Blockchain is a technology that provides an online ledger which acts like a public online book where all transactions are recorded and processed automatically. It was initially developed by the National Association for Stock Dealers and later launched by Tim Berners-Lee and Tim O’Brien to become the foundation for the Linux payment software package librevenge. This technology is still being refined and developed by different communities worldwide such as those that develop the Hyperledger project, the BSD project, the Stellar Project, the Zcash Project, and the Distributed Ledger Project amongst others. Most notable among these projects are the Stellar Exchange and the National Currency Market which play important roles in improving the usability and scalability of the underlying asset. Blockchains can be used for recording and synchronizing multiple virtual asset classes such as currencies, stocks, commodities, and bonds among others.
The original work of the National Association for Stock Dealers was the Cryptographic Index Tracking System or CIT, which was later known as the Blockchain. The Blockchain project was later named after the late John Stewart O’Brien who developed the Hyperledger project. The original idea behind the National Currency Market was to develop a system that would track and monitor different currencies from various countries. However, the Blockchain is much more than just a ledger.
The Blockchain consists of four layers; the main network (the Fabric Network), a collection of autonomous servers, client devices, and various independent transaction processors. The nodes in the network act as ledger databases and are made up of highly trained professionals who continuously monitor and upgrade the integrity of the blocks that make up the ledger. When a transaction occurs, it is not broadcast to the entire network until the required proof-of-work has been found by the relevant block. This Proof-of-Work is called a ” cryptographic hash” or “proof of burn” because it is a way of proving that someone did in fact create the digital object known as theblock.