Throughout its history, humanity has constantly collected, stored and exchanged a huge amount of a wide variety of information. And this process is clear proof that without information management, development in almost all areas of human activity is impossible.
Any database, in the general understanding of this term, is a certain accumulation of specific information that can be used for various needs depending on the purpose of a particular process.
Databases have always existed, and the only thing that was changing in them is the form of their management and use. In the modern world, a new form of information management is becoming increasingly widespread – blockchain technology.
Without delving into the details of this technology, let us recall its key features: the immutability of the information used, a decentralized approach to information management and decision making, and consensus or established rules in the management of all transactions.
The functioning of blockchain technology can be more simple or more complex process. This is influenced by the scope of its application, the protocols that govern this technology, and the resources of the users.
A large number of problems can be solved by so-called blockchain services, for example, https://dysnix.com/, which have all the necessary tool developments so that users can successfully implement their projects.
Understanding Blockchain Principles
At the dawn of blockchain technology, there were often cases when it was identified with money mining or even cryptocurrency. Now almost everyone knows that blockchain technology is nothing more than the principle of managing distributed and, at the same time, decentralized databases.
As the name of this technology suggests, database management is carried out using a chain of interconnected blocks. When managing this data, one of the main principles of blockchain must be respected: all users who are the part of the blockchain network must have access to this distributed ledger.
The next misconception related to the perception of blockchain technology concerns the fairly widespread opinion that this technology can solve absolutely all the problems created by centralized approaches to managing various processes.
This belief in the omnipotence of blockchain has led in many cases to some disappointment due to the lack of expected results. When deciding on the need to use blockchain, users must, first of all, clearly understand what problem needs to be solved using this technology, what the result should be after solving this problem, and what limitations exist in the platform on the basis of which it is planned to implement the project.
Let’s look at a situation in which the use of blockchain technology can bring tangible results. For example, there is a certain network and there is a group of participants in this network – organizations or individuals who do not trust each other. In this case, the single “source of truth” will be the blockchain network and all the information that will be processed and stored in it.
At the same time, the influence of any intermediaries is eliminated. This fact significantly reduces the costs caused by their participation, and, of course, the possibility of any forgery of transactions is reduced to almost zero. However, in such a positive situation there are also limitations that must first be determined and assessed.
For example, knowing the fact that all information in the blockchain will be stored forever, users should evaluate how quickly the chain of blocks will grow, how the data that needs to be hidden will be closed, for example, in connection with legal requirements, what speed of transaction processing will suit the participants networks, etc.
The next principle of blockchain technology is that all actions in the network (transactions) must be agreed upon to ensure that they are relevant and satisfy all participants in the network. This principle is implemented through a certain consensus mechanism.
Today, there are many consensus mechanisms for various blockchain platforms, and these mechanisms cannot always fully satisfy user requests for scalability and speed of information collection and processing.
One more principle associated with blockchain technology is the distribution of an apportioned database between nodes through peer-2-peer connections using cryptographic algorithms. It must be said that crypto algorithm is a quite complex tool; they are difficult to certify, since not only existing crypto algorithms are constantly changing, but also new ones are being created.
Afterword
In conclusion, let us remember once again what the difference is between traditional databases and distributed ledgers of blockchain technology. The first is the difference in the approach to data management: unlike traditional databases, decentralized blockchain management guarantees trust in the information.
The second is shared access to databases: this is absent in the traditional approach, while in the blockchain network each user is provided with a copy of the transaction register at the same time. Third, the likelihood of user intervention in the database: it is high in conventional databases and almost impossible in blockchain distributed registries.