How to Explain Blockchain to a 4 Year Old

If you’ve been following latest developments in technology in the last couple of years, you’ve probably heard the term blockchain.

You might have even tried to Google blockchain’s definition couple of times, but explanations are usually confusing and complicated.

To help you out, we decided to create a blog post with blockchain explained in a simple, plain way.

Ready to dive in?

How it all started?

The world got to know blockchain technology in 2008, when Satoshi Nakamoto published bitcoin’s white paper. Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency, and blockchain is the technology that underpins it.

This technology allows transactions on the network without middlemen, such as banks. Transactions made on the platform are transparent and secure thanks to the strong cryptography codes.

How does blockchain work?

Blockchain’s name can literally help you to understand the concept. You see, the technology can be explained as a chain of blocks, where each block contains data.

The blocks are organized in a chain based on a specific set of rules. You can also picture it as a ledger, which is how blockchain basically works.

Now, each block of data is actually a transaction. And blockchain as a whole is a record of transactions.

Andreas Antonopoulos – Introduction to Bitcoin

What’s so special about blockchain?

Really, what’s the thing with this technology? Why all the hype? Well, there are several reasons for this. First, blockchain is fast. Compared with traditional systems such as banks, transactions on the platform are processed and verified much faster. We’re talking about seconds and minutes.

Second, this technology is decentralized. It works without a central authority, and third parties such as banks and governments can’t control it.

Simply put, blockchain gives power back to people.

Now, let’s break down the blockchain system. We can say that this technology has the three most important parts. They are:

  • The network, which consists of participants/computers. The network can be public (open to everyone), or private (members only). And each computer within the network is called a node.
  • Network protocol, which is a set of rules that determines how nodes communicate between them. And finally,
  • Consensus mechanism, which is a process by which the network verifies transactions.

Wrap-up

There you go – blockchain explained. It’s not that hard, right? I hope that this guide is simple enough and it helped you to better understand this revolutionary technology and how it works.

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