Blockchain has become a modern buzzword, and blockchain technology is currently the hottest. Both companies and individuals have joined the blockchain industry.
Blockchain is a further development based on the Internet and a further upgrade of the Internet society. However, the emergence of a new thing is always accompanied by a lot of questioning, research and discussion.
So, how did blockchain develop? What is it like now? Let’s find out together.
1. Popular blockchain
Those who know blockchain should be familiar with the name Satoshi Nakamoto. Although it is not yet known who he or they are, this name can be said to have become a symbol of blockchain. Because “blockchain” comes from an article titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” published by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008.
In this article, Satoshi Nakamoto elaborated on encryption technology, timestamp technology, blockchain network architecture, etc., and two months after the article was published, Bitcoin’s first founding block with a sequence of 0 was born. , 6 days later, the block with sequence number 1 appeared and was connected with the founding block with sequence number 0 to form a chain. Since then, the blockchain was born.
2. The emergence of Bitcoin
Bitcoin is a distributed global accounting network based on blockchain technology. All nodes participating in the network are accounting nodes. The unit of these accounting nodes is called a block. In each block, relevant information of each transaction is recorded, such as buyer and seller, time and date, total value, etc. All transaction entries are connected in chronological order to form a digital chain of blocks.
For now, Bitcoin is an underlying infrastructure and simply a digital asset in the encryption field. But judging from its development path, Bitcoin has evolved from its original peer-to-peer payment function to its current value storage function comparable to gold.
3. The birth of smart contracts
In 2013, Vitalik Buterin, known as “V God”, created Ethereum and released a white paper at the same time. In this white paper, Buterin introduced smart contracts in detail – supporting distributed application development.
In the Ethereum network, everyone is able to create DAPPs in the blockchain network based on smart contracts, and the same rules are followed on all DAPPs. The rules are encoded into the network, and developers are able to create DAPPs in the DAPPs. Enforce your own rules.
Nowadays, there are many large and small projects in the entire blockchain field, from the public chain of underlying facilities to the development of various DAPPs, from the popular DeFi track to the distributed storage track, from the explosive NFT to the Metaverse , blockchain is gradually forming a huge ecosystem.
4. Blockchain Consensus Mechanism
Whether it is Bitcoin, Ethereum, or the development of other blockchain networks, they all have their own consensus algorithms. In a distributed network like the blockchain, all nodes are independent and equal, and there is no central point to control other nodes.
So how to ensure fair and automatic operation in this network? Judging from practice, the most important point is because of the consensus mechanism. In a fair and transparent network, all participants in the network have reached a consensus, recognize the operating mechanism of the network, and can actively contribute to it.
Of course, there will also be certain rewards for making contributions, which is what we often call block rewards. Generally speaking, what develops along with the consensus mechanism is the economic incentive mechanism of the network.
By combining consensus with an economic incentive mechanism, more people will participate, and the community of users and developers will gradually develop, and eventually a huge ecosystem will be formed on this network.
