Introduction
Greetings great people of Blurt Community! I want to bring us some education on blockchain network and some of the important concept in the blockchain network. My focus would be on the concept of Decentralization and how it has helped the Cryptocurrency Exchange family.
Blockchain
Blockchain is a very important concept and a very broad one. A blockchain is a system of keeping/recording information in a way that makes it secured and impossible to penetrate by fraudsters to hack the information or to cheat the system.
With the widespread of hackers around the world of internet it is very important to have a system that one can rely on without any atom of doubt as regards the security of the system. And blockchain has brought answer to that puzzle thus far.
A blockchain can also be described as a digital record book for transactions that is reproduced/duplicated and distributed across the whole network of computer system in the blockchain.
A blockchain can equally be described as a chain of blocks that is incorruptible and that contains a number of transactions which is validated by all nodes in the network. Each time new transactions occurs it is added to the ledger of each users in the network.
The blockchain system was introduced to make transactions secure and to wipe out the challenge associated with intermediary, many financial institution and Banks has adopted this system to protect their transaction.
It is important to note that the blockchain network is so organized such that the information on the blocks cannot be deleted, but what happens is that new blocks is added to the chains to add more information.
The blockchain system is associated with so many concepts/terms which are very important and has their different contributions they bring to this System.
Decentralized
This concept talks about the independent nature of the system, when I talk of independent I mean that the System does not have a center that it depends on for control, the data saved in the system is distributed across many computer systems known as nodes. I will emphasis more on this concept later.
Decentralized Consensus
This concept talks about how the system is managed by her different users since there is no center that controls the system. The question that would be at the back of every one is how are things decided in this kind of system. The members of the platform utilizes what they call Consensus Mechanism in handling their matters.
Mining
Mining talks about how information are added to the various distributed ledgers in the blockchain system.
Smart Contract
This term deals with the contractual governance of transactions between different users in the blockchain system.
Proof of work
Earlier I made us to understand that in blockchain system informations are not deleted from the chain rather a block is added to add informations. This is a tool used to add various blocks to the blockchain network.
This particular concept is under the blockchain consensus algorithm. The other concepts in this category includes Proof of Stake, Proof of Elapsed Time, and Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance.
Decentralization in Blockchain
Among all the concept that are associated with the blockchain the one that stand out for me is the decentralization of the blockchain system.
What is Decentralization of Blockchain system all about??
In blockchain network no Single entity has a restricted control over the whole System, users interact with each other in this system without anyone playing a third party role.
This third party role has been a serious issue for the world at large when it comes to the matter of doing business, the third parties always makes things difficult when it comes to transactions. Even though the third party is like a bridge connecting the two main parties, but they try to make things difficult by their own terms and conditions they bring into the business.
Let me just use real estate for example, in real estate, there is a seller who has a landed property to sell somewhere and there is a buyer who wants that particular property, maybe the real owner wants to give out the property for 1000 Steem, but because of the third party the buyer would end up paying 1800 Steem. But if the business was carried out in a Decentralized setting the 800 Steem would have been Saved.
In the Blockchain system Decentralization talk about the transfer of control/Decision Enforcement from a centralized personnel (it can be individuals, companies, or group) to a shared network. The aim of this network is to reduce the level of trust users have to place on one another and to reduce the way people exercise authority over their fellow men.
Benefits/Advantages of Decentralization
There are lots of benefits that comes from using a Decentralized system below are few of them;
It Creates a trustless Environment
In this kind of setting no one has to depend on anyone which makes it impossible for one to put his trust on someone else. Put trust on people brings too much headache when it comes to business or any other dealings.
Reduces points of weakness.
It is always easy to find fault with system that is centralized, where one entity or a group of people act as decision makers, but when such control is taken away human weakness is reduced.
There other advantages as well but these two stands out for me, but I want to us to know that there are equally disadvantages to this system and one of which is that the system would be difficult to manage since there is no center that controls it.
Importance of Decentralization in Blockchain
Decentralization is very important in the blockchain network because of the many dividend that comes with it. For instance if you keep your money in a Bank that operate with centralized system and anything happens to the bank you are sure to loose all the assets you kept in that bank.
But in the decentralization system there is no single point of access, so if one point is affected the whole system is very much safe. If one of the nodes is affected you can't bring harm to the system because every of the information in that node is in the other nodes.
Decentralization facilitates transparency since it a system opened for anyone to connect to. For instance if we consider the internet which is one of the biggest Decentralized communication system in the world, we would see that it easier for anyone to create their own content on it and for someone from a different location to verify the information created. It is equally the same with Crypto currency you can view the account balance of each account and their transaction history without any stress.
Decentralization makes the blockchain network highly inclusive, everyone can join the system irrespective of your age, class, background and country. People all round the world are seriously into Cryptocurrency Exchange without having to meet each other or even know each other.
Alternative to Decentralization in Blockchain
The blockchain network can very well exist without decentralization, because blockchain network can either be built to be Centralized or Decentralized. But most times people confused decentralized with distributed, we must note that blockchain is inherently distributed, but not inherently centralized. Being inherently distributed means that many parties holds a copy of the ledger.
What makes a blockchain Centralized or Decentralized is basically what happens on the Ledger and what happens in the ledger is dependent on how the system is designed. In a centralized blockchain network on only parties whose identities are known are qualified to transact on the Ledger while in Decentralized blockchain network anyone can transact on the Ledger.
Therefore the term or concept similar to Decentralization, but not the same with it is Centralization. It is the only alternative to Decentralization.