Mastering Blockchain: Deeper insights into decentralization, cryptography, Bitcoin, and popular Blockchain frameworks

by Imran Bashir

Benefits and limitations of blockchain Numerous benefits of blockchain technology are being discussed in the industry and proposed by thought leaders around the world in blockchain space. The top 10 benefits are listed and discussed as follows. Decentralization This is a core concept and benefit of blockchain. There is no need for a trusted third party or intermediary to validate transactions; instead a consensus mechanism is used to agree on the validity of transactions. Transparency and trust As blockchains are shared and everyone can see what is on the blockchain, this allows the system to be transparent and as a result trust is established. This is more relevant in scenarios such as the disbursement of funds or benefits where personal discretion should be restricted. Immutability Once the data has been written to the blockchain, it is extremely difficult to change it back. It is not truly immutable but, due to the fact that changing data is extremely difficult and almost impossible, this is seen as a benefit to maintaining an immutable ledger of transactions. High availability As the system is based on thousands of nodes in a peer-to-peer network, and the data is replicated and updated on each and every node, the system becomes highly available. Even if nodes leave the network or become inaccessible, the network as a whole continues to work, thus making it highly available. Highly secure All transactions on a blockchain are cryptographically secured and provide integri...