Blockchain
By CoinGecko | Updated on Mar 03, 2020
A digital ledger where data is recorded in a chronological order. In Bitcoin's case, it is a decentralized, public ledger which contains transactional information. Users can verify that transactions have occured simply by looking at the data that is publicized on the Bitcoin network.
In a blockchain, the next piece of information that will be added is always linked to a previous, already confirmed information of the blockchain through the use of a hash which describes the past content. With the hash, every block of information in a blockchain becomes referenced with one another, and cannot be easily swapped out, thereby qualifying as an immutable ledger.
Related Terms
Protocol
The set of rules in a network in which participating members comply to allow proper communication.
Halving
Event that serves to reduce in half the reward of the Proof-of-Work miners that operate in the blockchain network.
Merkle Tree
A Merkle tree is also known as a hash tree in cryptography. It is a tree where every lead node is labelled with cryptographic hash of a data block, and every non-leaf node is labelled with the hash of the labels of its child nodes. It is used to verify of data stored within it and transferable in and between computers.
Solo Staker
A Qtum PoS miner using their own coins for staking. Qtum blockchain launched with Solo Stakers and will continue to have this available after offline staking launches.
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