Many know the blockchain as the key technology behind Bitcoin. But it is much more than that: it is a revolutionary technology that is promising to change the way we interact with each other.

So, what is Blockchain? Blockchain is an innovative way of storing and processing data. It is a digital ledger, and to understand it best, let’s look back in time, to the centuries-old method of general financial ledger.

Financial ledger is a book (or, later, a database) where all transactions are recorded in chronological order. Similarly, the blockchain is a history of transactions that are recorded in blocks that are linked in a chronological fashion to create a chain.

The biggest difference is that blockchain technology decentralizes and distributes data across a large network of computers. Imagine a general financial ledger shared in Google Sheets. All of the computers in the network store the same information and can verify it, which makes the blockchain a provider of security and trust in the data.

Many experts are forecasting drastic changes in the economy that will follow the implementation of the blockchain. The technology embraces trusted and transparent peer-to-peer interactions and creates the environment where we can trade between each other without help of any intermediaries, and where all actions of private and public companies can be checked and verified.

R: Gala Kulakova – I: Marisol Gabrielli