Introduction to blockchain: the origin of the "island blockchain"

Today I will open a new feature content called "Island Blockchain".

I was contemplating this topic when I was reading "Island Economics." "Island Economics" uses popular and easy-to-understand stories to popularize some difficult concepts in economics. All the stories described are not independent, but a complete plot, how the economy is developed from the source. The process, I am like reading a novel, easy to understand the whole day, I will open a new topical content, called "Island Blockchain."

I was contemplating this topic when I was reading "Island Economics." "Island Economics" uses popular and easy-to-understand stories to popularize some difficult concepts in economics. All the stories described are not independent, but a complete plot, how the economy is developed from the source. Process, I am just like reading a novel, and easily understand the ins and outs of the entire economic development. This reading experience is really very enjoyable.

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Due to the popularity of the current blockchain, the questions I often receive are:

“What exactly is the blockchain?”

“How was the blockchain born?”

“Why do many scholars like the blockchain so much?”

“What impact will the blockchain have on the world?”

For this reason, I hope that I can explain these issues in an easy-to-understand way, and the "Island Blockchain" came into being.

Ok, after a brief introduction, I officially started the content of "Island Blockchain".

First, the story of the deer valley

The story takes place in a gold mine called Deer Valley. Deer Valley is isolated from the world and self-sufficient. In the Deer Valley, only the gold that can be dug out by the villagers can be used as currency. They can use gold to exchange various necessities in other people's hands.

One day, Kobayashi took the gold he had mined and went to find Xiao Li for a pork belly to eat. As usual, Kobayashi walked on the streets of Deer Valley with his own gold. At this time, he strolled around and saw the food stalls on the side of the road. Kobayashi loved to eat, which could not restrain his appetite. Out of the gold in his arms, he took out a sharp knife that was used to separate gold. He took a few small pieces of gold and used it to buy a lot of snacks, stinky tofu and octopus balls. Duck neck. This can make Xiaolin happy. So he ate and went to Xiao Li’s house.

Walking and thinking, I suddenly remembered that something was wrong. I stood still thinking for five minutes. When he stuffed the twenty-fifth octopus balls into his mouth, he wanted to understand. Gold was originally brought out. Go to the Xiao Li family for the pork belly! That is Xiaolin’s favorite, and now it’s spent so much, it’s not enough. You should know that because gold is too heavy, there are not many golds that can be used for expenses. This is good, and I have to go back to get the gold and then go to Xiao Li to trade.

This problem has existed for a long time in Lugu, but it is only possible to use this method without suffering a more convenient alternative, but gradually, the residents of Lugu have been suffering. For example, the bosses who do business even hire some villagers to transport a large amount of gold for exchange to the site of the purchase. The compensation that needs to be paid to the villagers is also a large expenditure. Finally, on this day, at the 108th village meeting in Lugu, Xiaolin, who had traveled back and forth to get gold, put forward his own opinion: Can there be a better way to replace this method of using gold as a general equivalent?

As soon as this issue was raised, the pot was blown up at the conference site, because the villagers have long complained about this type of exchange. Not waiting for the village head to speak, the villagers have already started to talk about it. Because gold is heavy and expensive, every time a woman in a village goes out to buy food every day and cuts out the corresponding weight of gold for exchange with a knife. It is very difficult to cut out just the weight of gold, and it is easy. Loss, the weight of each person's hands is different, it is easy to use a knife to lose a part of the gold. Listening to the opinions of the villagers, the village head is also suffering.

At this time, the assistant of the village chief, and the son of the village chief, Xiao Zheng put forward his own opinion: Why not use the paper that is available everywhere in Lugu to replace gold for trading? Suppose a piece of paper is equivalent to a piece of gold. Then we only need to write a piece of gold on paper. Is it not convenient to take the paper out of the door?

Think about it as if it is this truth! It is really convenient to trade with paper. But if there is paper, then everyone has it. If everyone doesn't work, what can I do if I paint paper that can be used to replace gold at home?

Xiao Zheng said: But this paper that replaces gold can only be issued by the village chief. Only the paper issued by the village chief has the effect of redeeming the goods. And it is not to say that there are many paper village chiefs who have the final say on a single person. Every household must put their own gold in the village head. The village chief keeps it under the condition of verifying the weight, and then corresponds to it. The corresponding amount of paper is issued, and the promised paper can be exchanged for gold at the village chief at any time.

Everyone listened to what Xiao Zheng said, such as 醍醐 醍醐 。. "Yes! This can't solve the problem that gold is not easy to carry and easy to wear!", "Yes! Don't worry about the problem of forgery!", "I just worried that if there are more paper paintings." It’s not worth it. Now it seems that there is no such problem at all!” The villagers expressed their opinions one by one. "And the words of the village chief are all known. What announcements in the village can be written by the village head. I can recognize the word of the village chief at a glance!", "Yes!", "After that." I have to trouble the village chief, hahaha."

Therefore, under the proposal of Xiao Zheng and the attachment of the people, Lugu’s “banknotes” system was officially put into effect, and several kinds of banknotes with circulation denominations were produced. It is very convenient to facilitate the daily purchase of the villagers!

After a period of time, the villagers have adapted to this new payment method. The villagers who did not trust the use of banknotes before the passing of the word also took the gold at the bottom of their house to the village chief's house for exchange of banknotes.

Slowly, the village chief began to have complaints. First of all, the daily workload is too great. If you change the banknotes or exchange gold, the village head is uncomfortable, and the number of banknotes issued by the village chief has been very scary. The current growth rate is going on, and the village head alone is sure to cope with this problem.

So the clever Xiao Zheng thought of a way, and raised it at the 109th village meeting in Lugu. He said: "People hand in their respective banknotes, our village branch is destroyed, and then use the books to record the banknotes handed in by each household. After verifying the quantity, write down the amount of gold that each family should have. When you call, you can call the village head. For example, isn’t Kobayashi often changing the pork with Xiao Li? When you change, I will call the village head to explain the situation. The village head will be on the ledger. Correspondingly increase and decrease the gold holdings of two people, is this not enough?"

Everyone was dumbfounded, and it was a child of the village chief’s family.

Therefore, once again, the monetary reform centered on the village chief began. This time, the centralized monetary system became more and more profound. The village head alone monopolized the power. How much money should each family have? The village head has the final say. At the beginning, the villagers had a trust in the village head, and the village head also correctly recorded the expenses and income of each person.

The good times have not been long. The account book used by the village chief for a long time has been seriously damaged. Because almost every day, villagers come over to exchange banknotes or exchange gold, and the books are overwhelmed. Some accounts are not clear because of the serious wear and tear. At this time, the village chief took a new account book and tried to repair the old books that were already vague. Some of the accounts that are so vague that they can't be clearly seen are repaired by the memory of the village chief. The current accounts of Lugu are very complicated. It is inevitable that many mistakes are made. Many villagers call the village chief to keep accounts. When I found out, I clearly have some gold left in my account. How can I get to the village head without it? So the 110th village meeting of Lugu was held.

"The head of the village chief, there are still 100 pieces of gold left in my account! Why is there no more?", "The village head, I have more than 90 pieces left!". The villagers said it one by one, but the village head had a lot of heart. He did not keep as much gold as the villagers said, but now he is suffering from the ambiguity of the accounts, and he has been unable to find out the actual stocks that everyone said. Really, what should I do?

“It’s quiet and quiet!” said the village head. “Since everyone said that they still have so much gold left, then everyone will go to someone who can prove your gold stock, but you can trade with you. A trader can also be a neighbor who can prove your assets. As long as it turns out that you do have so many, then I will write it to you!"

The village head said that everyone has gradually quieted down. After thinking about it, this is indeed the best way at present. At this time, the head of the village said: "In the future, everyone will keep their own accounts, and each of them will write down their respective accounts. However, in order to ensure the correctness of the accounts, at least six villagers must confirm that the transaction is true and the signature can be counted. The accounts of each family are recorded. We will unify the accounts of all people for a period of time, so that if anyone's books are inconsistent with most other people, we can also take the majority of the books. ”

The village chief said that it is because he is old, and the bookkeeping is so cumbersome. If he still uses him as the accounting center, it is inevitable that he will not make mistakes any more, so he put forward this idea.

Everyone thought about this way, saying that it is okay, he is too wasteful of everyone's energy, everyone has to spend time to keep accounts, but also to confirm other people's accounts; say it is not good, it is indeed At present, the most suitable solution, the trouble is a little trouble, but it can ensure the real and effective accounts to the greatest extent.

So everyone ran according to the way the village chief proposed this kind of personal accounting.

Second, the story analysis

Having said that, everyone should have a rough picture of the world I just described. Now let's sort out what happened in the Deer Valley is what is real in our real world.

First of all, the early Lugu was traded in physical currency, that is, gold. This is the same as the gold ingots in the TV series we watched. It is a physical currency that represents a certain purchasing power. The disadvantage is that it is not convenient to carry and easy to wear.

Later, after Xiao Zheng’s suggestion, Lugu was changed into a banknote, which is the embryonic form of modern currency. It was booked by a centralization institution like the bank, and the banknote was issued through a strong credit endorsement. The advantage of the method is convenience, and the bookkeeping is worry-free, but there is a fatal flaw is the centralized credit endorsement problem, which can only be adopted when the credit is strong enough to be credible.

In the future, Lugu tells the village head that the amount of money traded by the village chief by phone. The village head no longer issues credit currency. This is like the UnionPay payment and Alipay that we use now. The centralization agency will no longer give you banknotes. Need to tell the center how much we spend, he can help you remember the account. Simply put, just like Alipay, we only know the numbers but don't have to trade through paper money.

Then there is the bitcoin model. Each villager has its own account book (distributed bookkeeping), and each villager informs and confirms the true and false transaction (point-to-point transmission, consensus mechanism).

In general, the birth of bitcoin is like the deer valley in the story, which stems from the constant exploration and exploration of the monetary system. Satoshi Nakamoto also combined with many of his predecessors' skills and experience to create Bitcoin, and Bitcoin is the underlying technology of innovation in the monetary system. We call it the blockchain, which serves as a way to make the database secure. A solution that requires an administrative agency's credit is applied to Bitcoin.

At that time, Nakamoto did not even name such a technique. In October 2008, in the original paper of Nakamoto, the words "block" and "chain" were used separately and were widely used. Time is collectively referred to as "block-chain", and later it becomes a complete word: "blockchain."

Well, today's "Island Blockchain" blockchain originated here, and I will continue to update the "Island Blockchain" content, including some obscure techniques, I will also It will be delivered to you in a story-telling manner.

Things are gathered together, people are divided into groups, if the interested friends can search for "block teacher Ni", the first time to see the latest content.

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