Blockchain is not a single technology, but more of a technique. A blockchain is an architectural concept, and there are many ways that blockchains can be be built, and each of the variations will have different effects on how the system operates. In this chapter, we are going to cover the aspects of blockchain technology that are used in all or most of the current implementations.
By the end of this chapter, you should be able to describe the pieces of a blockchain and evaluate the capacities of one blockchain technology against another at the architectural level.
Here are the concepts we will be covering:
- Blocks
- The chain between blocks
- Hashing and signatures
- Block structure
- Block miners
- Block validators
- Smart contracts
- Blockchain speed