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Blockchain Entities
The blockchain is a distributed ledger with growing lists of records (''blocks'') that are securely linked together via cryptographic hashes. 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 resistant to alteration because, once recorded, the data in any given block cannot be changed retroactively without altering all subsequent blocks and obtaining network consensus to accept these changes. 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 bloc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Distributed Ledger
A distributed ledger (also called a shared ledger or distributed ledger technology or DLT) is a system whereby replicated, shared, and synchronized digital data is geographically spread (distributed) across many sites, countries, or institutions. Its fundamental rationale is Argumentum ad populum whereby its veracity relies on a popular or majority of nodes to force the system to agree. In contrast to a centralized database, a distributed ledger does not require a central administrator, and consequently does not have a Single point of failure, single (central) point-of-failure. In general, a distributed ledger requires a peer-to-peer, peer-to-peer (P2P) computer network and Consensus (computer science), consensus algorithms so that the ledger is reliably replicated across distributed computer nodes (servers, clients, etc.). The most common form of distributed ledger technology is the blockchain (commonly associated with the bitcoin cryptocurrency), which can either be on a public or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Satoshi Nakamoto
Satoshi Nakamoto ( – 26 April 2011) is the name used by the presumed pseudonymous person or persons who developed bitcoin, authored the bitcoin white paper, and created and deployed bitcoin's original reference implementation. As part of the implementation, Nakamoto also devised the first blockchain database. Nakamoto was active in the development of bitcoin until December 2010. There has been widespread speculation about Nakamoto's true identity, with various people posited as the person or persons behind the name. Though Nakamoto's name is Japanese, and inscribed as a man living in Japan, most of the speculation has involved software and cryptography experts in the United States or Europe. Development of bitcoin Nakamoto said that the work of writing bitcoin's code began in the second quarter of 2007. On 18 August 2008, he or a colleague registered the domain name bitcoin.org, and created a web site at that address. On 31 October, Nakamoto published a white paper on the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Timestamp
A timestamp is a sequence of characters or encoded information identifying when a certain event occurred, usually giving date and time of day, sometimes accurate to a small fraction of a second. Timestamps do not have to be based on some absolute notion of time, however. They can have any epoch, can be relative to any arbitrary time, such as the power-on time of a system, or to some arbitrary time in the past. A distinction is sometimes made between the terms datestamp, timestamp and date-timestamp: * Datestamp or DS: A date, for example -- according to ISO 8601 * Timestamp or TS: A time of day, for example :: using 24-hour clock * Date-timestamp or DTS: Date and time, for example --, :: History The term "timestamp" derives from rubber stamps used in offices to stamp the current date, and sometimes time, in ink on paper documents, to record when the document was received. Common examples of this type of timestamp are a postmark on a letter or the "in" and "out" times on a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Chaum
David Lee Chaum (born 1955) is an American computer scientist, List of cryptographers, cryptographer, and inventor. He is known as a pioneer in cryptography and privacy-preserving technologies, and widely recognized as the inventor of Digital currency, digital cash. His 1982 dissertation "Computer Systems Established, Maintained, and Trusted by Mutually Suspicious Groups" is the first known proposal for a blockchain protocol. Complete with the code to implement the protocol, Chaum's dissertation proposed all but one element of the blockchain later detailed in the Bitcoin White paper, whitepaper. He has been referred to as "the father of online anonymity", and "the godfather of cryptocurrency". He is also known for developing ecash, an electronic cash application that aims to preserve a user's anonymity, and inventing many cryptography, cryptographic protocols like the blind signature, mix networks and the Dining cryptographers protocol. In 1995 his company DigiCash created the f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cryptography
Cryptography, or cryptology (from "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logy, -logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of Adversary (cryptography), adversarial behavior. More generally, cryptography is about constructing and analyzing Communication protocol, protocols that prevent third parties or the public from reading private messages. Modern cryptography exists at the intersection of the disciplines of mathematics, computer science, information security, electrical engineering, digital signal processing, physics, and others. Core concepts related to information security (confidentiality, data confidentiality, data integrity, authentication, and non-repudiation) are also central to cryptography. Practical applications of cryptography include electronic commerce, Smart card#EMV, chip-based payment cards, digital currencies, password, computer passwords, and military communications. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snake Oil
Snake oil is a term used to describe False advertising, deceptive marketing, health care fraud, or a scam. Similarly, snake oil salesman is a common label used to describe someone who sells, promotes, or is a general proponent of some valueless or fraudulent cure, remedy, or solution. The term comes from the "snake oil" that used to be sold as a cure-all elixir for many kinds of physiological problems. Many 18th-century European and 19th-century United States entrepreneurs advertised and sold mineral oil (often mixed with various Active ingredient, active and Inactive ingredient, inactive household herbs, spices, drugs, and compounds, but containing no snake-derived substances whatsoever) as "snake oil liniment", making claims about its efficacy as a Panacea (medicine), panacea. Patent medicines that claimed to be panaceas were extremely common from the 18th century until the 20th century, particularly among vendors masking addictive drugs such as cocaine, amphetamine, Alcohol (d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
