Transcript
In its most basic form, a blockchain is a distributed ledger, essentially a series of digital records, referred to as blocks, which are connected together forming a chain of records, hence blockchain.
Instead of this data being kept in a single place though, the information is replicated and distributed across a peer-to-peer network of computers. The network collaborates together to confirm if new blocks of data can be added to the chain, which makes it difficult for a single member of the network to add incorrect information. Additionally, such a decentralised nature also makes the blockchain difficult to modify thus preventing tampering.
Though a number of folks have researched and thought about blockchain and many of the cryptographic technologies that underpin it before, the concept of the blockchain and its offshoot – cryptocurrencies, really entered into the public domain after a white paper was published in 2008 by Satoshi Nakomoto, titled: Bitcoin: A Peer to Peer Electronic Cash System.
The paper described bringing together various technologies and cryptographic methods to form the Bitcoin protocol and has gone on to serve as a framework for many of the subsequent blockchain-related advances in the FinTech space.
So who is Satoshi Nakomoto?
Though there has been a lot of speculation, Satoshi Nakomoto is a pseudonym, and the general public really does not know, at least not yet, the identity of this person, or if Mr. Nakomoto is a single person or perhaps even a group of people.
And even if we never figure out who Satoshi Nakomoto is, there is a real possibility that history will look back on his 2008 white paper as a seminal moment that fundamentally changed the book of history, or at least financial history.
