What is Blockchain? And Should I Invest in Bitcoin and Blockchain Technology?

Blockchain technology can help many businesses improve digital transactions, but the technology remains a mystery to many professionals. Here’s tell us Should I Invest in Bitcoin and Blockchain Technology?
For the past several months, you’ve likely heard some of the following terms even you’ve no paid attention to the world of finance: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ethereum. But less people known what do they mean? And why is cryptocurrency suddenly so hot?

First, you known the Bitcoin which is the basic application in blockchains. Blockchain has proven to be the larger value of cryptocurrencies, with implications for almost every industry. But confusion remains among many professionals over what it is and how it works. So, we will answer some questions that many people have about blockchain:

1. WHAT IS BLOCKCHAIN?
   “The blockchain is an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value.”Don & Alex Tapscott explained.

There is an Image interpretation：“The traditional way of sharing documents with collaboration is to send a Microsoft Word document to another recipient, and ask them to make revisions to it. The problem with that scenario is that you need to wait until receiving a return copy before you can see or make other changes because you are locked out of editing it until the other person is done with it. That’s how databases work today. Two owners can’t be messing with the same record at once.That’s how banks maintain money balances and transfers; they briefly lock access (or decrease the balance) while they make a transfer, then update the other side, then re-open access (or update again).With Google Docs (or Google Sheets), both parties have access to the same document at the same time, and the single version of that document is always visible to both of them. It is like a shared ledger, but it is a shared document. The distributed part comes into play when sharing involves a number of people.Imagine the number of legal documents that should be used that way. Instead of passing them to each other, losing track of versions, and not being in sync with the other version, why can’t all business documents become shared instead of transferred back and forth? So many types of legal contracts would be ideal for that kind of workflow.You don’t need a blockchain to share documents, but the shared documents analogy is a powerful one.”

and you can find the answer in wiki，The origins of blockchain is a bit nebulous. A person or group of people known by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakomoto invented and released the tech in 2009 as a way to digitally and anonymously send payments between two parties without needing a third party to verify the transaction. It was initially designed to facilitate, authorize, and log the transfer of bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies.

2.IS BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY THE NEW INTERNET?
Yes, the blockchain is a new type of internet.By allowing digital information to be distributed but not copied, blockchain technology . Originally devised for the digital currency, Bitcoin, the tech community is now finding other potential uses for the technology.

In general, blockchain is a type of database which is different from traditional database.

3.HOW DOES BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY WORK?
Blockchain tech is actually rather easy to understand at its core. Essentially, it’s a shared database populated with entries that must be confirmed and encrypted. Think of it as a kind of highly encrypted and verified shared Google Document, in which each entry in the sheet depends on a logical relationship to all its predecessors. Blockchain tech offers a way to securely and efficiently create a tamper-proof log of sensitive activity (anything from international money transfers to shareholder records).

Blockchain’s conceptual framework and underlying code is useful for a variety of financial processes because of the potential it has to give companies a secure, digital alternative to banking processes that are typically bureaucratic, time-consuming, paper-heavy, and expensive.

1. WHY ALL THE HYPE ABOUT BLOCKCHAIN?
   Blockchain eliminates the need of centralization through a trusted third party, ABI Research noted. It allows parties to transact directly with one another in a secure manner, and is starting to transform established industries like the financial services sector.

It’s important to recognize that blockchain is not a silver bullet, Menting said. “It is an infrastructure that can be leveraged to certain advantages, that can revolutionize certain industries and business models,” Menting said. “But those will not necessarily apply to all cases—it is up to business leaders to study the technology and see if it is a right fit or not.”

1. SO, DOES THAT MAKE BLOCKCHAIN 100% SECURE?
   Total security does not exist—blockchain technology remains susceptible to colluding attacks that trick the network into accepting unlawful transactions, ABI Research noted. However, these attacks would require a large number of parties to pull off, which, with bitcoin, would be nearly impossible to achieve.

2. SO, HOW COULD BLOCKCHAIN CHANGE THE WORLD?
   Moving forward, blockchain technology will continue to grow beyond digital payments, ABI Research predicted. For example, the technology is being used for smart contracts, which reside on a blockchain and are written in code, that can release funds, communicate information, record and embed data, and make purchases—all in a pre-programmed, autonomous manner. This could have a major impact on things like digital identities, voting, governance, asset tracking, engineering-related transactions, supply chain tracking, M2M transactions, and supplier identity and reputation.

The technology is currently being used by IBM to make the process of international banking more simple and cost effective. Other top uses for blockchain include stocks, shipping, and law, according to TechRepublic’s Tom Merritt.

Businesses with a long supply chain and many parties involved in a product’s lifecycle would benefit most from implementing blockchain, Menting said. For example, in producing a car, you could keep records of the good for the day it is created at a factory to the day it is no longer in use. These records could involve sale and resale, upgrades and maintenance, insurance and guarantees, and more. The same holds true for records management of people, Menting said, such as health records, civil records, or corporate records.

So,you should pay more attention on blockchain if you want to earn more money!