Blockchain technology is being used to drive the service platform - based on international payment schemes .

Formally , blockchain is a digital mechanism to create a distributed digital ledger where two or more participants in a peer-to-peer network can exchange information and assets directly without the need for a trusted intermediary .

Records are unchangeable , timestamped , encrypted and linked to each other in blocks ; each block is a cluster of about two thousand transaction records grouped together . The ledger grows as participants transact .

But informally , what does that definition mean ? According to a report by Gartner it can theoretically do business with an unknown partner located anywhere on the planet and trade any asset at any transaction size and not need a lawyer , a bank , an insurance company . Blockchain combines existing technologies and techniques into a novel architecture composed of five elements which include :

1 | DISTRIBUTION

Blockchain participants are located at a physical remove from each other and are connected on a network . Each participant operating a full node maintains a complete copy of the ledger , which updates with new transactions as they occur .

Nodes are the machines owned or used by participants and equipped to run the consensus algorithm . Any participant can review the ledger but cannot change it except under prescribed circumstances .

2 | ENCRYPTION

Blockchain uses technologies to record the data in the blocks securely and semianonymously as participants have pseudonyms . The participants can control their personal identity and other information and share only what they need to in a transaction .

136 May 2021