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Blockchain tech and projects, based on it.
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Bytecoin ForumHow would we remember Bitcoin? No, it is not a start of an obituary, and no one buries anyone! What I am asking is, what the specialness of Bitcoin technology is, what novelties it has? We have seen e-cash before it (DigiCash by David Chaum), used proof of work in the real life, and digital signatures can actually be considered as classics. Trustless P2P networks? Not a novelty, yet a warmer guess.
Some might say that a combination of abovementioned is the winning hand, but I would like to emphasize a single feature. Blockchain. Had the first blockchain-based application been not Bitcoin and its coins, but a BitZombie (a service for coordinating survivors in case of a Zombie-apocalypse), then it would be called the innovation that changed the world.
Blockchain is not a simple decentralized database, which is completely stored by each network node. Its unique feature lies in the fact that every user can check on his own that his copy is similar to those stored by the majority of other nodes. Absolutely similar, down to the last bit, in the same order. (naturally, there is also a margin for error, but it is negligible or it can be made as small as one would wish). The key point is "on his own", meaning that one should not trust other nodes to sustain the network (trusting mathematics is better). In practice, it is a solution to the problem known as "Byzantine Fault Tolerance". Scientists call it the "distributed consensus mechanism".
Naturally, storing complete blockchain at one's computer is not mandatory. The data inside the blocks is stored as a tree, so it is possible to ensure that a "leaf" of the tree (transaction or any other data) is included in the chain without downloading its full version. If at least one node exists in the network, we can say that the blockchain exists as well. Practically, it is like a perpetuum mobile that cannot be stopped by anyone and anything (short of the Big Freeze).
It is the blockchain technology that makes Bitcoin so wonderful. Still, it causes a question: is the technology applicable anywhere besides finances and zombie apocalypse? And yet another one: can we justify such application? Today, we are going to try to find this out by evaluating different services based on blockchain....