What is Blockchain?

With the rise of cryptocurrency and the subsequent media hype behind it, you may have considered getting on board. Before you do, however, it’s important that you learn about the technology behind it, as it’s capable of much more than handling cryptocurrency transactions. It can even benefit your business.

This technology is called blockchain, and it has revolutionized how we think about online transactions and tracking. While it was initially used just to track money, its applications have spread out quite a bit since then from contracts to any other kind of transaction. Due to blockchain’s nature, the information will be publically available and near impossible to fake.  Learn everything you need to know about blockchain and find out exactly how it can help your business.

Independent and Reliable

When you partake in a transaction online, typically a third party is involved, whether it be a bank or broker. With blockchain, the need for that third party is eliminated entirely, as it functions as an independent P2P network. Strangers on the internet tend not to trust each other, which is why the primary concern regarding cryptocurrency before the rise of blockchain was people spending the same virtual currency twice.

To eliminate trust issues, blockchain utilizes a public ledger system in which all transactions are logged publically in a chain. With a public truthful ledger that’s virtually impossible to fake, the need for an overseer or any third party authority is no longer there. Because there’s no third party, however, the ledger is hosted on multiple servers rather than one centralized company server. Not only is this more reliable, but it’s also safer.

How it Works

Blockchain is a complicated process, but the basic concept is simple. When you want to conduct a transaction with someone else, the program will create a line of code on the blockchain. The program will then reference your past transactions and send your request to other nodes on the chain, which would be other computers. These nodes will validate your transaction and the smart contract program will complete it for you.

On the other end, your transaction is being added to the public ledger. Your transaction will be sorted into a block filled with a few other transactions. Once the block is filled, miners (a subset of nodes) will race to create a unique digital fingerprint for the block known as a hash. A lot of requirements must be met for the hash to be valid, so miners have to go through a substantial amount of tries before one is created. With so much work involved, hackers are far less likely to tamper with the ledger as creating a false hash would take so much time.

Since each block is chained to the previous one, the complete block enters the chain exactly where it needs to go, making the record public and easy to track. In addition, this is an extra layer of security for all previous blocks since any valid hash would reference previous blocks. Tampering with one block means having to redo every subsequent block in the chain.

What it Means for Your Business

With this technology, you can send and receive payments for your business in a way that’s reliable and secure. You could do this anyway, but blockchain lets you do it anywhere in the world for virtually no additional costs thanks to the lack of third party intermediaries. If you have employees in other countries, payroll is much easier to deal with.

With cyber crime on the rise, you need to make sure your company is protected. With blockchain, you’ll have a virtually impenetrable layer of security on all your transactions. Not only does this keep your money safe, but it keeps your identity safe. This level of security makes password systems look like nothing more than a “do not enter” sign.

Blockchain with U.S. Computer Connection

If you want your business to benefit from blockchain, we’d be happy to help. At U.S. Computer Connection, we love new technology and figuring out everything it can do to benefit small businesses. With our managed IT services, we can come up with a strategy and provide the technology to take your business’s network to the next level. Contact us today to learn more about everything we can offer you.