The BlockChain… it’s this new technology that people are talking about more and more, but few people really understand its principle and applications.
We will try to enlighten you, in the simplest way possible, starting with the basics. The details of how it works will come later in another article…
Blockchain, by definition, is a new technology for recording, storing and transmitting information, which is secure, transparent and operates without a central control body.
Let’s take a practical example to illustrate this.
Imagine you are sitting in a crowded room, with a hundred people sitting like you, who don’t know each other. A man on stage comes up and shows the audience what he has in his hand: a phone in one hand and a drawing of a child in the other.
He asks all those present to unanimously agree that he has these two things in his possession, in this place and at this precise moment. That way, if one day he has to prove that it is his, he will have valid proof.
In order for you to be able to confirm this, he can obviously give you more details about the two objects in question: for the telephone: the brand, the model, even the serial number, …. And for the child’s drawing: the format, the type of paper, the colours used, the child’s signature, etc.
You will note down all this information so that you can keep a precise record of it.
In order for this recording to be reliable and consistent, you will consult with the other people present to note all the details that will be useful for identifying the 2 objects and the time and place of the recording. Once this consultation has been completed and everyone has noted the same information, you can wrap up this discussion and move on.
If, in a year’s time, this man has to prove that the phone he has is his, he will have to invite you and the same people back. You will all confer again, compare your notes with the details of the phone in question, reach an agreement and tell him whether or not it is his phone.
If someone ill-intentioned wanted to contradict that it was his, it would be extremely tedious for him because he would have to persuade the hundred or so people who had noted something contrary to what he has modified.
Well, that’s what the BlockChain principle is all about! A multiple, concerted and simultaneous recording of information which is, therefore, unfalsifiable and therefore reliable.