Blockchain: It will be easy to prove that "your mother is your mother" in the future

For people who hang out in the Bitcoin circle (referred to as the "coin circle") all day long, blockchain technology is not difficult to understand. But for people outside this circle, this concept seems much more obscure and difficult to understand, which must have made quite a few people feel confused.

In the "currency circle", there is a story about an "old village chief" (the idea of ​​a lawyer who has been working for many years). After listening to this story, you will definitely have a preliminary understanding of "blockchain". The story goes like this... Once upon a time, there was a mountain, and there was a village in the mountain. In the village, there was an old village chief who was highly respected. Usually, the villagers carried a bag of gold bars to exchange for goods (a rich village), but this method was particularly inconvenient. Later one day, the old village chief suddenly announced that all gold bars must be put in the treasury of the village committee, and then he would help everyone keep accounts, in order to facilitate everyone to exchange goods. In return, he could extract transaction fees and daily management fees from the transaction.

For example, if Zhang San wants to exchange 4 gold bars for Li Si's cow, the old village chief must first check whether Zhang San has 4 gold bars. If he does, he will transfer the gold bars to Li Si's name in the account book, and then let Li Si give the cow to Zhang San. At first everyone thought it was very convenient, but gradually various problems began to emerge.

As the transaction volume increased, the old village chief was unable to handle it all by himself. Sometimes his eyes were blurry and he made mistakes in the accounts. Looking at the gold bars in the warehouse every day, the old village chief felt itchy and would occasionally put the villagers’ accounts under his own name. The villagers tolerated it once or twice, but the old village chief did not know how to restrain himself and his crime was finally exposed.

One day, the village chief's grandson played with fire, and part of the account book was burned, and the villagers' accounts were all messed up. The above are the problems within the "rich village". There is another problem during this period: although the villagers of the "rich village" want to record the transactions with the villagers of the "diaosi village" next door in one account, the people of the neighboring "diaosi village" said, "We can record the money of our Diaosi village in your account book, but the premise is that why do we believe that your village chief will not have any problems?" Just when everyone was troubled by these problems, a man named Satoshi Nakamoto came through the time tunnel and proposed a method called "ledger chain" (Note: Satoshi Nakamoto is an iconic figure in Bitcoin technology). The gold bars are still placed at the village committee first, and the initial accounts are still converted into records on the account, and everyone knows every record in this account book.

In the first transaction, Zhang San wanted to exchange 4 gold bars for Li Si's cow, so everyone started to look through the account books and rushed to calculate the account. Wang Wu was the first to calculate the total account "Zhang San did have 4 gold bars and traded with Li Si" (the public treasury would give a little money to the first person to calculate the account), and Wang Wu could get a reward for this, but he also needed to tell the whole village about the transaction through the radio, and then everyone would use the "001" account book page to record the transaction and put it in the account book;

When Li Liu wanted to exchange 3 gold bars for Chen Qi's pig, everyone started to look through the account book and the 001 account page to calculate the account. Zhang Ba was the first to calculate that "Chen Liu did have 3 gold bars and exchanged the pig with Chen Qi". Zhang Ba was rewarded and told the whole village about the transaction through the radio. Then everyone used the "002" account page to record the transaction and wrote "Please see 001 for the last transaction" on it, and then put it in the account book together with the "001" account page;

The whole process is to offer rewards, settle accounts, record transactions and broadcast transactions. By analogy, a ledger chain is formed on the ledger.

This solves the above problems at the same time: according to the order on the ledger chain, the assets and transaction status of any villager can be determined. Even if a ledger is burned, it doesn’t matter, because everyone has one, and it is exactly the same; since the ledger and algorithm are publicly broadcast and in order, this eliminates any problems of fraud and repeated transactions; similarly, since the accounts are open, the neighboring village can come to trade; finally, it can also eliminate the phenomenon of "excessive charges" by the village head. From then on, the villagers lived a happy life. At this point in the story, some people may ask what exactly is blockchain?

Textbook definition: Blockchain (English: Blockchain or Block chain) is a distributed database, a string of data blocks generated by cryptographic methods. Each data block contains information about a Bitcoin network transaction, which is used to verify the validity of its information (anti-counterfeiting) and generate the next block. It is easy to understand in light of the story above. "001", "002", "003"... Each number is a "ledger page", which is a "block" in the concept of blockchain. When they are gathered together, they form a "ledger". This physical account book is the obscure "blockchain". Since blockchain is an account book, how is this account book different from our traditional account book? This requires starting from the characteristics of the blockchain itself.

1. Decentralization Villagers no longer need to rely on the trust of the "central figure" - the old village chief, and no longer need to worry about the risks that may arise in the process of accounting and management. The old village chief can also be "liberated" to do other things. 2. The open system is open, and the data of the ledger is open to everyone (whether it is a rich village or a poor village), and anyone can query the data of the ledger page of any code in the ledger. In this way, transactions between villages can be realized. 3. The villagers have reached an agreement on how to record the autonomous ledger, and the agreement is open and transparent. The villagers can achieve full trust and further realize autonomy, and every transaction can be presented in the ledger in a completely transparent manner. 4. Information cannot be tampered with Once the transaction information is verified by the villagers and added to the ledger, it will be permanently stored. The modification of the account in the ledger by a single villager is invalid, so the data reliability of the ledger is extremely high. As far as the current situation is concerned, traditional financial institutions such as banks and insurance companies still play the role of "old village chief". They need to rely on the credit of the country or institutions to make users trust them, so as to ensure the transaction.

Blockchain application - it's easy to prove "my mother is my mother" We have introduced many advantages of blockchain technology above, so where can it be actually applied? "How can I prove that my mother is my mother?!" The seemingly ridiculous feeling is actually full of helplessness. Once this news was released, it resonated with many people. Many people have encountered maddening proofs in the process of doing things - proving that your mother is your mother, proving that you have never been married, etc. Such proofs take a lot of time and cost, which is really worrying. But if blockchain technology can be used, the situation will be much better. An important application of blockchain is the distributed intelligent identity authentication system, where all information is recorded completely and accurately (recorded on the blockchain) and cannot be tampered with. This can not only ensure that the information will not be stolen by illegal elements, but also help you make the proof you need in an emergency. Now when it comes to blockchain, Bitcoin will be mentioned. What is the relationship between the two? Blockchain is the underlying technology of Bitcoin, and Bitcoin may be the most famous application on blockchain. In the future, blockchain technology will have more applications. The identity authentication system we mentioned above is one of the applications. In addition, smart contracts, securities trading, e-commerce, the Internet of Things, social communications, file storage, and equity crowdfunding are all areas where blockchain technology can be applied. Blockchain technology has attracted banks, exchanges, auditing companies, technology giants, etc. According to Sina Technology statistics, by the end of 2015, more than 20 of the world's top financial institutions and venture funds have announced their participation in various blockchain application development projects. Since 2016, more and more domestic entrepreneurs and investors have begun to pay attention to blockchain, and several blockchain alliances have been established in full swing. However, considering various factors, it is still unknown whether the future development will be smooth.