Abstract
Blockchain has been created in the process of development in bitcoin. It's a singly linked list of block, with each block containing a number of transactions and each list in the blocks using with cryptographic functions. The cryptographic hash function contains the hash of the previous block, timestamp, and transaction ID. Blockchain services include the authentication, confidentiality, integrity, data and resource provenance, and privacy and access control lists technologies. The authentication provider authenticates decentralized database with transactions in private-public key pair. This key-pair is used in the transport layer security with the entire network. The network legitimizes the transaction after that and adds the transaction to the blockchain. A sequence of blocks in blockchain holds the complete record of transactions like a public ledger. The integrity data written in the blockchain cannot be altered subsequently. By limiting access to the information in confidentiality, only authorized users can access the information, so that information is also protected.
TopIntroduction
Bitcoin and its underlying Blockchain technology were first conceptualized by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 but implemented in 2009, as a core of peer-to-peer version of electronic cash systems, these cash systems allows online payments to send directly from one party to another party without central trusted authorities like bank systems or payment services (Nakamoto, 2008). The digital currency i.e., Bitcoin components support for these transactions. Blockchain could be regarded as a public ledger for all committed transactions stored in list of blocks, are new blocks are appended to it continuously, and it resolved by double spend problem together with peer-to-peer technology with cryptographic tools. So that linking every transaction to the transaction preceding it in a tamper proof resistant manner. Blockchain is an open distributed ledger technology that can record the transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way (Marco and Karim, 2017). The Blockchain can be specified that different requirements or keywords; the first requirement is open (whatever information inside the Blockchain, that information should be accessible to all i.e. Everyone will be able to validate and use that particular information), second one is distributed ledger or decentralized (no single party control – who are in the platform and their communicating with each other), third one is efficiently (need to ensure the efficiency of the information, efficiency of the protocol, so that the protocol need to be fast and scalable), the next one is verifiable(verifiable is important key in Blockchain, who are in the network they should be able to check the validity of the information and final one is permanent (inside the information in Blockchain, that information is persistent).So that once you have inserted information into the Blockchain, then you will not be able to change or update that information in future time, that means the information is persistent, its otherwise called tamper proof, so these are the important properties of Blockchain environment. The requirements said that, any alternation of any block cannot be done without alternation of all subsequent blocks which makes the system permanent, efficient and verifiable. When Bitcoin cryptocurrency introduced that time Blockchain technology used. Blockchain was born with Bitcoin. Bitcoin most commonly used application in Blockchain technology, the entire Bitcoin network it supports Blockchain, and Blockchain works as a fundamental building block with behind the development of Bitcoin. Which is emerged as a digital currency, many people believe that Blockchain could revolutionize many fields, such as finance, accounting, management, and law leading. It’s a decentralized digital currency payment system with public transaction ledger. Bitcoin uses public key infrastructure (PKI) mechanism. The user of PKI has pair of public and private keys. The private key is authentication of user and the public key is address of the user in Bitcoin wallet (Yli-Huumo, KO, Choj and Park, 2016).
The evolution of Blockchain technology namely; Blockchain 1.0 – it’s the decentralization of money and payments, basically used for cryptocurrencies, Blockchain 2.0 used for digital finance and industries (In Blockchain 2.0 smart contract was first introduced the way to verify assets, properties, products and services), and Blockchain 3.0 is the decentralization of digital society and its used for applications of IoT, health and government, it offers more security as compared to Blockchain 1.0 and 2.0, and it’s used for various industries, arts health, media and many government institutions (Supriya and Kulkarani, 2017).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Distributed ledger: It’s a decentralized technology to eliminate the need for a central authority or intermediary to process, validate, or authenticate transactions or other types of data exchanges.
Permissioned Blockchain: Its works in open environment and large network of participants, so the participants do not need to reveal their own identity. The users do not need to reveal their own identity to other peers. It’s something called private model. In a permissioned blockchain, only a restricted set of users have the rights to validate the block transactions.
Digital Signature: It is a mathematical scheme for presenting the authenticity of digital messages or documents; it uses public and private keys to encrypt and decrypt the data.
Private Blockchain: A blockchain controlled by someone or something such as a company.
Smart Contracts: Its basically provide a decentralized platform that can be utilized to avoid the intermediately in a contract. It’s an automated computerized protocol used for digitally facilitating, verifying, or enforcing the negotiation or performance of a legal contract by avoiding intermediates and directly validating the contract.
Public Blockchain: A blockchain that anyone can read.
Permission-Less Blockchain: Here anyone can join the network, participate in the process of block verification to create consensus and also create smart contracts. Permissioned blockchains do not have to use the computing power-based mining to reach a consensus since all the actors are known.
Hyderledger Fabric: Hyperledger fabric is responsible for ordering a sequence of transactions into blocks, and it is going to deliver these sequences of totally ordered transactions to all the pairs in the network.
Merkle Tree: Merkle tree is a tree structure where the leaf nodes will contain the hash of the document, and every individual node or intermediate node will contain the hash of the combination of the left child under a right child.