Understanding Blockchain Technology: Features, Architecture And Challenges

Features of Blockchain Technology

Discuss about the Network Application Management for Blockchain Technology.

The concept of blockchain can be considered very much essential for the concept of database of records or public ledger relating to all the digital events and transactions that have been shared and executed among participating parties. The transactions of the public ledger are verified by the consensus of the majority of the participants of the system. The information ones it is entered into the system cannot be erased. The concept of blockchain contains certain and record which are verified taking into consideration every single transaction, which is made [2]. One of the most popular example relating to the blockchain technology is the Bit coin. On the other hand, it can be stated that it is most controversial one due to the factor that it helps the concept of enabling a “multibillion dollar global market which is related to the anonymous transaction without and control of the government”. However it can be stated that the technology of blockchain itself is very much join controversial and has flawlessly worked over the years and is being very much successfully applied to both the sector of non-financial and financial [5].

The focus point in the report is to take into consideration the aspects of block chain technology taking into consideration the sectors of features, architecture and challenges. The second focus point of the report is to conduct an analysis in the sector of currency and internet of things. The term socio technical aspect is also one of the focus point of the technology, which is also focused.

Blockchain architecture can be considered ingenious application, which function very much like a database of transaction, and runs on a server, which is distributed, designed as distributed ledger. The system can be considered as decentralized system, which is powered by nodes that run on full stack. The application is installed on the server and it synchronizes with other nodes, which are present in the network. The server is responsible for the maintaining purpose of the transaction using the rules of cryptographic rules and algorithm, which is based on consensus. The user can authenticate and validate transaction in an order of chronological without the need for any of the third party authentication.

The main features, which is related to the concept of block chain, are stated below:

• Decentralized system: The decentralized technology directly enables the user to store assets in the network, which can be used over the concept of the internet. The assets can be anything from the contracts, tokens, chain of evidence documents or property registry documents. Through the concept if decentralized technology the owner have the direct control by the means of private keys, which are directly linked, to the assets.
• Distributed ledger: The block chain concept can be considered as a public ledger hat directly provides information of all the participants and all the transaction, which are digital that have ever been executed. The block can be considered as “prevailing” part relating to the block chain, which is supposed to be keeping record of the recent transaction, and ones the transaction is completed it would be transferred to the clock chain. The block chains are added in a sequential manner with the next block, which contains the hash of previous block. A new block is basically generated as soon as the previous block gets entered into the block chain database.
• Providing authenticity: There are different types of cases, which is related to the cases of the authenticity of the document and the user, which is very much important. It can be stated here that many of the organization have very critical information, contracts and assets. When any type of file or document is stored, a hash is created for each of the files. A hash can be considered as fingerprint that through the concept of an algorithm turns data into output, which is of fixed length, which is unique for every kind of transaction [3].

In the concept of block chain, there are different types of challenges, which can be faced, which are stated below:

• Initial cost: The concept of block chain can be considered as an approach, which have different types of benefit such as efficiency, productivity, timeliness and reduced cost it can be considered expensive in the initial set up process. The software requirement which is related to the concept of the block chain must be typically be developed for the specific firm and is therefore stated as expensive from the purchase point of view, developed in- house or acquire.
• Integration with the legacy system: In order to move towards the concept of the block chain an organization must either completely overhaul their previous system or find a way to integrate the existing system with the block chain solution. It can be stated here that the process of blockchain. Is very much difficult to handle taking into consideration the different functions, which are related to the organization. In order to get a good and smooth process there should be considerable amount of changes in the infrastructure of the existing structure.
• Consumption of energy: The ethereal network and the bit coin network both use the concept of proof of work mechanism to validate the transaction, which are made in the concept of the blockchain. The mechanism has a requirement of computation of complex mathematical problems to process and verify the transaction and directly secure the network. This type of calculation require large amount energy, which would be used to power the computers to solve the problem [1].

Challenges of Blockchain Technology

It can be stated as the simplest form of crypto currency or digital coin are coins, which are passed through the concept of the electronics network. The user can make direct transaction through the process by check, cash and wiring [6]. The user can use a type of virtual currency, one of the best example in the case can be the bit coin but also lite coin, doge coin, peer coin and among others, this is where the user can use the electronic coded address to make the direct transactions. The more the value of the currency more would the user want security of the transaction. In most of the cases, it is seen that traditional system usually hire a mediatory such as a remittance company or a banker to ensure the concept of the trust, which would be applicable in the transaction. The concept can be a global concept ranging from the user from Rome, Yemen, Vermont and so forth. Records in this concept can be considered as comprehensive, permanent and public. This is the main reason why the user actually want to involve into the concept. The concept of block chain directly reduces the cost due to the factor of transparency and the use of the cryptographic methods which allow to certify with the low cost and the verify without the cost. The transaction, which can be directly guaranteed, are not just for the concept of currency but also transfers of anything digital representation. Intermediate when necessary would be secured by the means of transaction with multiple signers [5].

Smart contracts can be considered as a digital device, which are embedded with an if-this-then-that (IFTTT) code. The block chain concept not only waives the direct need for the third parties but also it ensures that all the ledger participation know the contract details and that terms which are related to the contractual implement automatically ones the conditions are meet. The user can use the concept of the smart contacts for different sort of situations such as the property law, insurance premium, crowd funding agreement and many more. Few of the example relating to the concept may include the blockchain healthcare, blockchain music and blockchain government. The health care aspect can be used for saving the data of the person, which is encrypted and mainly very much secured from the interference of any of the third party. In most of the cases, it is seen that the blockchain concept gives a better infrastructure of the system, which can be directly implemented to get advantage.

Blockchain Currency and Internet of Things

The main socio technical aspect, which is related to the blockchain, may be considered in the following sectors:

Blockchain government: The Democrats and the republicans in the year 2016 questioned the security aspect of the voting system. This made a socio impact due to the factor that the system was not very much sure, of the authenticity, which can be applied to the concept. The concept of the blockchain ledger provided a platform for what it can be stated as a responsive open data” according to the report of 2013 from McKinsey and Company open data concept made the accessing of the government sourced very difficult. The concept of the data would be encrypted in the process so that the data is not accessible by other personals. The main socio technical aspect, which can be related to the case, is that the blockchain is a public ledger, which can open this data to the citizen whenever and wherever, they actually want [7].  

The socio impact, which can be related to the concept, can be directly applied to the sector of Bank. This is where the data is usually stored and encoded with a private key, which would grant only access to specific individual. This is mainly in the form of the person who is involved into the concept of socio impact due to the factor of access permission, which is being send in most of the cases.  People tend to access the personal information and they do not have the access right into the concept. In most of the cases, it tends to be socio impact, which directly affect the common people.

Conclusion

The concept of block chain can be considered to having a power of completely rewriting the way the societies carry out their own functions. The aspect of transparency can be directly beneficial for the aspect of allowing anyone to register and transfer data and value and in certain cases execute functions to increase the efficiency of the system. The efficiency can be achieved in the sector of both public and private sector. The concept is achieved by the means of reduction of the risk and the cost factors.

References

[1] Cachin, Christian, Marko Vukolic Sorniotti, and Thomas Weigold. “Blockchain, cryptography, and consensus.” (2016).

[2] Cachin, Christian. “Architecture of the Hyperledger blockchain fabric.” Workshop on Distributed Cryptocurrencies and Consensus Ledgers. 2016.

[3] Dunphy, Paul, and Fabien AP Petitcolas. “A First Look at Identity Management Schemes on the Blockchain.” arXiv preprint arXiv:1801.03294 (2018).

[4] Eyal, Ittay, et al. “Bitcoin-NG: A Scalable Blockchain Protocol.” NSDI. 2016.

[5] Kosba, Ahmed, et al. “Hawk: The blockchain model of cryptography and privacy-preserving smart contracts.” Security and Privacy (SP), 2016 IEEE Symposium on. IEEE, 2016.

[6] O’Leary, Kevin, et al. “Exploring the Application of Blockchain Technology to Combat the Effects of Social Loafing in Cross Functional Group Projects.” Proceedings of the 13th International Symposium on Open Collaboration. ACM, 2017.

[7] Pilkington, Marc. “11 Blockchain technology: principles and applications.” Research handbook on digital transformations (2016): 225.

[8] Swan, Melanie. Blockchain: Blueprint for a new economy. ” O’Reilly Media, Inc.”, 2015.

[9] Vukoli?, Marko. “The quest for scalable blockchain fabric: Proof-of-work vs. BFT replication.” International Workshop on Open Problems in Network Security. Springer, Cham, 2015.

[10] Zheng, Zibin, et al. “Blockchain challenges and opportunities: A survey.” Work Pap.–2016 (2016).