Blockchain
By CoinGecko | Updated on Mar 03, 2020
A digital ledger where data is recorded in a chronological order. In Bitcoin's case, it is a decentralized, public ledger which contains transactional information. Users can verify that transactions have occured simply by looking at the data that is publicized on the Bitcoin network.
In a blockchain, the next piece of information that will be added is always linked to a previous, already confirmed information of the blockchain through the use of a hash which describes the past content. With the hash, every block of information in a blockchain becomes referenced with one another, and cannot be easily swapped out, thereby qualifying as an immutable ledger.
Related Terms
Genesis Block
It is the first block of data that is processed and validated to form a new blockchain, typically called as 'block 0' or 'block 1'.
Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC)
Refers to specialized computers that are made to do a very specific task (eg. calculate hashes for Bitcoin's Proof-of-Work)
Hyperledger (Hyperledger Foundation)
Hyperledger is an open source collaborative effort to create blockchain technologies hosted by The Linux Foundation since 2016.
Burned Tokens
Tokens which have been sent to addresses whose private key are not known, effectively becoming unusable.
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