What is Blockchain? Application of, advantages, technologies, programming sphere and so on.

Question

I'll admire simple and informative answers, and also some useful links🙃

Answer 1

Blockchain is a technology that solves the issue of trust in centralized records.

Basically, a blockchain is a decentralized ledger. You can imagine it as literally a chain of blocks. Each block is a piece of the chain, and every new block depends on the block before it.

There are several ways of creating blocks, like the common PoW (Proof of work) where blocks are mined by doing heavy computation and solving a specific mathematical task, or PoS (Proof of stake) where stakeholders forge blocks. Usually, each block contains a specific amount of tokens, that are awarded to the miner or forger of the block. The block also contains a list of transactions. So, by adding new blocks, the transactions on the network are processed in a trust-less, decentralized way.

There are many applications for a blockchain. Bitcoin uses blockchain technology to provide a means of decentralized payment, whereas Ethereum uses it to power a huge decentralized computer with a Turing-complete programming language and smart contracts. There are lots of blockchains out there, each with its own unique goals.

Some links to get you started:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain
https://www.howtogeek.com/335814/what-is-a-blockchain/

Answer 2

Thanks, friends🙋

Answer 3

Blockchain is popularly known as the underlying technology behind Bitcoin. It uses a peer-to-peer network of computers to validate transactions. Blockchain is a data structure to create and share distributed ledger of transactions among a network of computers. It allows users to make and verify transactions immediately without a central authority.
Currently, the use of blockchain technology is predominant in finance and banking sector.

Answer 4

Some examples that can be done with Blockchain:

Asset Management: Trade Processing and Settlement
Traditional trade processes within asset management (where parties trade and manage assets) can be expensive and risky, particularly when it comes to cross-border transactions. Each party in the process, such as broker, custodian, or the settlement manager, keeps their own records which create significant inefficiencies and room for error. The blockchain ledger reduces error by encrypting the records. At the same time, the ledger simplifies the process, while canceling the need for intermediaries.

Insurance: Claims processing
Claims processing can be a frustrating and thankless procedure. Insurance processors have to wade through fraudulent claims, fragmented data sources, or abandoned policies for users to state a few – and process these forms manually. Room for error is huge. The blockchain provides a perfect system for risk-free management and transparency. Its encryption properties allow insurers to capture the ownership of assets to be insured.

Payments: Cross-Border Payments
The global payments sector is error-prone, costly, and open to money laundering. It takes days if not longer for money to cross the world. The blockchain is already providing solutions with remittance companies such as Abra, Align Commerce and Bitspark that offer end-to-end blockchain powered remittance services. In 2004, Santander became one of the first banks to merge blockchain to a payments app, enabling customers to make international payments 24 hours a day, while clearing the next day.

Answer 5

The first link gives an overview of big blockchain platforms. The other two links are links to two of those platforms:

https://medium.com/blockchain-blog/17-blockchain-platforms-a-brief-introduction-e07273185a0b

https://www.hyperledger.org
https://www.ethereum.org

Answer 6

The blockchain is basically a distributed database; it means direct, peer-to-peer interaction, it doesn’t require powerful intermediaries to authenticate or to settle transactions.

Blockchain represents a fundamentally new opportunity for business. The best way to appreciate the blockchain’s potential and determine its value for a business is to look at real use cases:

Insurance
The blockchain automates insurance claims processing, and policy conditions can be written into smart contracts. Smart contracts are protocols that publicly and transparently verify compliance with a contract or enforce commitments. Details about smart contarcts here: https://computools.com/smart-contracts/

Healthcare
Blockchain is a convenient and innovative solution for medical and healthcare providers. It offers outstanding opportunities for storing an enormous amount of records, performing pre-authorization payments, and processing complex transactions.

Real Estate
Vulnerabilities related to real estate include an impressive amount of paperwork, the possibility of illegal deeds, errors in public records, and lack of transparency, which can in turn lead to issues with the unknown liens, missing heirs, and fraud. The blockchain offers mechanisms to mitigate these challenges.

More examples at this source: https://computools.com/business-transformation-through-blockchain/

Blockchain gives an opportunity to radically transform the way companies do things by providing a standard architecture to address different business challenges.