OKX Blockchain 60 Lectures | Episode 2: Why is Blockchain Called Blockchain?
"OKX Blockchain 60 Lectures" is a blockchain educational animated video series co-produced by OKX & Sina Tech, aimed at users with zero blockchain knowledge. Through series articles, educational animations, and other forms, it vividly explains blockchain concepts from the perspectives of concept, technology, and applications, covering 5 major sections and 60 knowledge points. The content of this episode was completed under the guidance of Teacher Meng Yan, Vice Dean of the Digital Assets Research Institute.
In 2008, a global financial crisis erupted. On October 31, "Satoshi Nakamoto" published a paper titled "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System," describing the working model of Bitcoin.
On January 3, 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto mined the first batch of Bitcoin on a small server in Helsinki, Finland, marking the birth of Bitcoin.
On May 22, 2010, a programmer spent 10,000 Bitcoin to purchase two pizzas, giving Bitcoin a price for the first time.
Bitcoin, as the first application of blockchain, is well-known to everyone. However, as an underlying technology, blockchain is certainly not well understood by everyone. Why is blockchain called blockchain?
To understand this problem, we need to start with the data structure of blockchain. Blockchain is called blockchain because it is composed of data blocks and "chains" - the data blocks formed during data upload are linked together in chronological order, forming a chain structure.
Simply put, we all know that the internet world is a huge network database, and blockchain is essentially an immutable database. During the data upload process, data is packaged together to form individual data blocks. This is somewhat like a factory packing fruit into glass bottles to produce canned fruit. The packaged data blocks also have another academic name called "blocks."
A block is the basic storage unit of this database, recording all trading information between nodes that participate in maintaining the network within a certain period of time. Each time a series of transactions is generated for bookkeeping, they are packaged into a block. For example, when Bitcoin was first born, on January 3, 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto established the first block on a small server in Helsinki, Finland, also known as the genesis block, and then mined the first batch of Bitcoin.
Since it is a database, the data within needs to be verified and protected. Therefore, the blockchain database links each block together through a cryptographic method in chronological order, making the entire database more secure and trustworthy.
The specific cryptographic method used here is the hash algorithm, also known as the hash function, which can be used to calculate something called a hash value. Each block must attach the hash value of the previous block at the beginning to achieve association.
The characteristic of this function is that as long as the input data changes, even if only one small character is changed, the entire hash value will be completely different. This means that once someone wants to maliciously tamper with data in previous blocks, the subsequent hash values will change, thereby being discovered by others, thus ensuring the security of the database.
When all blocks are connected one by one through the hash algorithm, like an iron chain, a chain data structure is formed. Because of blockchain's chain structure, in the original English version of the Bitcoin white paper, it was vividly called "chain of blocks," that is, a chain composed of blocks. Later, in the earliest Chinese translation of the Bitcoin white paper, it was translated as "区块链" (blockchain), and over time it became known as blockchain,即blockchain.
As a new technology, although blockchain's name is somewhat unique, its prospects are very broad. Its special chain structure determines that this technology has the characteristics of data immutability and traceability. These characteristics are widely favored by financial institutions. For example, when banks conduct amount settlements and record information, blockchain's immutability and traceability characteristics can make records unalterable and trace the flow of every fund, thereby making financial trading more secure and trustworthy.
Therefore, blockchain and finance are inherently complementary. Finance provides application scenarios for blockchain, while blockchain provides secure soil for finance. In addition, in today's information internet age, there are indeed many information security issues that cause trust costs between users and users, and between users and enterprises to continue to grow. Blockchain's characteristics正好 provide technical support for solving these trust issues. If the internet led the revolution of information transmission, then perhaps one day, blockchain will lead the revolution of data trust like the internet. Let us look forward to it together!
Thank you to Mentor Meng Yan for his help and support with this episode's content.
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