What is Blockchain?
Blockchain can be described as a value-exchange protocol. It can be used to track ownership, transfers and provenance of assets.

🧠 Cypherpunks and Digital Currency
In the 1990s, Cypherpunks began to experiment with the concept of a digital currency that was not dependent on an organization issuing it.
This sort of digital money would be:
Identifiable as being scarce and limited in supply
Acceptable as money since it would be provably difficult to create
In 1998, Wei Dai proposed “b-money”, an anonymous, distributed electronic cash system. b-money was never implemented, but it inspired later work on blockchain.

In 2004, a system called Reusable Proof of Work was introduced by Hal Finney. This system was designed to enable users to verify the transfer of tokens in real-time.
🚀 Then Came Bitcoin
In 2008, an anonymous person or group using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto introduced the concept of distributed blockchains.
He modified the blockchain architecture to allow the addition of extra blocks without requiring them to be signed by trusted parties.

⛓️ What Is a Blockchain?

📘 A blockchain is a distributed online database made up of blocks (or ledgers), each containing a timestamp and a reference to the previous block.
It is:
Continuously growing
Publicly verifiable
Connected in sequence
Tamper-resistant
🛡️ Blockchain is often called a distributed ledger because it's:
Verified by a global network of computers
Not stored in any single location
More secure from hacking
When a transaction occurs:
It is broadcast to the network
Each node verifies and encrypts it
Once verified, it is added to the block
The record is visible to all, but user identities remain anonymous
📓 Simplifying Blockchain: The National Ledger

Still confused? Think of a blockchain as an accounting book, or better yet, your country’s national ledger.
Every event or transaction is recorded
No central authority controls it
Every citizen has a copy
New updates are shared with all
⚠️ Stopping the Bad Guys
In any system, there will be bad actors who try to:
Falsify transactions
Inflate balances
Create money from thin air
That would cause inflation and harm the whole system.
But in blockchain:
The network reviews all transactions
Ledgers are compared across nodes
The majority rules and rejects fake entries
🧩 In a Nutshell
A blockchain is:
A decentralized, immutable, online database
Verified by a global peer-to-peer network
Public but pseudonymous
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