How To Invest In Blockchain

In order to understand how to invest in Blockchain, you should know there are three essential parts to a Block, which is the digital information piece in the transaction.  

The first block is designed to house specific details and information about each transaction like the amount of the transaction, the date and the time of the purchase, the IP address, etc.

The second block will store the information about the persons involved in the transaction and the merchant.  For example, if you purchase airline tickets on CheapAir, it will store your username, which is a unique identifier to you, and also information about your flight, hotel, and whatever else you purchase.  It also knows your unique identifier as a "digital signature" in the Blockchain world.

The third and final block stores information that will then make the information in the previous 2 blocks distinguishable from the other blocks on the chain.  Each block has a name, in the form of a unique code, called a "hash."  This enables the blocks to be distinguishable from each other.  

It is important to understand that while these are real-world examples of how one transaction is stored, in the real world, one block chain can hold up to 1MB of information.  What that means is that a single block in the chain can hold several thousand transactions.

Each transaction is visible to the entire network, including yourself.  If you were to examine the Blockchain for Bitcoin, you would notice that you can view transaction information, including the time, where, and by whom, the block was added to the chain.

As mentioned, anyone who uses the Blockchain has access to its transactions and entire contents and can directly connect to the network via their computer.  The reason for doing this would be to stay in the loop each time a new block is added to the chain.  It's kind of like Twitter notifications.  You get notified whenever someone mentions you on Twitter.

Each computer houses its own version of the original Blockchain, meaning there are literally hundreds if not thousands of copies of the same Bitcoin Blockchain out there since it is the original cryptocurrency.  Each copy of the Blockchain is the same and is difficult for anyone to manipulate.  

While you have access to content about transactions, for security reasons, you do not have access to anyone's personal information, and likewise, they do not have access to yours.  Which brings up the question, is it really wise to invest in Blockchain?

You may want to learn how to invest in Blockchain since it has a high chance of changing the way the world does its buying and selling.   Blockchain innovation has addressed the issue of trust and security in a myriad of ways.  For one, the blocks that are on the chain are stored in a linear and chronological order.  To picture what that looks like, it means that each new block on the chain is added to the end of the chain, like the last link.  

Once a block has been placed into the chain, it is difficult, and almost impossible to go back and change anything about the contents of that block.  That is due to the "hash" that we mentioned earlier.  It essentially creates hash codes using a math function that converts digital data into a series of numbers and letters.  That means if someone edits any part of the information in a block, the hash code associated with that block will also change.

That is critical the security of the Blockchain.  For example, let's say a hacker wanted to edit one of your recent transactions from CheapAir, so you would end up having to pay more than once for your air and hotel.  The moment that the hacker attempts to edit the monetary value of your transaction, the hash in the block automatically changes. The next subsequent block in the chain will still have the old code, and that means that the hacker would have to backtrack to remain undetected.  So that means changing every single block, or transaction that came after yours. What hacker wants to do all that legwork for a few hundred or even thousand dollars?  It's just not worth it.

To approach trust, Blockchain systems have executed tests for computers that desire to join and add blocks to the chain. These tests are referred to as “consensus models,”  and the premise is that all users are required to “prove” themselves prior to being able to add blocks. Bitcoin uses a system called “proof of work.”  

Proof of work does not make raids by hackers impracticable, merely it makes them rather ineffective. If a hacker wanted to coordinate an attack on the Blockchain, they would need to answer complicated computational math problems at 1 in 7 trillion odds just like everyone else. The expense of coordinating such an attempt would surpass the advantages.

There are essentially four ways you can invest in Blockchain.  

Blockchain as a technology is a "paradigm shift." It has the potential to evolve the way we transfer data, much like the Internet-connected laptops and smart devices we use every single day. Those are exhilarating ideas, and Blockchain adds the perspective of transfer of monetary value between two machines and two people in an effective and reliable method once you understand how to invest in Blockchain.