What makes blockchain a secure technology? Blockchain’s red cardigan story, Part 3

No matter the implementation, everyone would want to understand, how secure any underlying technology is. And if it is something that touches their daily life, the reason to be concerned is all the more pronounced. This is the reason that makes everyone so excited when the biggest claim about blockchain a secure technology is held true.

We hope you now understand:-

1. What is Blockchain technology?

2. What does a block in a blockchain contain or how does a block in a blockchain look like?

These above two topics are now going to help us understand as to why is blockchain a secure technology.

A blockchain is secure because of its basic fundamentals, first of which is

Peer-to-Peer transactions

The blockchain technology removes the need to have a (trustworthy) agent in between of any transaction. Working inside a blockchain based network, two unknown individuals can give and take (transact) without worrying about a fraud or robbery.

But how? – Because everyone on the network knows that these two guys are transacting (giving and taking). And making note of the transaction as well. Which means until and unless everyone on the network is helping one of them cheat, no one of these two can cheat.

You might still think, “it still does not mean that one of the guys could not change his part of the deal”. The answer is

Cryptography

Using cryptography, a block creator encrypts the information of a block inside a secure wrap. Blockchains employ cryptography to ensure that the information is untampered and correct.

Why’s cryptography so significant here? – Cryptography is like having a lock that guarantees that the contents it is securing are not tampered with. This means, whoever has the lock (and its keys) can and will be giving the correct item.

In the context of our Blockchain’s Red Cardigan story:-

1. The person getting the red cardigan can rest assured because no matter how many times they exchange the cardigan, each transaction will be recorded on an individual dedicated page, and compulsorily filed in the folder.

2. Everyone in the house would have an updated carbon copy of the folder and can check the validity of the ownership. (this is distributed ledger – a term that you must have repeatedly heard in the context of blockchain)

3. The cardigan is virtually visible and guaranteed by virtue of the cryptographic code that its current owner has. If Jack hands over a packet to Jill and claims that the packet contains the red cardigan, Jill would be able to see the cardigan inside as the cryptography would make the packet transparent.

The next part (4) of our story would answer – Why would *everyone* on blockchain not cheat? In terms of our Blockchain’s Red Cardigan story, it would be about why would everyone bother about taking care of their carbon copy of the folder.