Blockchain Technology: From the Technological Fringes to the Mainstream and Its Applications

Abstract

Blockchain Technology which began as a pilot project on the technological fringes aimed at solving the double-spending in a digital exchange of value in a transactional relationship has moved into the mainstream and become the vortex of technological innovations. In technical parlance, blockchain technology is called ‘Distributed Database (DD)’ or ‘Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)’. Its intrusion into our ‘wired world’ of cybernetics has thrown open a whole ‘Pandora box’ of a sort, a jinni out of the technological bottle, whose applicability cuts across not only finance but across the broad spectrum of our social, political, and economic life. Since its debut in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto, it has generated a great deal of interest globally; with mixed feelings; swinging between euphoria and trepidation. Euphoric because it has endangered trust, while a feeling of trepidation because of its decentral city based on consensus. This technological breakthrough was made possible by the employment of cryptography and algorithm. This paper is an attempt at exploring the noise and the frenzy about blockchain technology and its unfolding ubiquitous uses across various aspects of our daily existence.

Keywords

• blockchain technology
• cryptocurrency
• distributed ledger technology
• algorithm
• cryptography