Today, let’s learn about Bitcoin, blockchain and the relationship between them.
What is Bitcoin?
The Bitcoin system is a network system used to build this digital currency. It is a distributed peer-to-peer network system. Unlike currency in the traditional sense, Bitcoin is not a currency with physical banknotes issued by a certain monetary institution. Specifically, it should be a virtual currency that only exists on the Internet and is decentralized.
Bitcoin is generated through a large amount of calculations based on specific algorithms. The Bitcoin economy uses a distributed database composed of many nodes in the entire P2P network to confirm and record all transaction behaviors, and uses cryptographic design to ensure all aspects of currency circulation. safety. In this way, currency circulation and transaction anonymity are ensured.
When Bitcoin was designed, its total quantity was limited and it had a strong scarcity. In other words, with current Bitcoin mining, if you dig out a little, you will get a little less.
What is blockchain?
Baidu Encyclopedia explains that blockchain is a new application model of computer technologies such as distributed data storage, point-to-point transmission, consensus mechanism, and encryption algorithms. The so-called consensus mechanism is a mathematical algorithm that establishes trust and obtains rights and interests between different nodes in the blockchain system.
Perhaps the above explanation is difficult to understand at the moment, so let’s change it to an easy-to-understand explanation.
We all know that blockchain is a network technology that is used as the underlying technology of Bitcoin. It is like a database ledger that records all transaction records. The transaction records here cannot be tampered with. All parties in the chain Cooperation and transactions can be directly connected.
In order to ensure the safety of cooperation or transactions without insiders, the system will share the actions of each participant with all participants. Then, the entire process will suddenly become open and transparent. The advantage of this distributed ledger is , buyers and sellers can conduct transactions directly without any intermediary or platform. After that, everyone can add new transactions behind the recognized ledger, and others will participate in verifying transactions. Everyone has a backup on the chain, even if your copy is lost, it will not be affected. This solves the credit problem to a certain extent and enhances the trust of all parties.
In this way, a lot of fees and procedures can be saved in the middle, which saves both money and manpower, so it is highly praised by many industries. At present, blockchain has carried out relevant applications in finance, payment, insurance, logistics and other fields.
What is the relationship between Bitcoin and blockchain?
Strictly speaking, blockchain is not a new technology, but it is precisely because of the popularity of Bitcoin that people have a strong interest and curiosity in blockchain.
Blockchain is a decentralized distributed ledger database. It is decentralized. Each node of data storage will be copied to the entire ledger synchronously. The information is transparent and difficult to tamper with. Blockchain technology is essentially a database technology, specifically a ledger technology. This ledger records the asset changes and transactions of one or more accounts. To a certain extent, it is similar to the running accounts and bank accounts we usually keep in small notebooks. The sent statements and Alipay’s bill records are the same concept. It’s just called a distributed ledger. Adding the word “distributed” makes it lofty and unfathomable.
Bitcoin is a representation of blockchain, but blockchain is not the same as Bitcoin. Blockchain is the underlying technology and infrastructure of Bitcoin, and Bitcoin is one of the more successful applications of blockchain. However, this does not mean that blockchain can only be applied to Bitcoin. In the future, there may be It may be a more successful application than Bitcoin.
