Blockchain technology, distinct from Bitcoin, serves as a powerful tool for creating trust registries across various sectors, enhancing transparency and efficiency in data management.
Bitcoin, the digital currency that had its genesis in 2009, is often confused with blockchain technology. However, Bitcoin is not blockchain, and blockchain is not Bitcoin. Although related, the difference between Bitcoin and blockchain is not subtle. The textbook definition of blockchain states that “it is an immutable ledger that allows transactions to occur among parties in a decentralised fashion, with a mechanism to reach consensus on the shared state of the ledger”. Simply put, blockchain is a distributed “database” that is not managed by a central entity, is accessible to any interested party and records timestamped data exchanges between two transacting parties in an append-only and tamper-evident “audit-trail style log”. The append-only property implies that timestamped data entries can only be added to the log and cannot be modified after the fact. Related to this, the tamper-evident property stems from the use of cryptographic (i.e. advanced mathematical) checks and balances to flag attempts to modify data entries by a malicious actor after the data has been posted to the ledger.
