Blockchain: Future of financial and cyber security

Abstract

Blockchain is a decentralized ledger used to securely exchange digital currency, perform deals and transactions. Each member of the network has access to the latest copy of encrypted ledger so that they can validate a new transaction. Blockchain ledger is a collection of all Bitcoin transactions executed in the past. Basically, it's a distributed database which maintains a continuously growing tamper proof data structure blocks which holds batches of individual transactions. The completed blocks are added in a linear and chronological order. Each block contains a timestamp and information link which points to a previous block. Bitcoin is peer-to-peer permission-less network which allows every user to connect to the network and send new transaction to verify and create new blocks. Satoshi Nakamoto described design of Bitcoin digital currency in his research paper posted to cryptography listserv in 2008. Nakamoto's suggestion has solved long pending problem of cryptographers and laid the foundation stone for digital currency. This paper explains the concept, characteristics, need of Blockchain and how Bitcoin works. It attempts to highlights role of Blockchain in shaping the future of banking, financial institutions and adoption of Internet of Things(IoT).