[2016-01-27] Blockchain could challenge the accepted ways we shape and manage so

- Blockchain could challenge the accepted ways we shape and manage society

In only a few years, digital currency bitcoin has emerged from the shadows to become something debated by politicians and pondered by economists. Now it is blockchain, the technology that makes bitcoin possible, that is having its moment in the sun: the UK government's Chief Scientist Sir Mark Walport laid out a possible role for it in delivering public services.

What is the blockchain? In essence it is just a digital ledger – a means to record events that have taken place – but its design provides considerable advantages over other ways of recording transactions. The details of every transaction is stored cryptographically on the blockchain, a stream of linked data available online. The entire blockchain is decentralised, with all those using it creating copies of the blockchain record. This one-version-but-many-copies approach removes the need for a centralised authority, such as a bank or legal body, which also provides protection from a single central point of failure. The blockchain is open and public, and practically impossible to alter a record once the block representing the transaction has been added.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-01-blockchain-ways-society.html#jCp

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