OKX Blockchain 60 Lectures | Episode 19: What Are the Functions of the Four Core Technologies?

"OKX Blockchain 60 Lectures" is a blockchain educational animated video co-produced by OKX & Sina Tech, targeting blockchain beginners. Through series articles, educational animations, and other forms, it explains blockchain concepts vividly from the perspectives of concepts, technology, and applications, covering 5 major sections and 60 knowledge points. The content of this episode was completed under the guidance of Wang Feng, founder of Mars Finance and Consensus Lab.

Hello everyone, I'm Little K. In previous lessons, I've already introduced to you how the four core technologies of blockchain actually work. So today, let's connect these four core technologies and summarize how do the four core technologies play their roles in blockchain?

Simply put, the four core technologies of blockchain are distributed ledger, consensus mechanism , cryptography, and smart contracts . They play the roles of data storage, data processing, data security, and data application in blockchain respectively. Specifically, their relationship is as follows:

First, the distributed ledger builds the framework of blockchain. It is essentially a distributed database. When a piece of data is generated and processed by everyone, it will be stored in this database. Therefore, the distributed ledger plays the role of data storage in blockchain.

Secondly, due to the decentralized nature of the distributed ledger, the blockchain network is determined to be a distributed structure where everyone can freely join and participate in data recording together. But at the same time, this has derived the headache-inducing "Byzantine Generals Problem," which means the more people participate in the network, the harder it is for the entire network to reach unity.

Thus, another mechanism is needed to coordinate all nodes to keep their accounts consistent. The consensus mechanism establishes a set of rules that clarifies the way everyone processes data, and achieves unity of opinions between nodes by competing for accounting rights. Finally, whoever obtains the accounting rights, the entire network uses the data processed by that person. Therefore, the consensus mechanism plays the role of coordinating node behavior and clarifying data processing in blockchain.

In addition, when data enters the distributed database, it's not simply packed in and done. The underlying data architecture is determined by blockchain cryptography.

The packed data blocks are processed into a chain-like structure through hash functions in cryptography. The latter block contains the hash value of the previous block. Because hash algorithms possess characteristics such as one-wayness and tamper resistance, once data is on the chain in the blockchain network, it cannot be tampered with and is traceable.

In addition, your account will also be encrypted through asymmetric encryption methods, thereby ensuring data security and verifying data ownership.

Finally, smart contracts at the application layer can be built on top of the distributed ledger. When we want to solve some trust issues, we can use smart contracts to clearly list the conditions between users in the form of code and execute them through programs. The data in blockchain can be called through smart contracts. Therefore, smart contracts play the role of data execution and application in blockchain.

In summary, the four core technologies each have their own roles in blockchain. Together they build the foundation of blockchain, and we are fortunate to be in it, welcoming a wave of belonging to the blockchain era.

Thanks to Teacher Wang Feng for his help and guidance with this episode's content.

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