Blockchain Ledger Database System

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A Blockchain Ledger Database System is a distributed ledger database system that manages blockchain blocks (that contain blockchain transactions).

References

2024a

  • (Wikipedia, 2024) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain Retrieved:2024-4-7.
    • A blockchain is a distributed ledger with growing lists of records (blocks) that are securely linked together via cryptographic hashes.[1] Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data (generally represented as a Merkle tree, where data nodes are represented by leaves). Since each block contains information about the previous block, they effectively form a chain (compare linked list data structure), with each additional block linking to the ones before it. Consequently, blockchain transactions are irreversible in that, once they are recorded, the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without altering all subsequent blocks.

      Blockchains are typically managed by a peer-to-peer (P2P) computer network for use as a public distributed ledger, where nodes collectively adhere to a consensus algorithm protocol to add and validate new transaction blocks. Although blockchain records are not unalterable, since blockchain forks are possible, blockchains may be considered secure by design and exemplify a distributed computing system with high Byzantine fault tolerance.

      A blockchain was created by a person (or group of people) using the name (or pseudonym) Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 to serve as the public distributed ledger for bitcoin cryptocurrency transactions, based on previous work by Stuart Haber, W. Scott Stornetta, and Dave Bayer. The implementation of the blockchain within bitcoin made it the first digital currency to solve the double-spending problem without the need for a trusted authority or central server. The bitcoin design has inspired other applicationsand blockchains that are readable by the public and are widely used by cryptocurrencies. The blockchain may be considered a type of payment rail.

      Private blockchains have been proposed for business use. Computerworld called the marketing of such privatized blockchains without a proper security model "snake oil";however, others have argued that permissioned blockchains, if carefully designed, may be more decentralized and therefore more secure in practice than permissionless ones.

  1. ↑ Narayanan, Arvind; Bonneau, Joseph; Felten, Edward; Miller, Andrew; Goldfeder, Steven (2016). Bitcoin and cryptocurrency technologies: a comprehensive introduction. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-17169-2.

2024b

2016

  • (Wikipedia, 2016) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain_(database) Retrieved:2016-7-22.
    • A blockchain — originally, block chain — is a distributed database that maintains a continuously-growing list of data records secured from tampering and revision. It consists of data structure blocks — which hold exclusively data in initial blockchain implementationsand both data and programs in some more recent implementations — with each block holding batches of individual transactions and the results of any blockchain executables. Each block contains a timestamp and a link to a previous block. The blockchain is the main technical innovation of bitcoin,where it serves as the public ledger for bitcoin transactions. Every user is allowed to connect to the network, send new transactions to it, verify transactions and create new blocks, making it permissionless. The bitcoin/blockchain design has been the inspiration for other cryptocurrencies and replicated databases.

2017

  • (Iansiti & Lakhani, 2017) ⇒ Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani (2017). "The Truth About Blockchain". In: Harvard Business Review.
    • QUOTE: Contracts, transactions, and records of them provide critical structure in our economic system, but they haven’t kept up with the world’s digital transformation. They’re like rush-hour gridlock trapping a Formula 1 race car.

      Blockchain promises to solve this problem. The technology behind bitcoin, blockchain is an open, distributed ledger that records transactions safely, permanently, and very efficiently. For instance, while the transfer of a share of stock can now take up to a week, with blockchain it could happen in seconds. Blockchain could slash the cost of transactions and eliminate intermediaries like lawyers and bankers, and that could transform the economy. But, like the adoption of more internet technologies, blockchain’s adoption will require broad coordination and will take years. In this article the authors describe the path that blockchain is likely to follow and explain how firms should think about investments in it.

      (...) Our experience studying technological innovation tells us that if there’s to be a blockchain revolution, many barriers — technological, governance, organizational, and even societal — will have to fall. It would be a mistake to rush headlong into blockchain innovation without understanding how it is likely to take hold. True blockchain-led transformation of business and government, we believe, is still many years away. That’s because blockchain is not a “disruptive” technology, which can attack a traditional business model with a lower-cost solution and overtake incumbent firms quickly. Blockchain is a foundational technology: It has the potential to create new foundations for our economic and social systems. But while the impact will be enormous, it will take decades for blockchain to seep into our economic and social infrastructure. …

2015

  • (Wikipedia, 2015) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/block_chain_(database)#Basic_principles Retrieved:2015-7-12.
    • The core advantages of the block chain architecture include the following:
      • The ability for a large number of nodes to converge on a single consensus of the most up-to-date version of a large data set such as a ledger, even when the nodes are run anonymously, have poor connectivity with one another, and whose operators could be dishonest.
      • The ability for any node that is well-connected to other nodes, to determine with a reasonable level of certainty, whether a transaction does or does not exist in the confirmed data set.
      • The ability for any node that creates a transaction to, after a certain period of confirmation time, determine with a reasonable level of certainty whether the transaction is valid, able to take place, and became final (i.e. that there were no conflicting transactions confirmed into the block chain elsewhere that would make the transaction invalid, such as the same currency units "double-spent" somewhere else).
      • A prohibitively high cost to attempt to rewrite or alter any transaction history.
      • An automated form of resolution that ensures that conflicting transactions (such as two or more attempts to spend the same balance in different places) never become part of the confirmed data set.
    • A block chain implementation consists of two kinds of records: transactions and blocks. Transactions are the actual data to be stored in the block chain, and blocks are records that confirm when and in what sequence certain transactions became journaled as a part of the block chain database. Transactions are created by participants using the system in the normal course of business (in the case of cryptocurrencies, a transaction is created anytime someone sends cryptocurrency to another), and blocks are created by users known as "miners" who use specialized software or equipment designed specifically to create blocks.

      Users of the system create transactions which are loosely passed around from node to node on a best-effort basis. The definition of what constitutes a valid transaction is based on the system implementing the block chain. In most cryptocurrency applications, a valid transaction is one that is properly digitally signed, spends currency units from a known valid wallet, and meets various other requirements such as including a sufficient miner "fee" and/or a certain time elapsed since the currency units were previously involved in a transaction.

      Meanwhile, miners attempt to create blocks that confirm and incorporate those transactions into the block chain. In a cryptocurrency system such as bitcoin, miners are incentivized to create blocks in order to collect two types of rewards: a pre-defined per-block award, and fees offered within the transactions themselves, payable to any miner who successfully confirms the transaction.

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