Blockchain

A blockchain is a public digital ledger of transactions maintained by a decentralized network of computers in a way that makes it difficult to hack or alter. The technology offers a secure way for individuals to deal directly with each other, without a middleman like a government, bank or other third party.

To describe blockchain in technical terms, it may be easier to think of it like a type of distributed database storing transactional data. The data is organized in blocks, and chained together by hashing technology. Hence the name blockchain.

This technology is at the core of almost all cryptocurrencies. Recently, blockchain has been experimented with in other areas, such as supply chain and logistics monitoring, music royalties tracking, NFT marketplaces, and secure medical data sharing.