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August 16, 2016updated 07 Feb 2017 8:54am

What is Blockchain?

Blockchain is a type of distributed database that stores a permanent and tamper-proof ledger of transaction data.

By Hannah Williams

Blockchain is a shared public collection of financial accounts that stores a permanent and tamper-proof ledger of transaction data.

Blockchain can be viewed as a type of database that forms the underpinning for the digital currency Bitcoin. The technology provides an immutable, or un-changing record of transactions.

The databases consist of two types of records, individual transactions and blocks, which are all collections of data pertaining to the transactions within a set time period.

What mysterious character created Blockchain?

Blockchains are most commonly associated with cryptocurrency and Bitcoin in particular. Every user is able to connect to the network, send new transactions to it, verify transactions and create new blocks.

The creation of the first Blockchain is believed to have come from Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008.  The following year it appeared as a core component of Bitcoin. Nakamoto is the name of the person or persons that designed bitcoin – but no one really knows who that person is.

An Australian entrepreneur called Craig Wright claimed in 2016 to be the Bitcoin creator.

The idea of a cryptographically secured chain of blocks was first described in 1991 by Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta.

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