ABSTRACT
Blockchain technology provides a sound solution for many industry problems; however, its construct is misconstrued by many. This chapter conducts a comprehensive analysis of introducing relevant content of blockchain technology, provides fundamental principles of blockchain core structure and elements, and underscores opportunities of blockchain technology. Blockchain technology consists of data, the hash of the block itself, and the hash of the previous block. Blocks on the blockchain are created with the hash of previous blocks and added to the infrastructure, therefore the name blockchain. Blockchain technology combines the power of integrated ledger technology that is decentralized, secured, authentic, and established trust and integrity. There are four different types of blockchain platforms: private, consortium, public, and hybrid which provide the user with different levels of security. Lack of financial inclusion, availability of big data, and data security problems are prevalent in today’s organizations. Blockchain technology works as a distributed ledger that accesses details of all transaction history. The peer-to-peer transmission ensures there is no central authority. Transparency and Pseudonymity are achieved through digital identity. The immutability of records is the consensus of most users to verify transactions. Computational logic is achieved through a digital ledger where algorithms and rules are embedded to trigger automated transactions. If a blockchain tampers with the rest of the blocks are deemed invalid and the chain breaks. Tampering with one block to make it inactive requires users to perform hashing for all the blocks on the blockchain, redo the proof of work for each block, and the users must have 50% control of the distributed P2P network.
