Blockchain: The Gateway to New Technology and its Applications for Academic Libraries

The block chain is a distributed database that stores and shares records of all transactions or digital events that have taken place. Each transaction is double-checked by the majority of the system's members. It holds every single transaction's record. The block chain is a novel technology that is being used to validate and store transaction records for online crypto currencies such as Bit coin. Transactions cannot be retracted, copied, or faked because the system is redundant and distributed. The block chain has potential applications in domains other than online money, such as public libraries. This column will briefly outline what a block chain is and how it is used, as well as potential future uses that librarians and Academic Library practitioners would be interested in, as well as some of the system's flaws. Information workers may be able to utilize and benefit from this technology in a variety of ways.