DOI: 10.1201/9781003225607-1

1

Chapter 1

Blockchain: Is it a

hype or a hoax?

BLOCKCHAIN INVENTION

Blockchain was originally created to support a cryptocurrency called

Bitcoin. Bitcoin was the first example of cryptocurrency and also the most

successful.

Bitcoin had tremendous success since then and had a market cap of about

$1.2 trillion as of writing in April 2021. The Bitcoin system enables pay-

ments to be sent between users without passing through a central authority,

such as banks or payment gateway. They are created and held electronically.

What is blockchain?

Blockchain technology is a distributed ledger, which allows permanent and

immutable recording of data with value addition of providing complete

transparency and immutability of the records or blocks. Blocks are linked

together to form a chain of blocks, i.e., a blockchain.

Blockchain is also sometimes referred to as distributed ledger (DLT),

which is the fundamental technology behind it.

Although there are various attempts to explain blockchain in simple ter-

minology, the following is my favourite.

• The simplest way to explain blockchain complex concepts is to think

about globally distributed teams using a giant shared Microsoft Excel

spreadsheet. Blockchain technology is like a shared spreadsheet where

anyone can make updates to the spreadsheet, and not one person is

the owner. Each time the spreadsheet is updated, the change is visible

to all; however, the change is only committed to a final spreadsheet

when 51% of the project team members approve. The record once

approved is committed and becomes immutable (the shared spread-

sheet is updated with the approved record and all members of the

project team can download the updated spreadsheet on their local

computers).