Compared with traditional networks, the core features of blockchain are decentralization and security.
Blockchain is a chain composed of blocks connected together. Each block stores certain information and is connected in the order of the time of their respective generation. Each block contains the Hash value of the previous block to ensure the accuracy of the connection.
The entire chain is stored in all nodes, and the servers in the system provide storage space and computing power support for the entire blockchain system. And any network node on the blockchain stores the same data. Any node’s modification of a file (such as a transaction) requires the confirmation (consensus) of more than half of the nodes. Once the information changes, everyone else on the chain will know it. . Therefore, it is extremely difficult to tamper with the information in the blockchain. In theory, the greater the number of nodes, the higher the degree of decentralization.
Applications: Blockchain can be programmed to record almost anything of value to humans: birth and death certificates, marriage certificates, title deeds, degrees, financial accounts, medical history, insurance claims, ballots, food sources, and anything else Something that can be expressed in code.
Blockchain can usually be divided into public chain, private chain and alliance chain:
Public chain
A public chain refers to a consensus blockchain that anyone has the authority to read, send and obtain effective confirmation. Therefore, the public chain is usually considered to be “completely decentralized”. It can anonymously access the network without registration or authorization, and is neutral. , open, non-tamperable and other characteristics.
Public chains generally encourage participants to compete for accounting through the project’s own Token to ensure data security.
The role of the public chain is to provide a platform for applications and lower the threshold for application development. Not all applications are able or necessary to build a blockchain by themselves (a sufficient number of nodes are required to ensure security), and the public chain is similar to a platform product that supports anyone to build and use it through the platform. Decentralized applications run on blockchain technology, allowing users to follow their own wishes
Willing to create complex operations and provide underlying templates for developing decentralized applications. Since different public chains have differences in performance design, consensus mechanisms, marketing strategies, etc., different applications mainly consider transaction rates, transaction efficiency (such as TPS), convenience (such as cross-chain protocols), and ecological maturity when choosing a public chain. degree etc.
Private chain
Private chain – private customized blockchain within the institution
Representative: Ant Financial
According to the “2017 Global Blockchain Enterprise Patent Ranking”, Alibaba ranked first with a total of 49 patents, all of which came from the Ant Financial Technology Laboratory.
The read and write permissions of the private chain are in the hands of an organization or institution, and the organization determines the degree of publicity of the blockchain according to its own needs; it is suitable for financial scenarios such as data management and auditing. The value of the private chain is mainly to provide security and reliability. The tracing and tamper-proof automatic execution computing platform requires registration and permission before access and use. The digital currency issued by the central bank is a private chain.
Consortium Chain
We take the domestic Changan Chain as an example to introduce: ChainMaker is a new generation of blockchain open source underlying software platform. It is essentially a consortium chain (no proxy, inferior to the public chain in terms of openness and transparency), including the core framework and components of the blockchain. Libraries and toolsets, developed by Beijing Microchip Research Institute, Tsinghua University,
It is jointly developed by well-known universities and companies such as Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Tencent, Baidu and JD.com.
On January 27, 2021, 27 alliance member units jointly initiated the establishment of the “Chang’an Chain Ecological Alliance” in Beijing based on the Chang’an Chain technology system that is autonomous and controllable, flexible assembly, software and hardware integration, open source and open. Compared with other public chains, the alliance chain achieves high-speed transactions due to the limited number of nodes, but it also abandons the characteristics of complete decentralization (not fully open) to a certain extent.
In addition, Changan Chain has the same consensus voting mechanism as the public chain, but it does not use the POW or POS mechanism of the traditional public chain, nor does it have its own Token. Instead, it uses four consensus types: Solo, Raft, TBFT, and HotStuff (according to different scenarios) and the number and scale of participating nodes, using different consensuses).
Sidechain
Side chain is a relative concept to a certain main chain. English is sidechains. The side chain protocol is a protocol that implements two-way anchoring (Two-way Peg). Through the side chain protocol, assets can be converted between the main chain and other chains, or in the form of an independent, isolated system, reducing the core area. The number of transactions that occurred on the blockchain. The side chain is to achieve the goal of cryptocurrency financial ecology in an integrated way, rather than rejecting the existing system like other cryptocurrencies.
Sidechains also play an important role in the Ethereum ecosystem. They are a temporary solution for scalability and availability until researchers develop a better solution. However, sidechains do not have the security that the broader Ethereum community expects. This is not to say that sidechains should never be used. If people are fully informed but willing to use it, that’s their choice and it might be worth it. But it’s dangerous if people are uninformed.
Application: Using side chains, we can easily establish various intelligent financial contracts, such as stocks, futures, derivatives, etc.
