what is blockchain
Blockchain is a technology intended to be decentralized, the value of information is in the hands of users, and transactions are secure. From a technical point of view, blockchain involves many scientific and technical issues such as mathematics, cryptography, the Internet and computer programming.
The blockchain can guarantee the safety of users, and both parties to the transaction can complete the transaction without knowing who the other party is. The completion of the transaction is generally determined by the content of the contract. Because it is not controlled by the government, even if the content of the transaction violates the law, the government cannot intervene.
Blockchain is a term in the field of information technology. 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 origin of blockchain
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", explaining that based on P2P network technology, The architectural concept of the electronic cash system, such as encryption technology, time stamp technology, blockchain technology, etc., marks 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.
What is the meaning of blockchain
This is related to the issue of trust. Currency is a typical example of credit. The country uses its own credit as a representative to issue currency, and currency circulates in society instead of barter.
Credit is a very important issue. At first, people relied on blood and clan to establish trust, later on religion and morality, and then on laws and organizations. Accounting was used to record the occurrence of economic activities, and auditing was used to check the rationality of accounting to prevent fraud. In the digital age and the age of artificial intelligence, human beings try to establish a trust relationship between the two parties through mathematical algorithms.
Therefore, we can make weak relationships rely on reliable mathematical algorithms to establish strong connections, so as to complete the ultra-large-scale collaboration and value exchange activities that humans have never been able to complete without relying on digital networks.
Blockchain, as a chosen work, will take on this historical responsibility and open the door to the future for mankind.
So, what is the use of blockchain, and what fields can it be applied to?
- digital currency
After experiencing physical objects, precious metals, banknotes and other forms, digital currency has become the development direction of the digital economy era. Compared with physical currency, digital currency has the characteristics of easy carrying and storage, low circulation cost, convenient use, easy anti-counterfeiting and management, breaking geographical restrictions, and better integration.
Bitcoin technically realizes an electronic cash system in which both parties to a transaction can transfer money directly to each other without third-party transit or arbitration. In June 2019, the Internet giant Facebook also released the white paper of its cryptocurrency Libra (Libra). Whether it is Bitcoin or Libra, the underlying technology it relies on is blockchain technology.
As early as 2014, my country started the research and development of the central bank's digital currency. my country's digital currency DC/EP adopts a two-tier operating system: the central bank does not directly issue digital currency to the public, but the central bank redeems the digital currency to various commercial banks or other legal operating institutions, and then these institutions exchange it to the public for supply. its use. At the beginning of August 2019, the central bank held a work video conference for the second half of the year. The meeting called for accelerating the pace of research and development of the national legal digital currency.
- Financial asset transaction settlement
Blockchain technology naturally has financial attributes, and it is bringing about subversive changes to the financial industry. In terms of payment and settlement, under the blockchain distributed ledger system, multiple market participants jointly maintain and synchronize a "general ledger" in real time, and in just a few minutes, payment, clearing, and settlement that can only be completed in two or three days now can be completed tasks, reducing the complexity and cost of cross-bank and cross-border transactions. At the same time, the underlying encryption technology of the blockchain ensures that participants cannot tamper with the ledger, ensuring the transparency and security of transaction records. The regulatory authorities can easily track transactions on the chain and quickly locate high-risk capital flows. In terms of securities issuance transactions, the traditional stock issuance process is long, costly, and complicated. Blockchain technology can weaken the role of underwriting agencies and help all parties establish a fast and accurate information exchange and sharing channel. Issuers handle issuance by themselves through smart contracts, and regulatory authorities Unified review and verification, investors can also bypass intermediaries for direct operations. In terms of digital bills and supply chain finance, blockchain technology can effectively solve the financing difficulties of small and medium-sized enterprises. The current supply chain finance is difficult to benefit small and medium-sized enterprises in the upstream of the industrial chain, because they often have no direct trade relationship with core enterprises, and it is difficult for financial institutions to evaluate their credit qualifications. Based on blockchain technology, we can establish an alliance chain network covering core enterprises, upstream and downstream suppliers, financial institutions, etc. The core enterprises issue accounts receivable certificates to their suppliers, and the bills can be digitalized on the chain and can be used by suppliers Each level of suppliers can realize the corresponding amount of financing based on digital bill certificates.
- digital government
Blockchain can allow data to run, greatly simplifying the work process. The distributed technology of the blockchain can allow government departments to be centralized on one chain, and all business processes are delivered to smart contracts. As long as the people in charge pass identity authentication and electronic signatures in one department, the smart contracts can be automatically processed and transferred, and the sequence is completed. All approvals and signatures. Blockchain invoice is the earliest application of domestic blockchain technology. The tax department launched the blockchain electronic invoice "tax chain" platform. The tax department, the invoicing party, and the invoice recipient join the "tax chain" network through a unique digital identity, truly realizing "transaction is invoicing" and "invoicing is reimbursement" - seconds Level billing and minute-level reimbursement are recorded, which greatly reduces the cost of tax collection and management, and effectively solves problems such as data tampering, over-reporting of one invoice, and tax evasion. Poverty alleviation is another application of blockchain technology. Utilize the characteristics of openness, transparency, traceability, and non-tampering of blockchain technology to realize the transparent use, precise delivery, and efficient management of poverty alleviation funds.
- Anti-counterfeiting
The blockchain can prove the existence of a file or digital content at a specific time through the hash timestamp, and its openness, non-tamperability, traceability and other characteristics provide a perfect solution for judicial authentication, identity certification, property rights protection, anti-counterfeiting traceability, etc. plan. In the field of intellectual property rights, digital signatures and certificates on the chain can be used to confirm the rights of text, pictures, audio and video, etc., and create and execute transactions through smart contracts, so that creators can regain control over pricing and secure data formation in real time The chain of evidence covers the three scenarios of confirmation, transaction and rights protection at the same time. In the field of anti-counterfeiting and traceability, blockchain technology can be widely used in food and medicine, agricultural products, wine, luxury goods and other fields through supply chain tracking.
- data service
Blockchain technology will greatly optimize existing big data applications and play a huge role in data circulation and sharing. In the future, the Internet, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things will all generate massive amounts of data. The existing centralized data storage (computing mode) will face huge challenges. Edge storage (computing) based on blockchain technology is expected to become a future solution. Furthermore, the immutable and traceable mechanism of the blockchain ensures the authenticity and high quality of the data, which becomes the basis for all data applications such as big data, deep learning, and artificial intelligence. Finally, the blockchain can realize multi-party collaborative data calculation under the premise of protecting data privacy, which is expected to solve the problems of "data monopoly" and "data island" and realize the value of data circulation. In view of the current blockchain development stage, in order to meet the blockchain development and application needs of general business users, many traditional cloud service providers have begun to deploy their own BaaS ("Blockchain as a Service") solutions. The combination of blockchain and cloud computing will effectively reduce the cost of enterprise blockchain deployment and promote the implementation of blockchain application scenarios. In the future, blockchain technology will also play an important role in many fields such as charity, insurance, energy, logistics, and the Internet of Things.