Part 1: What is Blockchain ?
You must be wondering, why a plant tissue culture lab writing its first blog on blockchain ?
And the answer is simple…
Its gonna change the way we do business and pretty much everything in which unethical intermediaries are involved.
Food Traceability will become an integral part of our food supply chain in near future. And first step will always start from …
You guessed it right !
THE ORIGIN i.e. Seed Growth
But before we jump into all these details, I want to dedicate this article to a very misunderstood concept of our times…
WHAT IS A BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY ?
Without going into any technical jargons , best way to explain it can be:
Blockchain is a digital ledger that keeps a permanent record of all the transaction that have been taken in a secure, chronological and immutable way.
4 Points to note here:
Growing Ledger
Global open source ledger, constantly growing in size to keep record of all the transactions.
Cryptographic hash is a fingerprint for a certain data i.e. specific digest of one specific data valid for a specific data.
Nonce (stands for number used once) helps to create a valid hash so that every block (containing specific set of data) is interlinked like a chain with the last block
Secure
Ledger is saved in multiple copies by miners around the world in a decentralized way.
Even the minutest change in the block data breaks the link between the block thus making the blockchain invalid (The ultimate domino effect)
There are 1000’s of similar blockchains of a currency ( for example ) across its network. Any change in the blockchain will have a different cryptographic hash from all other blockchains making it invalid in the system
Chronological
Blocks are placed in a increasing order in a ledger.
Immutable
All data is available online & is un editable i.e. once created cannot be changed again.
If a hacker tries to change any data in the existing blockchain, they will have to mine all the blocks after that block (where data has been changed)
Since hashing power keeps on increasing every 6 to 10 mins as the new block is mined around the world, this is literally impossible !
Keeping things short & crisp…
Blockchain technology is built on 3 pillars
Value
Enables a unique assets to be transferred over internet without a middle centralized agent
Trust
Permanent, secure & unaltered record of who owns who, with the help of advance cryptography
Reliability
Decentralized network structure ensure that there is no single point of failure which could bring the entire system down.
Since we have some basic understanding of what blockchain is all about, now would like to address some major…
Misconception Regarding Blockchain
Myth 1 : Bitcoin is anonymous
Fact : Bitcoin is pseudonymous
How : Bitcoin address is your identity and anybody can see it
Myth 2 : Bitcoin is used to launder money
Fact : Its a public record; everything is visible
Myth 3 : Blockchain is a better database
Fact : No, its an immutable ledger
Why : Once data is hard coded on the blockchain it is un editable & cannot be edited
Myth 4 : Blockchain is bitcoin
Fact : Blockchain as a technology which has expanded well & above in major industries like supply chain, real estate & healthcare
I hope this crash course made some sense about what is blockchain technology is all about.
In part 2 of this blog series we talk about why current food supply chain really sucks big time
And in part 3 we discuss how blockchain technology can be implemented in the food supply chain & agriculture followed by its benefits in part 4
