How does the blockchain work?

Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology used for digital transaction management. It consists of blocks that are linked together using cryptography. Each block consists of timestamp, transaction details and cryptographic hash of the previous block. Blockchain has a wide range of applications from marketing and trading, healthcare, to the power and energy sector. It is the core technology behind bitcoin. Blockchain can be public, private or hybrid. Each participant in the blockchain technology is called a node. When someone requests a transaction, it is sent to all the nodes connected to the blockchain network. Participants verify the transaction and the transaction is validated only if consensus (agreement) has been attained between the nodes. Once the transaction is verified, a new block is created, and the transaction details are added to it. The new block is then added to the existing blockchain which now becomes immutable and the transaction is said to be complete.

Preethy V. Warrier IEEE Senior Member, IEEE Power & Energy Society

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