The Blockchain: Overview of “Past” and “Future”

Abstract

Variety of network technologies deployed for ease of use and emerging technologies developed for better communication, enhanced security and faster delivery. The global financial crash of 2007-2008 created a lot of distrust between financial institutions and other stakeholders in societies across the globe. The general dissatisfaction caused members of the computing world to begin to ponder if there were electronic ways to ensure that disintermediation could be achieved. This would essentially get rid of the banks as middlemen or the very worst reduce their overall power and boost anonymity regarding transactions. The "Blockchain" is the end result of these deliberations and efforts. It is an unstoppable, trust-based, immutable, peer-to-peer distributed database that has found success in today's world. Its most prominent application is in the crypto-currency field. However, it is slowly but surely being applied to other fields as well. This research paper highlights the previous trends in security and network field and exposing the importance of Blockchain technology interims of specific pros and cons.

Consensus Algorithms Blockchain: A comparative study

“…Blockchain is a technology which emerged in recent years, firstly it was employed within Bitcoin's cryptocurrency as a public ledger [1]. It is essentially a decentralized and distributed data structure, replicated over a peer-to-peer (p2p) network [2]. Blockchain consists of consecutive chained blocks, each one linked with the previous, containing records that has to reach a consensus before the contract is enacted [1] [3] [4].The consensus is a way to ensure the nodes on the network verify the transactions and agree with the order and existence on the ledger [5] [6].…”