2017, but as of two years later, is currency trading for less than half of that.3
  • As the earliest cryptocurrency to meet widespread popularity and success, Bitcoin has inspired a host of other projects in the blockchain space.

Understanding Bitcoin

Bitcoin is a collection of computers, or nodes, that all run Bitcoin's code and store its blockchain. A blockchain can be thought of as a collection of blocks. In each block is a collection of transactions. Because all these computers running the blockchain have the same list of blocks and transactions and can transparently see these new blocks being filled with new Bitcoin transactions, no one can cheat the system. Anyone, whether they run a Bitcoin "node" or not, can see these transactions occurring live. In order to achieve a nefarious act, a bad actor would need to operate 51% of the computing power that makes up Bitcoin. Bitcoin has around 47,000 nodes as of May 2020 and this number is growing, making such an attack quite unlikely.4

In the event that an attack was to happen, the Bitcoin nodes, or the people who take part in the Bitcoin network with their computer, would likely fork to a new blockchain making the effort the bad actor put forth to achieve the attack a waste.

Bitcoin is a type of cryptocurrency. Balances of Bitcoin tokens are kept using public and private "keys," which are long strings of numbers and letters linked through the mathematical encryption algorithm that was used to create them. The public key (comparable to a bank account number) serves as the address which is published to the world and to which others may send bitcoins. The private key (comparable to an ATM PIN) is meant to be a guarded secret and only used to authorize Bitcoin transmissions. Bitcoin keys should not be confused with a Bitcoin wallet, which is a physical or digital device which facilitates the trading of Bitcoin and allows users to track ownership of coins. The term "wallet" is a bit misleading, as Bitcoin's decentralized nature means that it is never stored "in" a wallet, but rather decentrally on a blockchain.

Style notes: according to the official Bitcoin Foundation, the word "Bitcoin" is capitalized in the context of referring to the entity or concept, whereas "bitcoin" is written in the lower case when referring to a quantity of the currency (e.g. "I traded 20 bitcoin") or the units themselves. The plural form can be either "bitcoin" or "bitcoins." Bitcoin is also commonly abbreviated as "BTC."

How Bitcoin Works

Bitcoin is one of the first digital currencies to use peer-to-peer technology to facilitate instant payments. The independent individuals and companies who own the governing computing power and participate in the Bitcoin network, are comprised of nodes or miners. "Miners," or the people who process the transactions on the blockchain, are motivated by rewards (the release of new bitcoin) and transaction fees paid in bitcoin. These miners can be thought of as the decentralized authority enforcing the credibility of the Bitcoin network. New bitcoin is being released to the miners at a fixed, but periodically declining rate, such that the total supply of bitcoins approaches 21 million. As of July 2020, there are roughly 3 million bitcoins which have yet to be mined.3 In this way, Bitcoin (and any cryptocurrency generated through a similar process) operates differently from fiat currency; in centralized banking systems, currency is released at a rate matching the growth in goods in an attempt to maintain price stability, while a decentralized system like Bitcoin sets the release rate ahead of time and according to an algorithm.

Bitcoin mining is the process by which bitcoins are released into circulation. Generally, mining requires the solving of computationally difficult puzzles in order to discover a new block, which is added to the blockchain. In contributing to the blockchain, mining adds and verifies transaction records across the network. For adding blocks to the blockchain, miners receive a reward in the form of a few bitcoins; the reward is halved every 210,000 blocks. The block reward was 50 new bitcoins in 2009 and is currently 12.5. On May 11th, 2020 the third halving occurred, bringing the reward for each block discovery down to 6.25 bitcoins.5 A variety of hardware can be used to mine bitcoin but some yield higher rewards than others. Certain computer chips called Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC) and more advanced processing units like Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) can achieve more rewards. These elaborate mining processors are known as "mining rigs."

One bitcoin is divisible to eight decimal places (100 millionths of one bitcoin), and this smallest unit is referred to as a Satoshi.6 If necessary, and if the participating miners accept the change, Bitcoin could eventually be made divisible to even more decimal places.

How Bitcoin Began

Aug. 18, 2008: The domain name bitcoin.org is registered. Today, at least, this domain is "WhoisGuard Protected," meaning the identity of the person who registered it is not public information.

Oct. 31, 2008: A person or group using the name Satoshi Nakamoto makes an announcement on The Cryptography Mailing list at metzdowd.com: "I've been working on a new electronic cash system that's fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party. This now-famous whitepaper published on bitcoin.org, entitled "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System," would become the Magna Carta for how Bitcoin operates today.

Jan. 3, 2009: The first Bitcoin block is mined, Block 0. This is also known as the "genesis block" and contains the text: "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks," perhaps as proof that the block was mined on or after that date, and perhaps also as relevant political commentary.7

Jan. 8, 2009: The first version of the Bitcoin software is announced on The Cryptography Mailing list.

Jan. 9, 2009: Block 1 is mined, and Bitcoin mining commences in earnest.

Who Invented Bitcoin?

No one knows who invented Bitcoin, or at least not conclusively. Satoshi Nakamoto is the name associated with the person or group of people who released the original Bitcoin white paper in 2008 and worked on the original Bitcoin software that was released in 2009. In the years since that time, many individuals have either claimed to be or have been suggested as the real-life people behind the pseudonym, but as of May 2020, the true identity (or identities) behind Satoshi remains obscured.

Before Satoshi

Though it is tempting to believe the media's spin that Satoshi Nakamoto is a solitary, quixotic genius who created Bitcoin out of thin air, such innovations do not typically happen in a vacuum. All major scientific discoveries, no matter how original-seeming, were built on previously existing research. There are precursors to Bitcoin: Adam Back’s Hashcash, invented in 1997,8 and subsequently Wei Dai’s b-money, Nick Szabo’s bit gold and Hal Finney’s Reusable Proof of Work. The Bitcoin whitepaper itself cites Hashcash and b-money, as well as various other works spanning several research fields. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many of the individuals behind the other projects named above have been speculated to have also had a part in creating Bitcoin.

Why Is Satoshi Anonymous?

There are a few motivations for Bitcoin's inventor keeping his or her or their identity secret. One is privacy. As Bitcoin has gained in popularity – becoming something of a worldwide phenomenon – Satoshi Nakamoto would likely garner a lot of attention from the media and from governments.

Another reason could be the potential for Bitcoin to cause major disruption of the current banking and monetary systems. If Bitcoin were to gain mass adoption, the system could surpass nations' sovereign fiat currencies. This threat to existing currency could motivate governments to want to take legal action against Bitcoin's creator.

The other reason is safety. Looking at 2009 alone, 32,489 blocks were mined; at the then-reward rate of 50 BTC per block, the total payout in 2009 was 1,624,500 BTC, which is worth $13.9 billion as of October 25, 2019. One may conclude that only Satoshi and perhaps a few other people were mining through 2009 and that they possess a majority of that stash of BTC. Someone in possession of that much Bitcoin could become a target of criminals, especially since bitcoins are less like stocks and more like cash, where the private keys needed to authorize spending could be printed out and literally kept under a mattress. While it's likely the inventor of Bitcoin would take precautions to make any extortion-induced transfers traceable, remaining anonymous is a good way for Satoshi to limit exposure.

Receiving Bitcoins As Payment

Bitcoins can be accepted as a means of payment for products sold or services provided. If you have a brick and mortar store, just display a sign saying “Bitcoin Accepted Here” and many of your customers may well take you up on it; the transactions can be handled with the requisite hardware terminal or wallet address through QR codes and touch screen apps. An online business can easily accept bitcoins by just adding this payment option to the others it offers credit cards, PayPal, etc.

Working For Bitcoins

Those who are self-employed can get paid for a job in bitcoins. There are a number of ways to achieve this such as creating any internet service and adding your bitcoin wallet address to the site as a form of payment. There are several websites/job boards which are dedicated to the digital currency:

  • Cryptogrind brings together work seekers and prospective employers through its website
  • Coinality features jobs – freelance, part-time and full-time – that offer payment in bitcoins, as well as other cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin and Litecoin
  • Jobs4Bitcoins, part of reddit.com
  • BitGigs
  • Bitwage offers a way to choose a percentage of your work paycheck to be converted into bitcoin and sent to your bitcoin address
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Investing in Bitcoins

There are many Bitcoin supporters who believe that digital currency is the future. Many of those who endorse Bitcoin believe that it facilitates a much faster, low-fee payment system for transactions across the globe. Although it is not backed by any government or central bank, bitcoin can be exchanged for traditional currencies; in fact, its exchange rate against the dollar attracts potential investors and traders interested in currency plays. Indeed, one of the primary reasons for the growth of digital currencies like Bitcoin is that they can act as an alternative to national fiat money and traditional commodities like gold.

In March 2014, the IRS stated that all virtual currencies, including bitcoins, would be taxed as property rather than currency. Gains or losses from bitcoins held as capital will be realized as capital gains or losses, while bitcoins held as inventory will incur ordinary gains or losses. The sale of bitcoins that you mined or purchased from another party, or the use of bitcoins to pay for goods or services are examples of transactions which can be taxed.9

Like any other asset, the principle of buying low and selling high applies to bitcoins. The most popular way of amassing the currency is through buying on a Bitcoin exchange, but there are many other ways to earn and own bitcoins.

Risks of Bitcoin Investing

Though Bitcoin was not designed as a normal equity investment (no shares have been issued), some speculative investors were drawn to the digital money after it appreciated rapidly in May 2011 and again in November 2013. Thus, many people purchase bitcoin for its investment value rather than as a medium of exchange.

However, their lack of guaranteed value and digital nature means the purchase and use of bitcoins carries several inherent risks. Many investor alerts have been issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and other agencies.

The concept of a virtual currency is still novel and, compared to traditional investments, Bitcoin doesn't have much of a long-term track record or history of credibility to back it. With their increasing popularity, bitcoins are becoming less experimental every day; still, after 10 years, they (like all digital currencies) remain in a development phase and are consistently evolving. "It is pretty much the highest-risk, highest-return investment that you can possibly make,” says Barry Silbert, CEO of Digital Currency Group, which builds and invests in Bitcoin and blockchain companies.

Bitcoin Regulatory Risk

Investing money into Bitcoin in any of its many guises is not for the risk-averse. Bitcoins are a rival to government currency and may be used for black market transactions, money laundering, illegal activities or tax evasion. As a result, governments may seek to regulate, restrict or ban the use and sale of bitcoins, and some already have. Others are coming up with various rules. For example, in 2015, the New York State Department of Financial Services finalized regulations that would require companies dealing with the buy, sell, transfer or storage of bitcoins to record the identity of customers, have a compliance officer and maintain capital reserves. The transactions worth $10,000 or more will have to be recorded and reported.10

The lack of uniform regulations about bitcoins (and other virtual currency) raises questions over their longevity, liquidity, and universality.

Security Risk of Bitcoins

Most individuals who own and use Bitcoin have not acquired their tokens through mining operations. Rather, they buy and sell Bitcoin and other digital currencies on any of a number of popular online markets known as Bitcoin exchanges. Bitcoin exchanges are entirely digital and, as with any virtual system, are at risk from hackers, malware, and operational glitches. If a thief gains access to a Bitcoin owner's computer hard drive and steals his private encryption key, he could transfer the stolen Bitcoins to another account. (Users can prevent this only if bitcoins are stored on a computer which is not connected to the internet, or else by choosing to use a paper wallet – printing out the Bitcoin private keys and addresses, and not keeping them on a computer at all.) Hackers can also target Bitcoin exchanges, gaining access to thousands of accounts and digital wallets where bitcoins are stored. One especially notorious hacking incident took place in 2014, when Mt. Gox, a Bitcoin exchange in Japan, was forced to close down after millions of dollars worth of bitcoins were stolen.11

This is particularly problematic once you remember that all Bitcoin transactions are permanent and irreversible. It's like dealing with cash: Any transaction carried out with bitcoins can only be reversed if the person who has received them refunds them. There is no third party or a payment processor, as in the case of a debit or credit card – hence, no source of protection or appeal if there is a problem.

Insurance Risk

Some investments are insured through the Securities Investor Protection Corporation. Normal bank accounts are insured through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) up to a certain amount depending on the jurisdiction. Generally speaking, Bitcoin exchanges and Bitcoin accounts are not insured by any type of federal or government program. In 2019, prime dealer and trading platform SFOX announced it would be able to provide Bitcoin investors with FDIC insurance, but only for the portion of transactions involving cash.12

Risk of Bitcoin Fraud

While Bitcoin uses private key encryption to verify owners and register transactions, fraudsters and scammers may attempt to sell false bitcoins. For instance, in July 2013, the SEC brought legal action against an operator of a Bitcoin-related Ponzi scheme.13 There have also been documented cases of Bitcoin price manipulation, another common form of fraud.

Market Risk

Like with any investment, Bitcoin values can fluctuate. Indeed, the value of the currency has seen wild swings in price over its short existence. Subject to high volume buying and selling on exchanges, it has a high sensitivity to “news." According to the CFPB, the price of bitcoins fell by 61% in a single day in 2013, while the one-day price drop record in 2014 was as big as 80%.14

If fewer people begin to accept Bitcoin as a currency, these digital units may lose value and could become worthless. Indeed, there was speculation that the "Bitcoin bubble" had burst when the price declined from its all-time high during the cryptocurrency rush in late 2017 and early 2018. There is already plenty of competition, and though Bitcoin has a huge lead over the hundreds of other digital currencies that have sprung up, thanks to its brand recognition and venture capital money, a technological break-through in the form of a better virtual coin is always a threat.

Bitcoin's Tax Risk

As bitcoin is ineligible to be included in any tax-advantaged retirement accounts, there are no good, legal options to shield investments from taxation.

Bitcoin Forks

In the years since Bitcoin launched, there have been numerous instances in which disagreements between factions of miners and developers prompted large-scale splits of the cryptocurrency community. In some of these cases, groups of Bitcoin users and miners have changed the protocol of the Bitcoin network itself. This process is known "forking" and usually results in the creation of a new type of Bitcoin with a new name. This split can be a "hard fork," in which a new coin shares transaction history with Bitcoin up until a decisive split point, at which point a new token is created. Examples of cryptocurrencies that have been created as a result of hard forks include Bitcoin Cash (created in August 2017), Bitcoin Gold (created in October 2017) and Bitcoin SV (created in November 2017). A "soft fork" is a change to protocol which is still compatible with the previous system rules. Bitcoin soft forks have increased the total size of blocks, as an example.

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Related Terms

Bitcoin Mining Definition
Breaking down everything you need to know about Bitcoin mining, from blockchain and block rewards to Proof-of-Work and mining pools.
more
Blockchain Explained
A guide to help you understand what blockchain is and how it can be used by industries. You've probably encountered a definition like this: “blockchain is a distributed, decentralized, public ledger." But blockchain is easier to understand than it sounds.
more
Who Is Satoshi Nakamoto?
Satoshi Nakamoto is the name used by the unknown creator of the protocol used in the bitcoin cryptocurrency.
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Cloud Mining
Cloud mining enables mining of cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, without installation of expensive mining hardware.
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Bitcoin Halving: What You Need to Know
How Bitcoin's halving works and what it means for Bitcoin users.
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Target Hash Definition
A target hash sets the difficulty for cryptocurrency mining using a proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain system.
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Is Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency the same thing?Bitcoin is the name, of the best-known cryptocurrency, the one for which Bockchain Technology was Invented. digital money, Cryptocurrency Is Digital Money. That means there's no physical coin or bill — it's all online. ... Bitcoin and Ether are well-known Cryptocurrency.

How Bitcoin Works

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Reviewed By JULIUS MANSA
Updated Jun 30, 2020

How exactly to categorize Bitcoin is a matter of controversy. Is it a type of currency, a store of value, a payment network or an asset class?

Fortunately, it's easier to define what Bitcoin actually is. It's software. Don't be fooled by stock images of shiny coins emblazoned with modified Thai baht symbols. Bitcoin is a purely digital phenomenon, a set of protocols and processes.

It also is the most successful of hundreds of attempts to create virtual money through the use of cryptography, the science of making and breaking codes. Bitcoin has inspired hundreds of imitators, but it remains the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, a distinction it has held throughout its decade-plus history.

(A general note: according to the Bitcoin Foundation, the word "Bitcoin" is capitalized when it refers to the cryptocurrency as an entity, and it is given as "bitcoin" when it refers to a quantity of the currency or the units themselves. Bitcoin is also abbreviated as "BTC." Throughout this article, we will alternate between these usages.)

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Bitcoin is a digital currency, a decentralized system which records transactions in a distributed ledger called a blockchain.
  • Bitcoin miners run complex computer rigs to solve complicated puzzles in an effort to confirm groups of transactions called blocks; upon success, these blocks are added to the blockchain record and the miners are rewarded with a small number of bitcoins.
  • Other participants in the Bitcoin market can buy or sell tokens through cryptocurrency exchanges or peer-to-peer.
  • The Bitcoin ledger is protected against fraud via a trustless system; Bitcoin exchanges also work to defend themselves against potential theft, but high-profile thefts have occurred.

The Blockchain

Bitcoin is a network that runs on a protocol known as the blockchain. A 2008 paper by a person or people calling themselves Satoshi Nakamoto first described both the blockchain and Bitcoin and for a while the two terms were all but synonymous.

The blockchain​ has since evolved into a separate concept, and thousands of blockchains have been created using similar cryptographic techniques. This history can make the nomenclature confusing. Blockchain sometimes refers to the original, Bitcoin blockchain. At other times it refers to blockchain technology in general, or to any other specific blockchain, such as the one that powers Ethereum​.

The basics of blockchain technology are mercifully straightforward. Any given blockchain consists of a single chain of discrete blocks of information, arranged chronologically. In principle this information can be any string of 1s and 0s, meaning it could include emails, contracts, land titles, marriage certificates, or bond trades. In theory, any type of contract between two parties can be established on a blockchain as long as both parties agree on the contract. This takes away any need for a third party to be involved in any contract. This opens a world of possibilities including peer-to-peer financial products, like loans or decentralized savings and checking accounts, where banks or any intermediary is irrelevant.

While Bitcoin's current goal is a store of value as well as a payment system, there is nothing to say that Bitcoin could not be used in such a way in the future, though consensus would need to be reached to add these systems to Bitcoin. The main goal of the Ethereum project is to have a platform where these "smart contracts" can occur, therefore creating a whole realm of decentralized financial products without any middlemen and the fees and potential data breaches that come along with them.

This versatility has caught the eye of governments and private corporations; indeed, some analysts believe that blockchain technology will ultimately be the most impactful aspect of the cryptocurrency craze.

In Bitcoin's case, though, the information on the blockchain is mostly transactions.

Bitcoin is really just a list. Person A sent X bitcoin to person B, who sent Y bitcoin to person C, etc. By tallying these transactions up, everyone knows where individual users stand. It's important to note that these transactions do not necessarily need to be done from human to human.

Anything can access and use the Bitcoin network and your ethnicity, gender, religion, species, or political leaning are completely irrelevant. This creates vast possibilities for the internet of things. In the future, we could see systems where self-driving taxis or uber vehicles have their own blockchain wallets. The car would be sent cryptocurrency from the passenger and would not move until funds are received. The vehicle would be able to assess when it needs fuel and would use its wallet to facilitate a refill.

Another name for a blockchain is a "distributed ledger," which emphasizes the key difference between this technology and a well-kept Word document. Bitcoin's blockchain is distributed, meaning that it is public. Anyone can download it in its entirety or go to any number of sites that parse it. This means that the record is publicly available, but it also means that there are complicated measures in place for updating the blockchain ledger. There is no central authority to keep tabs on all bitcoin transactions, so the participants themselves do so by creating and verifying "blocks" of transaction data. See the section on "Mining" below for more information.

You can see, for example, that 15N3yGu3UFHeyUNdzQ5sS3aRFRzu5Ae7EZ sent 0.01718427 bitcoin to 1JHG2qjdk5Khiq7X5xQrr1wfigepJEK3t on August 14, 2017, between 11:10 and 11:20 a.m. The long strings of numbers and letters are addresses, and if you were in law enforcement or just very well-informed, you could probably figure out who controlled them. It is a misconception that Bitcoin's network is totally anonymous although taking certain precautions can make it very hard to link individuals to transactions.

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Post-Trust

Despite being absolutely public, or rather because of that fact, Bitcoin is extremely difficult to tamper with. A bitcoin has no physical presence, so you can't protect it by locking it in a safe or burying it in the woods.

In theory, all a thief would need to do to take it from you would be to add a line to the ledger that translates to "you paid me everything you have."

A related worry is double-spending. If a bad actor could spend some bitcoin, then spend it again, confidence in the currency's value would quickly evaporate. To achieve a double-spend the bad actor would need to make up 51% of the mining power of Bitcoin. The larger the Bitcoin network grows the less realistic this becomes as the computing power needed would be astronomical and extremely expensive.

To further prevent either from happening, you need trust. In this case, the accustomed solution with traditional currency would be to transact through a central, neutral arbiter such as a bank. Bitcoin has made that unnecessary, however. (It is probably not a coincidence Satoshi's original description was published in October 2008, when trust in banks was at a multigenerational low. This is a recurring theme in today's coronavirus climate and growing government debt.) Rather than having a reliable authority keep the ledger and preside over the network, the bitcoin network is decentralized. Everyone keeps an eye on everyone else.

No one needs to know or trust anyone in particular in order for the system to operate correctly. Assuming everything is working as intended, the cryptographic protocols ensure that each block of transactions is bolted onto the last in a long, transparent, and immutable chain.

Mining

The process that maintains this trustless public ledger is known as mining. Undergirding the network of Bitcoin users who trade the cryptocurrency among themselves is a network of miners, who record these transactions on the blockchain.

Recording a string of transactions is trivial for a modern computer, but mining is difficult because Bitcoin's software makes the process artificially time-consuming. Without the added difficulty, people could spoof transactions to enrich themselves or bankrupt other people. They could log a fraudulent transaction in the blockchain and pile so many trivial transactions on top of it that untangling the fraud would become impossible.

By the same token, it would be easy to insert fraudulent transactions into past blocks. The network would become a sprawling, spammy mess of competing ledgers, and bitcoin would be worthless.

Combining "proof of work" with other cryptographic techniques was Satoshi's breakthrough. Bitcoin's software adjusts the difficulty miners face in order to limit the network to one new 1-megabyte block of transactions every 10 minutes. That way the volume of transactions is digestible. The network has time to vet the new block and the ledger that precedes it, and everyone can reach a consensus about the status quo. Miners do not work to verify transactions by adding blocks to the distributed ledger purely out of a desire to see the Bitcoin network run smoothly; they are compensated for their work as well. We'll take a closer look at mining compensation below.

Halving

As previously mentioned, miners are rewarded with Bitcoin for verifying blocks of transactions. This reward is cut in half every 210,000 blocks mined, or, about every four years. This event is called the halving or the "halvening." The system is built-in as a deflationary one, where the rate at which new Bitcoin is released into circulation.

This process is designed so that rewards for Bitcoin mining will continue until about 2140. Once all Bitcoin is mined from the code and all halvings are finished, the miners will remain incentivized by fees that they will charge network users. The hope is that healthy competition will keep fees low.

This system drives up Bitcoin's stock-to-flow ratio and lowers its inflation until it is eventually zero. After the third halving that took place on May 11th, 2020, the reward for each block mined is now 6.25 Bitcoins.

Hashes

Here is a slightly more technical description of how mining works. The network of miners, who are scattered across the globe and not bound to each other by personal or professional ties, receives the latest batch of transaction data. They run the data through a cryptographic algorithm that generates a "hash," a string of numbers and letters that verifies the information's validity but does not reveal the information itself. (In reality, this ideal vision of decentralized mining is no longer accurate, with industrial-scale mining farms and powerful mining pools forming an oligopoly. More on that below.)

Given the hash 000000000000000000c2c4d562265f272bd55d64f1a7c22ffeb66e15e826ca30, you cannot know what transactions the relevant block (

480504
) contains. You can, however, take a bunch of data purporting to be block
480504
and make sure that it has not been tampered with. If one number were out of place, no matter how insignificant, the data would generate a totally different hash. As an example, if you were to run the Declaration of Independence through a hash calculator, you might get 839f561caa4b466c84e2b4809afe116c76a465ce5da68c3370f5c36bd3f67350. Delete the period after the words "submitted to a candid world," though, and you get 800790e4fd445ca4c5e3092f9884cdcd4cf536f735ca958b93f60f82f23f97c4. This is a completely different hash, although you've only changed one character in the original text.

The hash technology allows the Bitcoin network to instantly check the validity of a block. It would be incredibly time-consuming to comb through the entire ledger to make sure that the person mining the most recent batch of transactions hasn't tried anything funny. Instead, the previous block's hash appears within the new block. If the most minute detail had been altered in the previous block, that hash would change. Even if the alteration was 20,000 blocks back in the chain, that block's hash would set off a cascade of new hashes and tip off the network.

Generating a hash is not really work, though. The process is so quick and easy that bad actors could still spam the network and perhaps, given enough computing power, pass off fraudulent transactions a few blocks back in the chain. So the Bitcoin protocol requires proof of work.

It does so by throwing miners a curveball: Their hash must be below a certain target. That's why block

480504
's hash starts with a long string of zeroes. It's tiny. Since every string of data will generate one and only one hash, the quest for a sufficiently small one involves adding nonces ("numbers used once") to the end of the data. So a miner will run [thedata]. If the hash is too big, she will try again. [thedata]1. Still too big. [thedata]2. Finally, [thedata]93452 yields her a hash beginning with the requisite number of zeroes.

The mined block will be broadcast to the network to receive confirmations, which take another hour or so, though occasionally much longer, to process. (Again, this description is simplified. Blocks are not hashed in their entirety, but broken up into more efficient structures called Merkle trees.)

Depending on the kind of traffic the network is receiving, Bitcoin's protocol will require a longer or shorter string of zeroes, adjusting the difficulty to hit a rate of one new block every 10 minutes. As of October 2019, the current difficulty is around 6.379 trillion, up from 1 in 2009. As this suggests, it has become significantly more difficult to mine Bitcoin since the cryptocurrency launched a decade ago.

Mining is intensive, requiring big, expensive rigs and a lot of electricity to power them. And it's competitive. There's no telling what nonce will work, so the goal is to plow through them as quickly as possible.

Early on, miners recognized that they could improve their chances of success by combining into mining pools, sharing computing power and divvying the rewards up among themselves. Even when multiple miners split these rewards, there is still ample incentive to pursue them. Every time a new block is mined, the successful miner receives a bunch of newly created bitcoin. At first, it was 50, but then it halved to 25, and now it is 12.5 (about $119,000 in October 2019).

The reward will continue to halve every 210,000 blocks, or about every four years, until it hits zero. At that point, all 21 million bitcoins will have been mined, and miners will depend solely on fees to maintain the network. When Bitcoin was launched, it was planned that the total supply of the cryptocurrency would be 21 million tokens.

The fact that miners have organized themselves into pools worries some. If a pool exceeds 50% of the network's mining power, its members could potentially spend coins, reverse the transactions, and spend them again. They could also block others' transactions. Simply put, this pool of miners would have the power to overwhelm the distributed nature of the system, verifying fraudulent transactions by virtue of the majority power it would hold.

That could spell the end of Bitcoin, but even a so-called 51% attack would probably not enable the bad actors to reverse old transactions, because the proof of work requirement makes that process so labor-intensive. To go back and alter the blockchain, a pool would need to control such a large majority of the network that it would probably be pointless. When you control the whole currency, who is there to trade with?

A 51% attack is a financially suicidal proposition from the miners' perspective. When Ghash.io, a mining pool, reached 51% of the network's computing power in 2014, it voluntarily promised to not exceed 39.99% of the Bitcoin hash rate in order to maintain confidence in the cryptocurrency's value. Other actors, such as governments, might find the idea of such an attack interesting, though. But, again, the sheer size of Bitcoin's network would make this overwhelmingly expensive, even for a world power.

Another source of concern related to miners is the practical tendency to concentrate in parts of the world where electricity is cheap, such as China, or, following a Chinese crackdown in early 2018, Quebec.

Bitcoin Transactions

For most individuals participating in the Bitcoin network, the ins and outs of the blockchain, hash rates and mining are not particularly relevant. Outside of the mining community, Bitcoin owners usually purchase their cryptocurrency supply through a Bitcoin exchange. These are online platforms that facilitate transactions of Bitcoin and, often, other digital currencies.

Bitcoin exchanges such as Coinbase bring together market participants from around the world to buy and sell cryptocurrencies. These exchanges have been both increasingly popular (as Bitcoin's popularity itself has grown in recent years) and fraught with regulatory, legal and security challenges. With governments around the world viewing cryptocurrencies in various ways – as currency, as an asset class, or any number of other classifications – the regulations governing the buying and selling of bitcoins are complex and constantly shifting. Perhaps even more important for Bitcoin exchange participants than the threat of changing regulatory oversight, however, is that of theft and other criminal activity. While the Bitcoin network itself has largely been secure throughout its history, individual exchanges are not necessarily the same. Many thefts have targeted high-profile cryptocurrency exchanges, oftentimes resulting in the loss of millions of dollars worth of tokens. The most famous exchange theft is likely Mt. Gox, which dominated the Bitcoin transaction space up through 2014. Early in that year, the platform announced the probable theft of roughly 850,000 BTC worth close to $450 million at the time. Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy and shuttered its doors; to this day, the majority of that stolen bounty (which would now be worth a total of about $8 billion) has not been recovered.

Keys and Wallets

For these reasons, it's understandable that Bitcoin traders and owners will want to take any possible security measures to protect their holdings. To do so, they utilize keys and wallets.

Bitcoin ownership essentially boils down to two numbers, a public key and a private key. A rough analogy is a username (public key) and a password (private key). A hash of the public key called an address is the one displayed on the blockchain. Using the hash provides an extra layer of security.

To receive bitcoin, it's enough for the sender to know your address. The public key is derived from the private key, which you need to send bitcoin to another address. The system makes it easy to receive money but requires verification of identity to send it.

To access bitcoin, you use a wallet, which is a set of keys. These can take different forms, from third-party web applications offering insurance and debit cards, to QR codes printed on pieces of paper. The most important distinction is between "hot" wallets, which are connected to the internet and therefore vulnerable to hacking, and "cold" wallets, which are not connected to the internet. In the Mt. Gox case above, it is believed that most of the BTC stolen were taken from a hot wallet. Still, many users entrust their private keys to cryptocurrency exchanges, which essentially is a bet that those exchanges will have stronger defense against the possibility of theft than one's own computer.

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Active

Below are some notable cryptocurrencies:

ReleaseCurrencySymbolFounder(s)Hash algorithmProgramming language of implementationCryptocurrency blockchain
(PoS, PoW, or other)
Notes
2009BitcoinBTC,[2] XBT, Satoshi Nakamoto[nt 1]SHA-256d[3][4]C++[5]PoW[4][6]The first and most widely used decentralized ledger currency,[7] with the highest market capitalization.[8]
2011LitecoinLTC, ŁCharlie LeeScryptC++[9]PoWOne of the first cryptocurrencies to use Scrypt as a hashing algorithm.
2011NamecoinNMCVincent Durham[10][11]SHA-256dC++[12]PoWAlso acts as an alternative, decentralized DNS.
2012PeercoinPPCSunny King
(pseudonym)[citation needed]
SHA-256d[citation needed]C++[13]PoW & PoSThe first cryptocurrency to use POW and POS functions.
2013DogecoinDOGE, XDG, ÐJackson Palmer
& Billy Markus[14]
Scrypt[15]C++[16]PoWBased on the Doge internet meme.
2013[citation needed]GridcoinGRCRob Hälford[citation needed]ScryptC++[17]Decentralized PoSLinked to citizen science through the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing[18]
2013PrimecoinXPMSunny King
(pseudonym)[citation needed]
1CC/2CC/TWN[19]TypeScript, C++[20]PoW[19]Uses the finding of prime chains composed of Cunningham chains and bi-twin chains for proof-of-work.
2013Ripple[21][22]XRPChris Larsen &
Jed McCaleb[23]
ECDSA[24]C++[25]"Consensus"Designed for peer to peer debt transfer. Not based on bitcoin.
2013NxtNXTBCNext
(pseudonym)
SHA-256d[26]Java[27]PoSSpecifically designed as a flexible platform to build applications and financial services around its protocol.
2014AuroracoinAURBaldur Odinsson
(pseudonym)[28]
ScryptC++[29]PoWCreated as an alternative currency for Iceland, intended to replace the Icelandic króna.
2014DashDASHEvan Duffield &
Kyle Hagan[30]
X11C++[31]PoW & Proof of Service[nt 2]A bitcoin-based currency featuring instant transactions, decentralized governance and budgeting, and private transactions.
2014NEONEODa Hongfei & Erik ZhangSHA-256 & RIPEMD160C#[32]dBFTChina based cryptocurrency, formerly ANT Shares and ANT Coins. The names were changed in 2017 to NEO and GAS.
2014MazaCoinMZCBTC Oyate InitiativeSHA-256dC++[33]PoWThe underlying software is derived from that of another cryptocurrency, ZetaCoin.
2014MoneroXMRMonero Core TeamCryptoNight[34]C++[35]PoWPrivacy-centric coin using the CryptoNote protocol with improvements for scalability and decentralization.
2014TitcoinTITEdward Mansfield & Richard Allen[36]SHA-256dTypeScript, C++[37]PoWThe first cryptocurrency to be nominated for a major adult industry award.[38]
2014VergeXVGSunerokScrypt, x17, groestl, blake2s, and lyra2rev2C, C++[39]PoWFeatures anonymous transactions using Tor.
2014StellarXLMJed McCalebStellar Consensus Protocol (SCP) [40]C, C++[41]Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP) [40]Open-source, decentralized global financial network.
2014VertcoinVTCDavid Muller[42]Lyra2RE[43]C++[44]PoWAims to be ASIC resistant.
2015Ether or "Ethereum"ETHVitalik Buterin[45]Ethash[46]C++, Go[47]PoWSupports Turing-complete smart contracts.
2015Ethereum ClassicETCEtcHash/Thanos[48]PoWAn alternative version of Ethereum[49] whose blockchain does not include the DAO Hard-fork.[50] Supports Turing-complete smart contracts.
2015NanoNanoColin LeMahieuBlake2C++[citation needed]Open Representative Voting[51]Decentralized, feeless, open-source, peer-to-peer cryptocurrency. First to use a Block Lattice structure.
2015TetherUSDTJan Ludovicus van der Velde[52]Omnicore [53]PoWTether claims to be backed by USD at a 1 to 1 ratio. The company has been unable to produce promised audits.[54]
2016ZcashZECZooko WilcoxEquihashC++[55]PoWThe first open, permissionless financial system employing zero-knowledge security.
2017Bitcoin CashBCH[56]SHA-256dPoWHard fork from Bitcoin, Increased Block size from 1mb to 8mb
2017EOS.IOEOSDan LarimerWebAssembly, Rust, C, C++[57]delegated PoSFeeless Smart contract platform for decentralized applications and decentralized autonomous corporations with a block time of 500 ms.[57]
2017CardanoADA, ₳Charles HoskinsonOuroboros, PoS Algorithm[58]Haskell[59]PoSA proof-of-stake blockchain platform: developed through evidence-based methods and peer-reviewed research.[60][61][62]



A blockchain,[1][2][3] originally block chain,[4][5] is a growing list of records, called blocks, that are linked using cryptography.[1][6] Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block,[6] a timestamp, and transaction data (generally represented as a Merkle tree).

By design, a blockchain is resistant to modification of its data. This is because once recorded, the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without alteration of all subsequent blocks. For use as a distributed ledger, a blockchain is typically managed by a peer-to-peer network collectively adhering to a protocol for inter-node communication and validating new blocks. Although blockchain records are not unalterable, blockchains may be considered secure by design and exemplify a distributed computing system with high Byzantine fault tolerance. The blockchain has been described as "an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way".[7]

The blockchain was invented by a person (or group of people) using the name Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 to serve as the public transaction ledger of the cryptocurrency bitcoin.[1] The identity of Satoshi Nakamoto remains unknown to date. The invention of the blockchain for bitcoin made it the first digital currency to solve the double-spending problem without the need of a trusted authority or central server. The bitcoin design has inspired other applications[1][3] and blockchains that are readable by the public are widely used by cryptocurrencies. The blockchain is considered a type of payment rail.[8] Private blockchains have been proposed for business use but Computerworld called the marketing of such privatized blockchains without a proper security model "snake oil".[9]

Contents

History

Bitcoin transactions (January 2009 – September 2017)

Cryptographer David Chaum first proposed a blockchain-like protocol in his 1982 dissertation "Computer Systems Established, Maintained, and Trusted by Mutually Suspicious Groups."[10] Further work on a cryptographically secured chain of blocks was described in 1991 by Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta.[6][11] They wanted to implement a system where document timestamps could not be tampered with. In 1992, Haber, Stornetta, and Dave Bayer incorporated Merkle trees to the design, which improved its efficiency by allowing several document certificates to be collected into one block.[6][12]

The first blockchain was conceptualized by a person (or group of people) known as Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. Nakamoto improved the design in an important way using a Hashcash-like method to timestamp blocks without requiring them to be signed by a trusted party and introducing a difficulty parameter to stabilize rate with which blocks are added to the chain.[6] The design was implemented the following year by Nakamoto as a core component of the cryptocurrency bitcoin, where it serves as the public ledger for all transactions on the network.[1]

In August 2014, the bitcoin blockchain file size, containing records of all transactions that have occurred on the network, reached 20 GB (gigabytes).[13] In January 2015, the size had grown to almost 30 GB, and from January 2016 to January 2017, the bitcoin blockchain grew from 50 GB to 100 GB in size. The ledger size had exceeded 200 GiB by early 2020.[14]

The words block and chain were used separately in Satoshi Nakamoto's original paper, but were eventually popularized as a single word, blockchain, by 2016.

According to Accenture, an application of the diffusion of innovations theory suggests that blockchains attained a 13.5% adoption rate within financial services in 2016, therefore reaching the early adopters phase.[15] Industry trade groups joined to create the Global Blockchain Forum in 2016, an initiative of the Chamber of Digital Commerce.

In May 2018, Gartner found that only 1% of CIOs indicated any kind of blockchain adoption within their organisations, and only 8% of CIOs were in the short-term "planning or [looking at] active experimentation with blockchain".[16]

Structure

Blockchain formation. The main chain (black) consists of the longest series of blocks from the genesis block (green) to the current block. Orphan blocks (purple) exist outside of the main chain.

A blockchain is a decentralized, distributed, and oftentimes public, digital ledger consisting of records called blocks that is used to record transactions across many computers so that any involved block cannot be altered retroactively, without the alteration of all subsequent blocks.[1][17] This allows the participants to verify and audit transactions independently and relatively inexpensively.[18] A blockchain database is managed autonomously using a peer-to-peer network and a distributed timestamping server. They are authenticated by mass collaboration powered by collective self-interests.[19] Such a design facilitates robust workflow where participants' uncertainty regarding data security is marginal. The use of a blockchain removes the characteristic of infinite reproducibility from a digital asset. It confirms that each unit of value was transferred only once, solving the long-standing problem of double spending. A blockchain has been described as a value-exchange protocol.[20] A blockchain can maintain title rights because, when properly set up to detail the exchange agreement, it provides a record that compels offer and acceptance.

Blocks

Blocks hold batches of valid transactions that are hashed and encoded into a Merkle tree.[1] Each block includes the cryptographic hash of the prior block in the blockchain, linking the two. The linked blocks form a chain.[1] This iterative process confirms the integrity of the previous block, all the way back to the initial block, which is known as the genesis block.[21]

Sometimes separate blocks can be produced concurrently, creating a temporary fork. In addition to a secure hash-based history, any blockchain has a specified algorithm for scoring different versions of the history so that one with a higher score can be selected over others. Blocks not selected for inclusion in the chain are called orphan blocks.[21] Peers supporting the database have different versions of the history from time to time. They keep only the highest-scoring version of the database known to them. Whenever a peer receives a higher-scoring version (usually the old version with a single new block added) they extend or overwrite their own database and retransmit the improvement to their peers. There is never an absolute guarantee that any particular entry will remain in the best version of the history forever. Blockchains are typically built to add the score of new blocks onto old blocks and are given incentives to extend with new blocks rather than overwrite old blocks. Therefore, the probability of an entry becoming superseded decreases exponentially[22] as more blocks are built on top of it, eventually becoming very low.[1][23]:ch. 08[24] For example, bitcoin uses a proof-of-work system, where the chain with the most cumulative proof-of-work is considered the valid one by the network. There are a number of methods that can be used to demonstrate a sufficient level of computation. Within a blockchain the computation is carried out redundantly rather than in the traditional segregated and parallel manner.[25]

Block time

The block time is the average time it takes for the network to generate one extra block in the blockchain. Some blockchains create a new block as frequently as every five seconds.[citation needed] By the time of block completion, the included data becomes verifiable. In cryptocurrency, this is practically when the transaction takes place, so a shorter block time means faster transactions. The block time for Ethereum is set to between 14 and 15 seconds, while for bitcoin it is on average 10 minutes.[26]

Hard forks

This section is an excerpt from Fork (blockchain) § Hard fork[edit]

A hard fork is a rule change such that the software validating according to the old rules will see the blocks produced according to the new rules as invalid. In case of a hard fork, all nodes meant to work in accordance with the new rules need to upgrade their software.

If one group of nodes continues to use the old software while the other nodes use the new software, a permanent split can occur. For example, Ethereum has hard-forked to "make whole" the investors in The DAO, which had been hacked by exploiting a vulnerability in its code. In this case, the fork resulted in a split creating Ethereum and Ethereum Classic chains. In 2014 the Nxt community was asked to consider a hard fork that would have led to a rollback of the blockchain records to mitigate the effects of a theft of 50 million NXT from a major cryptocurrency exchange. The hard fork proposal was rejected, and some of the funds were recovered after negotiations and ransom payment. Alternatively, to prevent a permanent split, a majority of nodes using the new software may return to the old rules, as was the case of bitcoin split on 12 March 2013.[27]

Decentralization

By storing data across its peer-to-peer network, the blockchain eliminates a number of risks that come with data being held centrally.[1] The decentralized blockchain may use ad hoc message passing and distributed networking.

Peer-to-peer blockchain networks lack centralized points of vulnerability that computer crackers can exploit; likewise, it has no central point of failure. Blockchain security methods include the use of public-key cryptography.[4]:5 A public key (a long, random-looking string of numbers) is an address on the blockchain. Value tokens sent across the network are recorded as belonging to that address. A private key is like a password that gives its owner access to their digital assets or the means to otherwise interact with the various capabilities that blockchains now support. Data stored on the blockchain is generally considered incorruptible.[1]

Every node in a decentralized system has a copy of the blockchain. Data quality is maintained by massive database replication[28] and computational trust. No centralized "official" copy exists and no user is "trusted" more than any other.[4] Transactions are broadcast to the network using software. Messages are delivered on a best-effort basis. Mining nodes validate transactions,[21] add them to the block they are building, and then broadcast the completed block to other nodes.[23]:ch. 08 Blockchains use various time-stamping schemes, such as proof-of-work, to serialize changes.[29] Alternative consensus methods include proof-of-stake.[21] Growth of a decentralized blockchain is accompanied by the risk of centralization because the computer resources required to process larger amounts of data become more expensive.[30]

Openness

Open blockchains are more user-friendly than some traditional ownership records, which, while open to the public, still require physical access to view. Because all early blockchains were permissionless, controversy has arisen over the blockchain definition. An issue in this ongoing debate is whether a private system with verifiers tasked and authorized (permissioned) by a central authority should be considered a blockchain.[31][32][33][34][35] Proponents of permissioned or private chains argue that the term "blockchain" may be applied to any data structure that batches data into time-stamped blocks. These blockchains serve as a distributed version of multiversion concurrency control (MVCC) in databases.[36] Just as MVCC prevents two transactions from concurrently modifying a single object in a database, blockchains prevent two transactions from spending the same single output in a blockchain.[37]:30–31 Opponents say that permissioned systems resemble traditional corporate databases, not supporting decentralized data verification, and that such systems are not hardened against operator tampering and revision.[31][33] Nikolai Hampton of Computerworld said that "many in-house blockchain solutions will be nothing more than cumbersome databases," and "without a clear security model, proprietary blockchains should be eyed with suspicion."[9][38]

Permissionless

The great advantage to an open, permissionless, or public, blockchain network is that guarding against bad actors is not required and no access control is needed.[22] This means that applications can be added to the network without the approval or trust of others, using the blockchain as a transport layer.[22]

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies currently secure their blockchain by requiring new entries to include a proof of work. To prolong the blockchain, bitcoin uses Hashcash puzzles. While Hashcash was designed in 1997 by Adam Back, the original idea was first proposed by Cynthia Dwork and Moni Naor and Eli Ponyatovski in their 1992 paper "Pricing via Processing or Combatting Junk Mail".

In 2016, venture capital investment for blockchain-related projects was weakening in the USA but increasing in China.[39] Bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies use open (public) blockchains. As of April 2018, bitcoin has the highest market capitalization.

Permissioned (private) blockchain

Permissioned blockchains use an access control layer to govern who has access to the network.[40] In contrast to public blockchain networks, validators on private blockchain networks are vetted by the network owner. They do not rely on anonymous nodes to validate transactions nor do they benefit from the network effect.[citation needed] Permissioned blockchains can also go by the name of 'consortium' blockchains.[citation needed]

Disadvantages of private blockchain

Nikolai Hampton pointed out in Computerworld that "There is also no need for a '51 percent' attack on a private blockchain, as the private blockchain (most likely) already controls 100 percent of all block creation resources. If you could attack or damage the blockchain creation tools on a private corporate server, you could effectively control 100 percent of their network and alter transactions however you wished."[9] This has a set of particularly profound adverse implications during a financial crisis or debt crisis like the financial crisis of 2007–08, where politically powerful actors may make decisions that favor some groups at the expense of others,[41][42] and "the bitcoin blockchain is protected by the massive group mining effort. It's unlikely that any private blockchain will try to protect records using gigawatts of computing power — it's time consuming and expensive."[9] He also said, "Within a private blockchain there is also no 'race'; there's no incentive to use more power or discover blocks faster than competitors. This means that many in-house blockchain solutions will be nothing more than cumbersome databases."[9]

Blockchain analysis

The analysis of public blockchains has become increasingly important with the popularity of bitcoin, Ethereum, litecoin and other cryptocurrencies.[43] A blockchain, if it is public, provides anyone who wants access to observe and analyse the chain data, given one has the know-how. The process of understanding and accessing the flow of crypto has been an issue for many cryptocurrencies, crypto-exchanges and banks.[44][45] The reason for this is accusations of blockchain enabled cryptocurrencies enabling illicit dark market trade of drugs, weapons, money laundering etc.[46] A common belief has been that cryptocurrency is private and untraceable, thus leading many actors to use it for illegal purposes. This is changing and now specialised tech-companies provide blockchain tracking services, making crypto exchanges, law-enforcement and banks more aware of what is happening with crypto funds and fiat crypto exchanges. The development, some argue, has led criminals to prioritise use of new cryptos such as Monero.[47][48][49] The question is about public accessibility of blockchain data and the personal privacy of the very same data. It is a key debate in cryptocurrency and ultimately in blockchain.[50]

Uses

Bitcoin's transactions are recorded on a publicly viewable blockchain.

Blockchain technology can be integrated into multiple areas. The primary use of blockchains today is as a distributed ledger for cryptocurrencies, most notably bitcoin. There are a few operational products maturing from proof of concept by late 2016.[39] Businesses have been thus far reluctant to place blockchain at the core of the business structure.[51]

Cryptocurrencies

Main article: Cryptocurrency

Most cryptocurrencies use blockchain technology to record transactions. For example, the bitcoin network and Ethereum network are both based on blockchain. On 8 May 2018 Facebook confirmed that it would open a new blockchain group[52] which would be headed by David Marcus, who previously was in charge of Messenger. Facebook's planned cryptocurrency platform, Libra, was formally announced on June 18, 2019.[53][54]

Smart contracts

Main article: Smart contract

Blockchain-based smart contracts are proposed contracts that can be partially or fully executed or enforced without human interaction.[55] One of the main objectives of a smart contract is automated escrow. A key feature of smart contracts is that they do not need a trusted third party (such as a trustee) to act as an intermediary between contracting entities; The blockchain network executes the contract on its own. This may reduce friction between entities when transferring value, and open the door to a higher level of transaction automation.[56] An IMF staff discussion reported that smart contracts based on blockchain technology might reduce moral hazards and optimize the use of contracts in general. But "no viable smart contract systems have yet emerged." Due to the lack of widespread use their legal status is unclear.[57][58]

Financial services

Major portions of the financial industry are implementing distributed ledgers for use in banking,[59][60][61] and according to a September 2016 IBM study, this is occurring faster than expected.[62]

Banks are interested in this technology because it has potential to speed up back office settlement systems.[63]

Banks such as UBS are opening new research labs dedicated to blockchain technology in order to explore how blockchain can be used in financial services to increase efficiency and reduce costs.[64][65]

Berenberg, a German bank, believes that blockchain is an "overhyped technology" that has had a large number of "proofs of concept", but still has major challenges, and very few success stories.[66]

In December 2018, Bitwala launched Europe's first regulated blockchain banking solution that enables users to manage both their bitcoin and euro deposits in one place with the safety and convenience of a German bank account. The bank account is hosted by the Berlin-based solarisBank.[67]

Mojaloop is designed to deliver financial support to people living in areas underserved by banks. It of use to migrants sending remittances[68]

The blockchain has also given rise to Initial coin offerings (ICOs) as well as a new category of digital asset called Security Token Offerings (STOs), also sometimes referred to as Digital Security Offerings (DSOs).[69] STO/DSOs may be conducted privately or on a public, regulated stock exchange and are used to tokenize traditional assets such as company shares as well as more innovative ones like intellectual property, real estate, art, or individual products. A number of companies are active in this space providing services for compliant tokenization, private STOs, and public STOs.

Video games

A blockchain game CryptoKitties, launched in November 2017.[70] The game made headlines in December 2017 when a cryptokitty character - an in-game virtual pet - was sold for more than US$100,000.[71] CryptoKitties illustrated scalability problems for games on Ethereum when it created significant congestion on the Ethereum network with about 30% of all Ethereum transactions being for the game.[72]

CryptoKitties also demonstrated how blockchains can be used to catalog game assets (digital assets).[73]

Energy trading

Blockchain is also being used in peer-to-peer energy trading.[74][75][76]

Supply chain

There are a number of efforts and industry organizations working to employ blockchains in supply chain management.

  • Mining — Blockchain technology allows wholesalers, retailers, and customers to track the origins of gems stones and other precious commodities. In 2016, The Wall Street Journal reported that the blockchain technology company, Everledger was partnering with IBM's blockchain-based tracking service to trace the origin of diamonds to insure that they were ethically mined.[77] DTC, the Diamond Trading Company has been involved in building a diamond trading supply chain product called Tracr.[78]
  • Food supply — Blockchain technology is being used to allow retailers and consumers to track the provenance of meat and other food products from their origins to stores and restaurants.[79] Walmart and IBM are running a trial to use a blockchain-backed system for supply chain monitoring for lettuce and spinach — all nodes of the blockchain are administered by Walmart and are located on the IBM cloud.[80] One cited benefit is that the system will enable rapid tracing of contaminated produce. Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian themed restaurant chain that features grilled meats, announced a partnership with HerdX, a blockchain-tech company focused on the food industry, that will enable suppliers, wholesalers, and diners to trace the beef served in Fogo de Chao restaurants back to the farm where it was raised.[81] Some analysts are less convinced that most consumers will be that interested in this capability.[78]
  • Shipping Walmart Canada uses a blockchain-based system developed by DLT Labs, a blockchain SaaS provider, that allows the retailer to track shipments and deliveries handled by dozens of third-party trucking companies. One reported benefit is that the blockchain-based system enables automated invoicing that reduces disputed billing, which in turn reduces delays in Walmart paying the freight transport companies.[82]
  • Blockchain software development — The Linux Foundation's blockchain initiative, Hyperledger Grid develops open components for blockchain supply chain solutions.[83][84] The goal of the project, said the foundation, was to "accelerate the development of blockchain-based solutions to cross-industry supply chain problems."

Health Care

In response to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, The Wall Street Journal reported that Ernst & Young was working on a blockchain to help employers, governments, airlines and others keep track of people who have had antibody tests and could be immune to the virus. Hospitals and vendors also utilized a blockchain for needed medical equipment. Additionally, blockchain technology was being used in China to speed up the time it takes for health insurance payments to be paid to health-care providers and patients.[85]

Domain Names

Blockchain domain names are another use of blockchain on the rise. Unlike regular domain names, blockchain domain names are entirely an asset of the domain owner and can only be controlled by the owner through a private key.[86] Blockchain domains pave the way to having sites that are more resistant to censorship and thus enable freedom of speech as there are no authorities or individuals that can intervene on controlling a domain except the private key holder.[87][88] Again, they are a better option to replace the traditional cryptocurrency wallet addresses as one can easily memorize the domain and use it for receiving payments.[89]

Organizations providing blockchain domain name services include Unstoppable Domains, Namecoin and Ethereum Name Services.[90]

Other uses

Blockchain technology can be used to create a permanent, public, transparent ledger system for compiling data on sales, tracking digital use and payments to content creators, such as wireless users[91] or musicians.[92] In 2017, IBM partnered with ASCAP and PRS for Music to adopt blockchain technology in music distribution.[93] Imogen Heap's Mycelia service has also been proposed as blockchain-based alternative "that gives artists more control over how their songs and associated data circulate among fans and other musicians."[94][95]

New distribution methods are available for the insurance industry such as peer-to-peer insurance, parametric insurance and microinsurance following the adoption of blockchain.[96][97] The sharing economy and IoT are also set to benefit from blockchains because they involve many collaborating peers.[98] Online voting is another application of the blockchain.[99][100] The use of blockchain in libraries is being studied with a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services.[101]

Other designs include:

  • Hyperledger is a cross-industry collaborative effort from the Linux Foundation to support blockchain-based distributed ledgers, with projects under this initiative including Hyperledger Burrow (by Monax) and Hyperledger Fabric (spearheaded by IBM).[102]
  • Quorum – a permissionable private blockchain by JPMorgan Chase with private storage, used for contract applications.[103]
  • Tezos, decentralized voting.[37]:94
  • Proof of Existence is an online service that verifies the existence of computer files as of a specific time.[104]

Types

Currently, there are at least four types of blockchain networks — public blockchains, private blockchains, consortium blockchains and hybrid blockchains.

Public blockchains

A public blockchain has absolutely no access restrictions. Anyone with an Internet connection can send transactions to it as well as become a validator (i.e., participate in the execution of a consensus protocol).[105][self-published source?] Usually, such networks offer economic incentives for those who secure them and utilize some type of a Proof of Stake or Proof of Work algorithm.

Some of the largest, most known public blockchains are the bitcoin blockchain and the Ethereum blockchain.

Private blockchains

A private blockchain is permissioned.[40] One cannot join it unless invited by the network administrators. Participant and validator access is restricted. To distinguish between open blockchains and other peer-to-peer decentralized database applications that are not open ad-hoc compute clusters, the terminology Distributed Ledger (DLT) is normally used for private blockchains.

Hybrid blockchains

A hybrid blockchain has a combination of centralized and decentralized features.[106] The exact workings of the chain can vary based on which portions of centralization decentralization are used.

Sidechains

A sidechain is a designation for a blockchain ledger that runs in parallel to a primary blockchain.[107][108] Entries from the primary blockchain (where said entries typically represent digital assets) can be linked to and from the sidechain; this allows the sidechain to otherwise operate independently of the primary blockchain (e.g., by using an alternate means of record keeping, alternate consensus algorithm, etc.).[109]


Interoperability

With the increasing number of blockchain systems appearing, even only those that support cryptocurrencies, blockchain interoperability is becoming a topic of major importance. The objective is to support transferring assets from one blockchain system to another blockchain system. Wegner[110] stated that "interoperability is the ability of two or more software components to cooperate despite differences in language, interface, and execution platform". The objective of blockchain interoperability is therefore to support such cooperation among blockchain systems, despite those kinds of differences.

There are already several blockchain interoperability solutions available.[111] They can be classified in three categories: cryptocurrency interoperability approaches, blockchain engines, and blockchain connectors.

The IETF has a recent Blockchain-interop working group that already produced the draft of a blockchain interoperability architecture.[112]


Academic research

Blockchain panel discussion at the first IEEE Computer Society TechIgnite conference

In October 2014, the MIT Bitcoin Club, with funding from MIT alumni, provided undergraduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology access to $100 of bitcoin. The adoption rates, as studied by Catalini and Tucker (2016), revealed that when people who typically adopt technologies early are given delayed access, they tend to reject the technology.[113]

Adoption decision

Motivations for adopting blockchain technology have been investigated by researchers. Janssen et al. provided a framework for analysis.[114] Koens & Poll pointed out that adoption could be heavily driven by non-technical factors.[115] Based on behavioral models, Li[116] discussed the differences between adoption at individual level and at organization level.

Collaboration

Scholars in business and management have started studying the role of blockchains to support collaboration.[117][118] It has been argued that blockchains can foster both cooperation (i.e., prevention of opportunistic behavior) and coordination (i.e., communication and information sharing). Thanks to reliability, transparency, traceability of records, and information immutability, blockchains facilitate collaboration in a way that differs both from the traditional use of contracts and from relational norms.[119] Contrary to contracts, blockchains do not directly rely on the legal system to enforce agreements. In addition, contrary to the use of relational norms, blockchains do not require trust or direct connections between collaborators.

Blockchain and internal audit