Babbitt column | We are talking about the blockchain, is the same concept?

With the government's blockchain as an important breakthrough in independent innovation of core technologies, and rising to the national strategic height, the concept of blockchain can be described as an instant detonation of the country, whether on TV or social media, every place can see The word to the blockchain.

Some people say that to be "no-coin public chain", some people say that the essence of the blockchain is the issue of currency; some people say that the blockchain should be used to solve the problem of depositing certificates. Some people say that the problem that can be solved by solving the Internet with the blockchain is "use" The cannon hits the mosquito." Obviously, there are a thousand Hamlet in the eyes of a thousand people, and each block has a different blockchain.

I simply sorted it out. The blockchain in the eyes of everyone can be divided into the following categories:

First, the blockchain in the eyes of technical geeks – narrow blockchain

In the eyes of technical geeks, the real blockchain is as defined in this concept: blockchain=block+chain.

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A block is roughly composed of the following parts: transaction, block structure, and random number. There is a question here. How do you think that the block and the block are divided? In fact, it is not through time, nor through the number of transactions within the block, nor through the size of the block, but through the workload proof to calculate the random number.

This is interesting: if you calculate a random number within 1min, then a block is 1min; if the next block is a random number within 30min, then the next block is 30min. That is to say, between the block and the block, it is divided by the POW workload proof.

With POW, there is a block! Without a POW, there is no block! Without blocks, there is naturally no blockchain!

This is the definition of the block, let us look at the definition of the chain: one by one, combined by specific rules, form a chain. In general, the formation of the chain has the following steps:

1. Selection of new blocks – Generally speaking, which block first calculates the random number, whichever block is used; but if there are multiple nodes at the same time, the selection problem is involved. 2, network communication – quickly broadcast the newly generated new block, spread to more nodes as soon as possible. 3. The longest chain is formed – and the next block is built on this basis.

Of course, there are some more detailed components, but the general steps are the above three steps.

In fact, the formation process of the chain is the process of converging different data of different nodes of the whole network into certain and identical data.

On the basis of understanding the concepts of “block” and “chain”, and then “blockchain=block+chain”, this is the most fundamental technical definition of blockchain, and it is also the eyes of many geeks. Blockchain.

Strictly speaking, in their eyes, only the projects that use the POW workload proof are the most orthodox blockchain projects. The blockchain they understand is basically the public chain. In their eyes, what other distributed accounting The alliance chain is a “pseudo-blockchain”, and even the projects of other POS and DPOS consensus mechanisms are “pseudo-blockchains”.

However, I personally think that this definition can be slightly relaxed. In addition to the POW project, some POS, DPOS or mixed mechanism projects with various consensus mechanisms can also be called blockchain public chain projects for the time being, otherwise this area The definition of the blockchain is also too narrow.

The characteristic of the public chain is that it is closely related to the currency. Because the public chain project has a billing task, it takes a lot of cost for the node. If there is no incentive for the currency, it is difficult to have a large number of ecological parties involved.

Second, the blockchain in the eyes of the government – alliance chain, distributed accounting

This time, the news broadcast reported the blockchain. One of the details was that Professor Chen Chun, a professor at Zhejiang University and a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, gave a speech to the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. The speech was repeatedly mentioned in the speech. He said:

"We want to focus on the alliance blockchain, which is friendly to the regulation, unlike the public chain, there is no way to regulate it."

“The alliance chain blockchain is not only supervised, but also features high performance, high availability, and protection of security and privacy.”

“The biggest challenge of the current public chain in China is regulation. It is difficult for the private chain to bring out the most important features and advantages of the blockchain. Therefore, the alliance blockchain should be at this stage or in China for a long time. The main force in the development of the blockchain industry."

And this has become the most standard definition in the eyes of the government. They believe that the blockchain is equal to the alliance chain, and the blockchain is the distributed accounting system. The blockchain can completely leave the coin.

Is there any use of the alliance chain? Of course it is useful! Is there any use for distributed accounting? Of course it is useful!

For example, the government has previously proposed a slogan: "Let the information run more, let people run less." To do this, relying on traditional Internet technology is more difficult. The main reason is the problem of information silos. Every centralized organization has its own data. These data will not be shared with other companies, so information about different centers is involved. In the exchange, the artificial line is required to run down, and the person exchanges information between different centers to complete the "last 1 km" of this information exchange.

Although it is possible to enforce the problem of data sharing in the administration through administrative power, in a larger business environment, commercial organizations will not take their data out for no reason, and the exchange of information will still be hindered in these links.

However, after the blockchain is released, the data of multiple parties can be shared through distributed accounting, and the parties can still retain their own data, and the privacy of the data will not be leaked. Through distributed accounting, the "last 1 km" in the original Internet information transmission has been truly opened, making the information transmission of the Internet more efficient and less frictional. This meaning may not be as great as the legendary "value Internet", but the same meaning. extraordinary.

We know that Alibaba has launched the ant blockchain. Tencent recently launched the Tencent blockchain. Baidu's superchain has already been in development. These Internet companies are launching their own blockchains, and they don't have any currency. . Even if these blockchains are not issued, they can effectively solve the problem of information transfer between different organizations in their own ecology, which can make the cooperation between the company and the company, the company and the customers closer.

The biggest difference between the alliance chain, distributed accounting and the public chain is that the alliance chain and distributed accounting items generally do not issue coins, and this is exactly in line with the requirements of the state.

Third, the blockchain in the eyes of enterprises – the blockchain in a broad sense

Above we talked about the public chain and the alliance chain, but now there are not many public and alliance chains in the market, but there are many projects that claim to be related to the blockchain. What is going on?

For example, the central bank of China has long implemented a blockchain-based check digitization system, mainly for corporate bill financing, which is designed to combat financial fraud and reduce the cost of printing checks. It has been used for more than a year.

Some people have doubts about this news. Their question is, if there is really a blockchain element, why didn't this heavy news cause a market sensation? But if there is no blockchain element, why does the central bank claim that this is a blockchain-based check digitization system?

In fact, if you analyze it in detail, the biggest difference between this data billing system and the traditional billing system is that this system loads smart contracts and uses the central bank's own words:

"Based on the analysis of the characteristics of digital instruments and their transactions, we have initially completed a digital ticket technology infrastructure based on blockchain technology and smart contracts. Each digital ticket is a program containing the business logic of the ticket. Code and corresponding ticket data information, these digital tickets running on the blockchain have independent life cycle and self-maintenance business processing capabilities, and can support a series of core businesses such as bill acceptance, endorsement transfer, discounting, discounting, and redemption. Types, various business rules can be achieved through smart contract programming."

Basically, the part related to the blockchain in this system may only be a "smart contract". Although a smart contract is an important element in the blockchain, it is only one element, not even a blockchain. The most important element, then it caused this kind of "尴尬".

In addition to smart contracts, there are many such elements. Blockchains are made up of many technologies, such as UTXO, such as public-private key pairs, such as digital fingerprints, such as distributed accounting, such as POW workload proof. Although the blockchain combines them to create a magical effect, even if you look at it separately, each of these techniques can be used separately from the blockchain.

For example, UTXO, the use of UTXO has changed the traditional clearing method, and can realize the function of “transaction and clearing”, which can liberate traditional finance from complicated settlement and clearing, reduce intermediate links and make transactions more convenient. However, UTXO does not have to be used in conjunction with the blockchain. UTXO models can also be used in traditional data structures. At present, many financial institutions are trying to expand the application of UTXO. In my opinion, the potential of this technology is still Far from playing out.

For example, the workload proof, the workload proof is the first to develop anti-spam; for example, the elliptic hyperbolic cryptosystem is used in many Internet encryption applications.

Many projects may be designed to be hot, as long as their project adopts any of these technical elements, they will claim that he uses blockchain technology. After all, blockchain is the hottest word now, and it is the easiest to attract customers and Investor's attention.

Strictly pursued, did they use blockchains in the end? This depends on how you understand. If you use the definition of the narrow blockchain above, then they certainly do not use the blockchain; however, if we use the definition of the generalized blockchain, that is, as long as the block is used One of the elements of chain technology, we think it is a blockchain project .

So, when a lot of weird business claims to use the blockchain, please don't be surprised, he is actually talking about "generalized blockchain", which means that it may only be used in the blockchain. A little technical element.

Fourth, the blockchain in the eyes of ordinary people – the pass economy

When it comes to the general public economy, everyone is familiar with the most common in daily life.

For example, there are many content platforms. In fact, there is no semi-trivial relationship with the blockchain. There is no semi-trivial relationship with decentralization. The operation, management and maintenance of the content platform are all the project parties have the final say. Centralized project. The only thing that is relevant to the blockchain is that it issued a coin based on the blockchain, which is the pass.

In addition to the content platform, most of the current currency projects are like this, such as those game projects, the so-called DAPP, their relationship with the blockchain, in fact, is a coin, but in addition to the traditional There is no difference in Internet projects.

Of course, it is the movement of the currency, and the meaning is huge. Too small to say, it allows each of us to intuitively feel the existence of the blockchain; to the big, it can trigger a big wave of the pass-through economy.

The pass-through economy is a very important concept in the field of blockchain. There are many big rumors that are very optimistic about the CIS economy. They think that the most important thing that the blockchain ultimately contributes to society is the pass-through economy. Providing people with a strong collaboration model that accurately quantifies the contribution of each individual in the system, thereby greatly stimulating the enthusiasm of each participant, greatly improving work efficiency, and the Compulsory Economy will eventually subvert the existing Company policy.

V. Conclusion

1. The blockchain in the eyes of geeks – the narrow blockchain.

2, the blockchain in the eyes of the government – alliance chain, distributed accounting.

3, the blockchain in the eyes of enterprises – the generalized blockchain (blockchain elements).

4, the blockchain in the eyes of ordinary people – pass the economy.

After subdividing the blockchains in different people's eyes, we will go back and discuss the meaning of the blockchain with them, and then discuss the value of the blockchain project, so that the pertinence may be stronger and will not appear. The case of chickens talking with ducks.

We will continue to update Blocking; if you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us!