(From the public account: Sailian Xinlian)
Blockchain has been in the world for 14 years, and China has become a major strategy for three years. You say everyone understands blockchain? In fact, it is true that everyone is in a daze, and they all know it but can't tell. As a practitioner of blockchain education, I have taught countless times to students, and today I am obliged to popularize it to everyone again.
Table of contents
1. The core essence of the blockchain is decentralization and data cannot be tampered with
2. The biggest disruptive effect of the blockchain lies in the establishment of credit
3. Collective maintenance of the blockchain can reduce costs
4. Disadvantages of blockchain
5. Common application scenarios
2. Registration and settlement
4. Traceability, anti-counterfeiting and supply chain
1. Concept Analysis
To put it simply: blockchain is a new generation of network system formed by using a package of existing network technologies. This network system has a new structure, a new mechanism, and unprecedented new value. Specifically, five major technologies or innovations are used: encryption technology, P2P network technology, distributed storage technology, consensus mechanism, and smart contracts.
In essence: it is a shared database, and the data or information stored in it has the characteristics of "unforgeable", "retaining traces throughout the process", "traceable", "open and transparent", and "collective maintenance". Based on these characteristics, blockchain technology has laid a solid "trust" foundation, created a reliable "cooperation" mechanism, and has broad application prospects.
The blockchain originated from Bitcoin. On November 1, 2008, a person who claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto published the article "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System", which marked the birth of Bitcoin. . Two months later, the theory entered practice, and on January 3, 2009, the first genesis block with serial number 0 was born. A few days later, on January 9, 2009, a block with serial number 1 appeared, and was connected with the genesis block with serial number 0 to form a chain, marking the birth of the blockchain.
Blockchain originated from Bitcoin
2. Features of blockchain
1. decentralized
In the blockchain system, there is no centralized management agency. The storage, transmission, verification and other processes of blockchain data are all based on a distributed system structure, and there is no central node in the entire network. All participating nodes in the public chain network have equal rights and obligations. The damage of any node will not affect the operation of the whole system.
2. Openness
In addition to the encryption of the private information of the parties involved in the transaction, the data of the blockchain is open to everyone, providing a flexible script code system, the information of the entire system is highly transparent, and within the rules specified by the system, nodes cannot deceive each other.
3. Autonomy
Consensus technology, smart contracts.
4. Immutable
Each newly generated block advances strictly in chronological order. Time is irreversible, and any attempt to tamper with blockchain data can be easily traced.
5. Anonymity
The address associated with the user's public key is used as the user identification, and the traditional third-party certification center is not required to issue a digital certificate. The transaction is not associated with the user's real identity, but only with the user's address.
The foundation of blockchain digital economy
3. Advantages of blockchain
1. The core essence of the blockchain is decentralization and data cannot be tampered with
In the blockchain system, the rights and obligations between any nodes are equal, and all nodes have the ability to use computing power to vote, thus ensuring that the recognized result is the result recognized by more than half of the nodes. Even if it is severely hacked, as long as the number of nodes controlled by hackers does not exceed half of the total number of nodes in the world, the system can still operate normally and the data will not be tampered with.
2. The biggest disruptive effect of the blockchain lies in the establishment of credit
As Don Tapscott, the father of the digital economy, said, "Blockchain is a machine that creates trust." Blockchain allows people to collaborate without trusting each other and without a neutral central authority. Counterfeit currency and financial fraud will never happen again in the future.
3. Collective maintenance of the blockchain can reduce costs
Under the centralized network system, the maintenance and operation of the system depend on the operation, maintenance and operation of platforms such as data centers, and the cost cannot be omitted. Anyone can participate in the nodes of the blockchain. While participating in the recording, each node also verifies the correctness of the results recorded by other nodes, which improves maintenance efficiency and reduces costs.
4. Information Security
Regardless of the anonymity on the public chain or the permission setting on the alliance chain, our personal information, transaction information, browsing habits and other information will all be in a safe range, and if someone accesses or copies our Information will be recorded on the blockchain and cannot be tampered with, which largely guarantees that our information will not be stolen by others.
4. Disadvantages of blockchain
1. Efficiency issues
Blockchain transactions are delayed. Taking Bitcoin as an example, the validity of the current transaction is affected by network transmission, because most nodes on the network need to know the transaction until the next bookkeeping cycle (Bitcoin is controlled at about 10 minutes), that is, the transaction must be recognized by most nodes. It is also affected by a small probability event, that is, when there are two or more nodes competing for bookkeeping rights on the network at the same time, then two or more blockchain branches will be generated in the network. At this time, which branch records the data If it is valid, you have to wait for the next bookkeeping cycle, which is finally determined by the longest blockchain branch. Therefore, the transaction data of the blockchain is delayed.
2. Energy Consumption
The generation of blocks requires miners to perform very large mathematical calculations, which is very energy-intensive. According to the forecast data provided by the foreign power information network POWER-COMPARE, according to the current growth rate of Bitcoin mining and transaction power consumption, by 2020, Bitcoin power consumption will be the same as the current global power consumption.
3. Game problem
The decentralized and autonomous features of the blockchain dilute the concept of national supervision. In the absence of supervision, the profit-seeking characteristics of some markets will lead to the application of blockchain technology in illegal fields, providing a shelter for black industries.
5. Common application scenarios
1. Payment exchange
The current advantages of blockchain in application scenarios are mainly "fast", not faster than cash, but fast in transactions that cross the trust zone. If the international remittance is made through SWIFT, it will take 3-5 days to arrive. Through blockchain technology, the arrival time of cross-border remittances can be shortened to seconds, and international settlement can also be completed in seconds like shopping in a shopping mall.
Directly connect the payer's bank and the recipient's bank through smart contracts, bypass the intermediary bank, reduce intermediary expenses, realize all-weather payment, real-time arrival, easy cash withdrawal, eliminate a lot of hidden costs, reduce cross-border payment settlement risks and satisfy customers Timeliness and convenience of service.
2. Registration and settlement
The distributed ledger technology of the blockchain has attracted much attention, and the most suitable application scenario for the distributed ledger is the registration and settlement business.
The company can put its shareholder register on the blockchain for management, and the company's investors sign an electronic contract for equity transfer on the blockchain with electronic signatures, and the blockchain guarantees the payment of goods and money to realize the digital transfer of the company's equity .
There are two types of companies that are well-suited to use blockchain at this stage:
- Companies that conduct equity crowdfunding.
These companies face the problem of managing a large number of shareholders after the equity crowdfunding is completed. The registration of equity changes is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Using blockchain technology, crowdfunding investors can not only complete all electronic contracts for equity registration online, but also transfer equity very conveniently, providing a good exit mechanism for equity crowdfunding.
- Companies with employee stock ownership incentive programs.
The original employee stock ownership incentive plans of these companies often fall on paper documents, without a complete digital equity incentive management system. Using blockchain technology, the company can manage various rights and interests such as equity, options, restricted equity, dividend rights, etc. in a decentralized blockchain system, and employees can control their own rights and interests. A real incentive.
3. Data storage
Based on the core feature of the blockchain that cannot be tampered with, the blockchain is a very good data storage technology. Users can use blockchain's data storage technology for three purposes:
Intellectual property protection: users record original works and patented data fingerprints on the blockchain. When copyright disputes occur in the future, by displaying the data fingerprints on the blockchain, they can prove that they have owned it as early as a certain time the document, thereby proving himself to be the creator of the intellectual property;
Timestamp the file: the user records the data fingerprint of a contract and document on the blockchain, thereby stamping a timestamp on the contract and document, and proves to the outside world at a certain point in time through the blockchain that this A contract, document already exists;
Integrity verification: Record the data fingerprint of a file on the blockchain. In the future, you can judge whether the file has been tampered with by verifying the data fingerprint.
Combining blockchain technology with intellectual property is one of the more popular blockchain application scenarios at present.
4. Traceability, anti-counterfeiting and supply chain
Traceability, as the name implies, is to track and record the circulation chain of tangible goods or intangible information. Through the registration of each transfer, the goals of tracing the place of origin, anti-counterfeiting authentication, optimizing the supply chain based on traceability information, and providing supply chain financial services are realized.
At present, blockchain technology provides reliable support for transactions such as traceability of drugs, anti-counterfeiting of artworks, and anti-counterfeiting of luxury goods.
5. Internet of Things
We are ushering in an era where everything is connected and value is interoperable. There are now more than 10 billion devices connected through the Internet, and it is conservatively estimated that this will increase to 25 billion by 2020.
Today's transactions are often transactions between people, but in the world of the Internet of Things, the participants in the transaction will no longer be people, but will be a variety of equipment; therefore, the amount and frequency of transactions will also undergo significant changes. Changes, the amount becomes extremely small, and the frequency becomes extremely high.
In such an environment, both the creation of a device trust network and micropayments require us to have a new infrastructure, and it is impossible to rely on the traditional identity authentication system for natural persons and the payment system for interpersonal transactions.
Blockchain technology allows us to associate relevant core information with smart devices for identification, and program it so that it can perform actions under pre-defined rules without worrying about the risk of errors, tampering or being shut down .
6. Insurance
One possible direction in the field of blockchain + insurance is the insurance of automatic claims settlement. Blockchain can efficiently resolve claims and reduce insurance fraud. Through the smart contract technology of the blockchain, the insurance company can actively pay the compensation without waiting for the policyholder to apply for a claim. For example, in flight delay insurance, the smart contract judges whether a flight is delayed through the airline's public interface, thereby automatically triggering the claim settlement behavior without active intervention by the user.
Another model that could disrupt today's insurance industry is mutual insurance. In the next few years, blockchain technology has the opportunity to become a mainstream technology in the insurance industry ecosystem.
The global medical market is astonishingly large. In the field of pharmaceuticals alone, the market size is as high as 1.057 trillion US dollars. Healthcare facilities maintain vast amounts of confidential information such as medical histories, illnesses, payments and treatments. Blockchain technology can not only provide a solution for the secure and private storage of these sensitive data, but it can also help reduce the huge costs for hospitals and healthcare providers in managing patients and other information.