Blockchain — What? Is that Decentralized?

The blockchain is a distributed database that is used to record data (assets, transactions, etc), has characteristics such as consensus, provenance, immutability, finality and the blocks of data are connected with hash functions and uses cryptography — Me😎

Let’s start with a quiz:

Why do we need Blockchains or Decentralized Distributed Ledgers?

a) Because Bitcoin is the new gold

b) Because Dogecoin is going to the moon

c) Because blockchain is a distributed database that allows parties to transact in a trustless and seamless way

This one is hard to answer!

First of all, blockchain is NOT a complex technology. One of this book’s objectives is to demystify the blockchain technology, and that’s why I called it “Unblockchain”. I’m tired of seeing people in the blockchain industry saying that it is a very complex technology when it is really just a database or a ledger that is replicated a number of times as has some additional mechanisms to ensure consensus immutability.

Straightforwardly, a blockchain is a distributed ledger or database that allows recording the state of an asset and allows a trustless relationship between parties that maybe don’t know each other and allow to automate contractual agreements. How do we achieve this?

Being a decentralized system keeps the ledger in a peer-to-peer network where all the computers are connected…