区块链记录的是什么账单,区块链怎么查询

区块链记录的是什么账单，区块链怎么查询是大家关注的问题，下面就这两个问题进行相关拓展，介绍区块链的三个关键词：区块链技术、智能合约、多重签名。

区块链技术：区块链技术是一种分布式的数据库技术，它使用节点网络的数据结构来存储和记录数据，这些数据可以是账单、交易信息、用户信息等。它的特点是数据在每个节点上都是可追溯的，不可篡改，这就保证了数据的安全性和完整性，从而可以查询到完整的账单信息。

智能合约：智能合约是一种基于区块链技术的可执行的自动化的协议，它可以把账单记录在区块链上，并且可以自动完成账单结算，从而极大地提高了账单的安全性和可靠性。它可以记录账单的所有信息，包括账单的发起时间、发起人、金额、状态等，还可以提供账单的查询功能，从而可以方便的查询账单信息。

多重签名：多重签名是一种基于区块链技术的安全技术，它可以通过多方签名的方式来保护账单的安全性，同时也可以提高账单的可靠性。它可以通过多方签名的方式来保证账单的完整性，并且可以提供查询账单的功能，从而可以方便的查询账单的信息。

以上就是区块链记录的是什么账单，区块链怎么查询的相关拓展，介绍了三个关键词：区块链技术、智能合约、多重签名。这三个技术都可以用来记录和查询账单，提高账单的安全性和可靠性，从而可以保障账单的完整性。

请查看相关英文文档

1. This is what transactions on the blockchain are like

Transactions on the blockchain are actually very simple and not mysterious. To understand transactions on the blockchain, let me first look at a transaction in daily life.

What would happen if the payment method of this transaction was moved to the blockchain? Before talking about blockchain transactions, let’s briefly talk about blockchain transaction accounting.

1. What is blockchain

Blockchain is simply B’s ledger. A block is a page in this ledger, used to record transaction information. For example: On December 14, 2017, a computer was sold and a profit of 5,000 yuan was made. All blocks are strung together in order to form a blockchain, that is, a ledger.

2. Characteristics of blockchain

Blockchain is a distributed accounting network. If it is difficult to understand, you can compare it with the centralized accounting network of Alipay, as shown below: < /p>

The central approach is like having only one accountant. Only this accountant knows how the transaction is going. Distribution is like a bunch of people keeping the same account and making a transaction, everyone knows about it. A relatively small group with only one person knowing the information. An information disclosure and transparency.

3. Blockchain transaction accounting

In Alipay’s centralized accounting network, transfers only require Alipay to confirm and record the transfer behavior, and then the transfer can be completed and recorded. .

In the blockchain of the distributed accounting network, each transfer transaction will be sent to each node and confirmed by them before the transfer can be completed and recorded.

To put it simply, in a centralized accounting network, one person has the final say, while in a distributed accounting network, everyone has the final say. If anyone lies or commits fraud, they will be able to spot it quickly, because everyone has a copy in their hands. Exactly the same ledger.

If A chooses Alipay to transfer payment to B, the operation process is as follows: open Alipay -> click on transfer -> enter the other party's Alipay account -> enter the transfer amount -> click to confirm the transfer -> enter the password. Whoosh, the money was in account B.

If A chooses to pay B with BTC, if the current 1 BTC = 100,000 yuan, then A needs to pay 0.05+0.001 = 0.051 BTC to B, of which 0.001 BTC is the mining fee.

The operation process is as follows:

In terms of operation, the transfer process is similar. Maybe you don’t understand what an address is? What the hell is the mining fee? What are those 6 confirmation numbers? No rush, come one by one.

1. Blockchain address

The address can be understood as B’s Alipay account. When A transfers money to B, he naturally needs to know the other party’s “account number”, so that the money can be transferred. The following is a BTC address:

It is a string composed of numbers and letters.

How is this address generated? It is generated by the public key through a one-way hash function. You can leave it alone and it is automatically generated. Unlike Alipay, you can choose the Alipay account name according to your personal preferences when applying for an account.

What else can the address be used for? To check the "account" balance and transfer transactions, you can check the balance and transfer records under any valid BTC address on the btc.com website, as shown in the following figure:

2. Transaction confirmation number

In the blockchain distributed accounting network, every transfer transaction is confirmed by a node in the network, and one transaction confirmation number is recorded. However, it will take a long time for the transfer to take effect only after confirmation from all nodes in the network. Therefore, in the BTC network, based on design calculations, when 6 transaction confirmations are obtained, the transaction can be considered very safe, the transaction takes effect, and the transferred BTC can be received.

3. Mining fees

Mining fees are the "tips" paid by A to the BTC network provider when A transfers money to B to encourage them to provide services for the BTC network. The "tip" can be adjusted. The more "tip" you give, the faster the transfer speed will be.

4. Transaction progress query

BTC transfer generally takes 0.5~1h. Faced with such a long time transfer, it is inevitable to check the transfer progress to comfort the anxious mood. How to check it? ?

You can query by address, as above. It can also be queried by TxID.

What is TxID? TxID is the abbreviation of transaction ID, which translates to: transaction ID.

When the transaction information is packaged and sent to the network, a TxID will be generated, but it is used to view transaction-related information, somewhat similar to a receipt. The status of any transaction ID can be queried through the btc.com website, as shown in the query result below:

At this point, you can easily transfer transactions on the blockchain, check account status and transfer progress.

This article is rewarded by Bihu.com Content Support Program

2. After countless digital currency transactions, can the historical records still be found?

Can. Digital currencies such as Bitcoin have two characteristics: 1. Transactions on the blockchain are public: anyone can query all related transactions of an account (address). 2. Blockchain account (address) anonymity: Unless the account owner actively discloses it, it will not beIt may be possible to know who an address belongs to. The essence of creating a Bitcoin address is to randomly select one from 2^256 private keys (which can be simply understood as the password of the account).

The attribute of Bitcoin is the private key (a string of random characters).

Bitcoin is effectively the same as gold and antiques. Its value lies in its limited quantity (whether natural or man-made). Because the quantity is limited, it is scarce. Everything has value because of scarcity; but like any commodity in any market, the price of Bitcoin is determined by supply and demand. This supply and demand relationship may be affected by major international events. A black swan event may cause a large amount of wealth to be stranded in unofficial channels, and the need to retain wealth through Bitcoin will increase. Bitcoin prices will rise.

3. How to query blockchain coins on Ethereum

You can directly query by entering information such as wallet address, transaction ID, block hash or block height, which is very convenient. .
If you are querying information such as account balance, historical transaction data of the account, etc., it is recommended to directly enter the wallet address to query; if you are querying relevant information about a certain transfer, such as whether it has been received and how the progress is, it is most convenient to enter the transaction ID.
Of course, the blockchain browser can not only query your own account, but also other people's accounts and related transaction information, including the account of Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto.

4. A new way to track and manage digital assets, teach you how to view blockchain bills

Bills record value circulation and status, which is a basic function of financial services.

Our commonly used banks, Alipay, WeChat Pay, etc. will record a transaction for ordinary users and merchants, and provide query, statistics and analysis services in different dimensions.

For example, the Alipay annual bill that everyone loves to post will count the user's total income and expenditure throughout the year, consumption types, Yu'E Bao and other financial management income, and the number of takeaway orders. Through big data technology, consumer interests and trends in various regions and different age groups are displayed, so that consumers can better understand the consumption environment around them, and merchants can grasp market demand in a timely manner.

In a decentralized blockchain network, transactions are permanently recorded on the chain, open and transparent, and accessible to everyone.

However, since the design of the blockchain is more inclined to ensure non-tampering and data compression requirements, the filtering query function at the business level is missing. Coupled with the different rules of different chains, it becomes extremely difficult to track and manage crypto assets. This is why digital asset investors often lament that they “always feel like they don’t have a clear account.”

SixPencer launches a new blockchain accounting tool, which currently supports the tracking and management of underlying assets of Bitcoin and Ethereum, free to use, no registration required.

Once launched, it has been loved by miners, asset management institutions, OTC merchants, encryption startups, and digital asset investors.

As a professional asset management tool, it can not only query all transaction records on the chain, but also view account balances and It holds assets and provides daily income and expenditure status of various currencies, supports single or multi-address aggregate income and expenditure statistics, address portrait analysis and charts, large transaction record rankings, contact management, etc.

After entering the website, enter the Bitcoin or Ethereum address in the search box on the homepage, and click Search to enter the overview page of the address.

We use the address that currently ranks first in ETH holdings on the entire network: (tag: bitfinex 1) account as a demo account for demonstration, and all data are real on-chain data.

Here is a brief introduction to the difference between addresses and bank accounts on the blockchain. On the blockchain, an address is similar to a bank card number. Knowing the address is the same as knowing the bank card number, and you can transfer money to it.

But the difference is that the blockchain is a distributed public ledger that cannot be tampered with. It is usually anonymous and anyone can conduct public queries on any address. The bank account can only query your own account information, and you cannot know other people's account information through the bank card number.

If the user has multiple addresses or wants to track other addresses, they can search. All searched address information will be summarized on the asset portfolio page. Click the drop-down box to switch or delete accounts.

In addition to the basic information provided by the blockchain browser, SixPencer also adds and displays some personalized indicators to help users understand their own on-chain portrait and track the on-chain trajectories of other accounts. On the overview page below, you can view the address's asset overview, historical indicators, income and expenditure statistics, and asset holding information.

Address overview

Creation time: date of first receipt of ETH

Net assets: all assets, including ERC20 tokens Total USD value of assets

ETH ranking: Number of ETH heldRanking of all Ethereum addresses by volume

ETH balance and valuation: amount of ETH held and its corresponding dollar value

Historical indicators

Historical indicators display the four major dimensions of transaction volume, number of transactions, token analysis and contact analysis. Through statistics, the unclear and confusing accounts can finally be settled. For example, the simplest accounting calculation, total ETH income = ETH balance + total ETH expenditure + total ETH handling fee. Another example is the total number of transactions = the number of transfer-in transactions + the number of transfer-out transactions.

Due to the particularity of the Ethereum network, all transfer fees are paid in ETH. Therefore, we list the handling fees separately, and also support separate screening of handling fees in the transaction details to help users count handling fee expenditures.

Some interesting data, the demo account fee is 1.1556ETH, a single large ETH transfer reaches 900,000 ETH, and the number of tokens held is There are 350 types, and the most traded token is USDT, with only 37 addresses that have been traded with it.

Generally speaking, addresses holding hundreds of different assets are usually exchange addresses. In addition, the number of transactions and contacts are not many, so it can be ruled out that it is an external address, and it can basically be judged that it is used internally by the bitfinex exchange. address.

Income and Expenditure

Statistics of the total income and expenditure of all assets this month, including handling fees.

Asset holdings

Displays the number, value, asset price and 24h increase or decrease of assets held. The address of an exchange such as a demo account, which holds assets, usually does not fit on 10 pages.

In addition to providing the transaction flow of addresses, SixPencer also supports query and filtering of full historical transaction records, balance information, daily income and expenditure statistics, etc.

Transaction details

From the following page, you can clearly know the income and expenditure of ETH assets this month. Users can also proceed according to the date, capital flow, transaction classification and labeling system.Line screening, and conduct more detailed statistics according to your own needs. Later, we will introduce how to screen transactions for specified addresses.

Click the ETH drop-down box in the picture above to switch to the transaction details page of other currencies. For example, switch to the transaction details of USDT to view the detailed status of USDT.

In addition to monthly bills, SixPencer displays the transaction details of each transaction, providing information such as transaction direction, transaction counterparty, transaction amount, account balance, transaction time, daily income and expenses, etc. As you can see in the picture below, the nearly 6 ETH transactions were all transferred from the bitfinex 3 account to bitfinex 1.

Transaction details

Click on any transaction details to enter the transaction details page of that transaction. The transaction hash is a unique and immutable transaction ID for each on-chain transfer, similar to the concept of an order number.

The specific information of a transaction can be queried through the transaction hash.

The transaction quantity, transaction status, transaction time, sender and recipient, handling fee, etc. shown below are the specific information of this transaction and will not be repeated here. It is worth noting that SixPencer provides a personal tag and remark system. Users can make personalized classifications and notes for individual transactions to help remember and not forget every transaction.

How to quickly find and specify the transaction information of the address?

As time goes by and the number of transactions increases, it becomes extremely complex and difficult to query the specified transaction information on the chain. SixPencer refines the transaction information according to business needs and provides a tag system to assist users in customization. Transaction inquiries and statistics.

For example, you want to query the total amount of ETH transferred to the demo account from the address (label: bitfinex 3) in June 2020. Through our billing system, it only takes two steps to check.

1. Label: For demonstration, we will rename the label "bitfinex 3" to "test test".

2. Filter: Filter the dates to June 1st - June 30th, select "Transfer" in the filter bar, and select "Test" in the bottom tab bar", click Save.

After saving, you can search for all the transaction information transferred to the demo account from "test" in June. As can be seen from the figure below, in June, the demo account has a total of " The address of "test" received 58,440.2489 ETH.

If the user wants to query transactions with multiple specified addresses, select multiple tags and adjust the date, fund flow and other information to perform automatic statistics of assets. .

In the analysis column, users can query the chart analysis information of the address in different dimensions, including balance, transaction, classification and ranking. Click on each dimension to view more detailed data and charts.

Balance: Balance displays the balance quantity and value trend of assets

Transaction: Transaction displays all transactions, the number of transactions transferred in and out, and the number of transactions Trends in value and number of transactions

Classification: Classification counts transaction types based on the platform's address label system, reflecting the transaction preferences of the address

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Ranking: The ranking displays active contacts according to the number of transactions, and displays large transactions according to the transaction amount

For example, ranking Through analysis, you can quickly check the specific transaction amount and large-amount transfers with a certain address. As shown below, the demo account and the address labeled "test" have a total of 177 transactions this month, and other transactions with the demo account are more All are ERC20 Token contract call transactions.

From the picture below, the large-amount rankings are also transaction information with addresses labeled "test". The table displays transaction objects, transaction time, transaction direction, Transaction quantity and value. If you are interested in large exchange accounts, you can check the large transfer information of the exchange address to see which addresses are large deposits and withdrawals.

The address book displays all transactions with the demo account The address of the transaction record, in addition to the platform's own tag system, users can add tags to the address or rename tags.

Tags: Displays known tags and users of the platform tag system Add it yourselfLabels

Recent contacts: Display addresses/labels with transaction records in the last 30 days

All contacts: Display all contact addresses/labels with transaction records, addresses with more than 10,000 transactions, and display contacts with the last 10,000 transactions

In summary, SixPencer’s new asset tracking and management tool can provide more comprehensive query and analysis functions than blockchain browsers or wallets. As a tool product, it is intended to assist users in digital Asset management helps everyone make better decisions through further analysis of user profiles on the chain.

We believe that the open and transparent mechanism of blockchain should make data query easier, but currently it is still difficult and painful to quickly query blockchain data according to actual business needs, and has become a major obstacle to commercial implementation.

Digital asset transactions are only a small part of it. A large amount of valuable data will be stored on the blockchain in the future. SixPencer will continue to launch more practical tools to allow Data better serves the business.

5. What is "Blockchain"

Blockchain technology is jointly maintained through decentralization and elimination of trust. Technology for reliable databases. Four keywords can be used to describe blockchain technology: trust reduction, decentralization, collective maintenance and reliable database.

When we talk about the concept of "blockchain", Bitcoin is definitely a topic that will not be ignored. In recent years, Bitcoin has begun to enter the public eye, especially in 2017, which has continued to skyrocket throughout the year, making many people aware of this emerging thing.

Blockchain is actually the underlying technology of Bitcoin. Bitcoin exists because people on the Internet who don’t know each other can move and trade digital currency through the Bitcoin network. And this is driven by blockchain technology. All Bitcoin transactions are recorded on the blockchain ledger. To a certain extent, in the application of Bitcoin, the blockchain plays the role of the underlying database of the bank transaction system. Both are for "keeping accounts". Although it is not very prudent to refer to the blockchain directly as a "database", for the sake of ease of understanding, let's temporarily call it a decentralized, shared, and encrypted database. If described in professional terms, blockchain is a distributed ledger technology.

Blockchain can usually be divided into the following types:

1. Public blockchain. Anyone can access data on a public blockchain, and anyone can issue transactions waiting to be written to the blockchain. Participants in the consensus process (corresponding time ratioMiners in Bitcoin) maintain the security of the database through cryptography and built-in economic incentives.

2. Collaborative blockchain. The nodes participating in the blockchain are pre-selected, and there are likely to be good network connections between the nodes. Other consensus algorithms other than proof-of-work can be used on such a blockchain. For example, a blockchain has been established among a hundred financial institutions, and it is stipulated that more than two-thirds of the institutions must agree to reach a consensus. The data on such a blockchain can be either public or shared internally by these node participants.

3. Private blockchain. The participating nodes are only individual users, and the access and use of data are subject to strict permission management. Most of the internally used blockchain technologies announced by some financial institutions recently are vague and may fall into this range.

The blockchain is a public ledger. There is no centralized hardware or management organization. Anyone can automatically verify the authenticity of the ledger and easily discover whether the ledger has been tampered with by others.

In a word, the blockchain is a public ledger that can be verified by everyone.

The concept of being verifiable by everyone is crucial to blockchain.

Bitcoin uses the blockchain to record all transactions, so anyone knows the number of Bitcoins on each account.

So, as a publicly verifiable ledger, what are some use cases for blockchain?

In fact, there are many use cases that can be thought of. Blockchain is suitable for any data that can be recorded on a public ledger. Here are 4 examples:

1. Decentralized domain name server, namely domain currency. The domain name server is actually a ledger that records domain names.

2. Trustless public key encryption, such as https that discards unreliable certification authorities.

3. Ownership records, truthfully record the items and their corresponding owners.

4. Contracts and performance guarantees, the account book truthfully records the parties to the contract and saves the contract text.

But don’t forget that blockchain also has a very important component.

The ledger recorded using blockchain technology will always be updated. New data such as transactions, domain name inputs, records and contracts will be converted into hash values ​​of the same length by the hash algorithm and saved. However, hashing algorithms are not only not free but also very expensive.

Therefore, the ledger itself needs to have a recognition system to recognize the person who enters the block hash value.

In Bitcoin, this system is called mining and is rooted in the Bitcoin protocol. Bitcoin miners use a hash algorithm to convert transactions waiting for verification into hash values, and charge a certain amount of Bitcoin as a service fee.

Therefore, for non-monetary use cases, blockchainA way needs to be found to afford the high cost of hashing algorithms.

I would like to remind everyone that my answer mainly focuses on the possible use cases of blockchain technology, and does not cover all aspects of blockchain, such as why hashing algorithms are so expensive. I'm sure you can find a lot of detailed information about Bitcoin and other blockchain applications online.

Supplement

Although blockchain technology has many advantages, there are still some less than ideal use cases. For example, there is no way to convert Bitcoin into any national currency; a ledger with billions of data entries would take up space and be impractical.

Bitcoin has shown the world that blockchain technology is feasible in principle, and people are also trying to solve these increasingly prominent problems, such as technological transformation of Bitcoin or the introduction of a completely Different blockchain technologies. I think the following two methods are worth trying: one is to split the ledger according to certain standards such as the payer address, and the other is to introduce a main blockchain to verify the sub-blockchain. Blockchain technology is ever-changing and dazzling, and it’s unknown whether someone is already making such an attempt. But Bitcoin is still the world's first currency blockchain, what others call a cryptocurrency.

Whether in the technology circle or the financial circle, blockchain has become the hottest word, no one. Blockchain has core advantages such as decentralization and trustlessness, and can perfectly solve problems such as information asymmetry, high transaction costs, and trust of strangers in the development of the sharing economy, making "individual economy" possible. Based on this, blockchain technology is considered to be the core technology that has the greatest potential to trigger the fifth wave of disruptive revolution after steam engines, electricity, information and Internet technology.

In this context, a blockchain craze was born in society, and everyone praised it overwhelmingly. Dialectics tells us that everything has flaws, and only by seeing the pros and cons of things can we make rational decisions. Therefore, in this article, Xue Hongyan (Hong Yanweiyu), a senior researcher at Suning Financial Research Institute, focuses on pouring some cold water on the blockchain.

| What is Blockchain

Blockchain, English Blockchain, has a rather mysterious technological flavor in its name, and can be simply broken down into "data blocks" and "links". Each data block contains all the information exchange data of the system within a certain period of time, and is encrypted using cryptographic methods; the link means that each block has a link relationship with the next block, thus forming a blockchain.

It is generally believed that blockchain has two major characteristics: decentralization and trustlessness. A brief introduction is as follows:

Since each block contains all the information exchange data of the system within a specific period of time, Therefore, every block is equal, and the damage of a single block does not affect the system.Overall security, so the blockchain has decentralized characteristics.

Similarly, since each block contains all the information of the system, the authenticity of the information can be cross-verified. Only by breaking through more than 51% of the nodes can the information be tampered with. In a large enough blockchain system , the cost is extremely high, it can be considered that the information in the blockchain is true, so the blockchain has the characteristics of trustlessness.

Most people’s understanding of blockchain begins with Bitcoin. The relationship between the two is that blockchain is the underlying technology and concept, and Bitcoin is only the most popular application of blockchain at present. .

Maybe the above is not popular enough. Finally, let me summarize, what do you think the blockchain is? Is it a disruptive new technology? NO! According to Xue Hongyan (Hong Yanweiyu), a senior researcher at Suning Financial Research Institute, blockchain is not so much a new technology as it is a new ideological concept. The information encryption and other technologies included in the blockchain have been around for a long time, and it is more of a conceptual innovation. This is also the reason why the blockchain has a huge impact. New technologies will be surpassed sooner or later, ranging from one or two years to four to five years; only innovative ideas have enough energy to affect all aspects of the economy and society.

| Blockchain is expected to change the underlying rules of the financial system

In applications in the financial field, blockchain will change the transaction process and record keeping methods, thus significantly reducing transaction costs. It has significantly improved efficiency and is considered to have a broad market environment in digital currency, cross-border payment and clearing, bill trading, securities issuance and trading, property rights transactions, customer credit reporting, anti-fraud, and anti-money laundering.

Such a good technology is naturally sought after by everyone. Like many traditional financial people, Hong Yanweiyu resisted it at first, thinking that this thing was not that great, and did not do any research specifically. Later, as the research on financial technology gradually deepened, it was discovered that blockchain was an obstacle that could not be bypassed, because whether it was robo-advisory, big data risk control or online lending, they were only technological innovations at the financial business level and risk control level. It has not penetrated the bottom layer of the financial system. What is the underlying layer of the financial system? Naturally, it is payment and settlement, transaction rules and system interaction. What the blockchain changes is precisely the underlying rules.

Therefore, throughout the world, financial institutions are the most active in researching blockchain. If nothing else, they are really afraid. After the decentralization and trustless features of the blockchain are fully utilized, what else will the intermediaries of financial institutions do? It is estimated that this is also the first feeling of many people who have a preliminary understanding of blockchain.

In this article, Hong Yanweiyu focuses on pouring cold water on this view.

| Subverting the financial system, blockchain still faces two mountains

Marxist dialectics tells us that everything has two sides. The more prominent the advantages, the more obvious the flaws. It’s just the perspective. Just different. Blockchain will subvert the financial system.The problem lies precisely in the two major advantages of decentralization and trustlessness.

First, let’s talk about decentralization. First, we need to clarify a truth. Does centralization necessarily mean low efficiency? Of course not. Within a specific scope, the concentration of resources brought about by centralization can greatly improve efficiency. This is also the reason why human beings evolve from individuals to villages to tribes and then to countries in the process of evolution. Take UnionPay as an example. UnionPay is the clearing and settlement center for the domestic banking industry. After UnionPay is established, each bank only needs to connect with UnionPay to realize transactions with all banks. If it is decentralized, without UnionPay, each bank will need to When communicating with all counterparties, which one is more efficient? Therefore, there is no need to beat centralization to death with a stick. The decentralization feature of blockchain is destined to only play a role in specific fields (that is, fields that are not suitable for centralization). How can it subvert everything?

Furthermore, it is a question of trust. There is nothing wrong with detrusting itself, but the technical logic behind it is deeply flawed. Blockchain relies on universal accounting to achieve trustlessness, that is, all transaction information is retained in each block for system cross-verification to identify authenticity. Here comes the problem. Each block retains all transaction information. There is no problem on a small blockchain. However, as more and more information is added, it will inevitably lead to an explosive growth of transaction information and will also bring information. Sharp rise in storage costs. At the same time, the greater the amount of information, the longer cross-validation takes and the lower the efficiency. Therefore, the blockchain solves the trust problem, but it brings about rising costs and declining efficiency.

Nothing in the world is perfect, and the same is true for blockchain.

As a conclusion, Hongyanweiyu wants to clarify that blockchain, as a conceptual innovation, does have great value and can also have a disruptive impact in specific fields. However, the current one-sided thinking about blockchain is problematic. Eastern wisdom tells us that "the most brilliant way is the golden mean." In the face of anything, it is wisest to maintain the golden mean.

(Text/Xue Hongyan, senior researcher at Suning Financial Research Institute; WeChat public account: Hongyan Weiyu)

As early as a few years ago, the word "mining" came with Bitcoin is well known for its popularity. Many people know about Bitcoin first and then the blockchain, and they even don’t know about the blockchain yet. By definition, blockchain is a series of data blocks generated using cryptographic methods. Each data block contains information about a Bitcoin network transaction, which is used to verify the validity (anti-counterfeiting) and generation of its information. Next block.

I am not a computer technology expert. The following introduction to blockchain comes from reading and comments from expert friends and is for reference only.

If you want to use one word to explain blockchain, it is: distributed accounting.

To understand what this word means, you need to first understand that traditional accounting has a center. For example, a bank, you getDeposits, withdrawals, and lending money to others through banks are all centered on the bank, and all these transactions are based on the bank's credit. What if the bank cheats? Or is it more serious, is the country cheating? The Kuomintang's indiscriminate issuance of gold yuan notes at the end of its rule in mainland China, as well as the hyperinflation in Weimar Germany and Zimbabwe, which made the currency less valuable than toilet paper, are very famous examples.

Golden Yuan Coupons

This is the problem that blockchain is aimed at. They believe that decentralized accounting is non-modifiable and non-repudiable. How to achieve decentralized accounting? The basic idea is that all users store all transaction records, making it very difficult to illegally modify the ledger through mathematical methods. In this way, the reliability of the ledger is guaranteed.

Specifically, all users exhaustively enumerate random number variables, and the first user to obtain a specific required hash function value (Hash) will have the right to record this round of transactions and obtain the corresponding Bitcoins award. It is transmitted in the form of data blocks, and the data blocks are connected into a chain by appending at the end, so it is called a block chain.

After listening to the introduction, you may feel that this idea is interesting, but it is not as exciting or revolutionary as advertised. Your feeling is right. In fact, the basic logic of blockchain has some unavoidable problems.

For example, the current size of the complete Bitcoin public ledger has exceeded 150 G, and is rapidly increasing at a rate of tens of G per year - just to support 5 million users and 30 million transactions per year. If its processing volume is one day comparable to that of Alipay, the size of the Bitcoin ledger will increase by more than 500 terabytes per year. This is equivalent to backing up the Alipay server's storage data on all users' personal computers. Do you think this is a good idea?

For another example, in the traditional banking system, if you lose your password, it is no big deal. Just report it to the system in time, and your wealth will not disappear. But in the blockchain system, if you lose your password, it will be a huge trouble, and your currency will not be recovered. Not happy? Is it surprising?

Blockchain is a new application model of computer technologies such as distributed data storage, point-to-point transmission, consensus mechanism, and encryption algorithms. The so-called consensus mechanism is a mathematical algorithm that establishes trust and obtains rights and interests between different nodes in the blockchain system

In layman’s terms, it is playing mahjong. Four people can take turns to be the banker, and each other can shoot four people. They all have their own ledger records, but if you want to modify the ledger, you must have more than 50% of the modification rights, so the cost of cheating on the ledger is very high.

In the future, blockchain will be used more in finance to combat money laundering and fraud, because all information can be traced, and in culture it can be usedCopyright protection, etc.

I have seen many people explain the blockchain in official terms. Some of them may not even be clear to the person explaining it. I will use vernacular language below. Let’s explain the blockchain and make sure everyone can understand it.

What is blockchain? Let me give an analogy. In 50 years, you can buy an electric fan from the supermarket. This electric fan will automatically mine coins for you when it is blowing. You can mine coins automatically while using the electric fan. When you use this electric fan, When the fan breaks down, you can use the mined coins to repair the electric fan. Of course, you can also use the mined coins to buy a new electric fan. Many people think wrongly! Wouldn’t the profits of merchants be less? Let me tell you about a certain brand. When the products of this brand are sold to you, the products themselves may even be sold to you at a loss. However, once the number of users becomes large and the users become more sticky, they can be paid through membership fees or service fees. Such small fees or other ways to make profits. Just like this, the mined coins can be purchased and repaired. Although the merchant's profit may be reduced, the merchant has gained more users and greater user stickiness. By this time, it only takes a minute for the merchant to make money.

And the electric fan you bought is equivalent to winding it up for you. What is winding up? If you put your electric fan on the street now, and 10 people come to snatch it, you have no way to prove that the ownership of this electric fan is yours. Once you put it on the chain, it is equivalent to being tied to you. Once it’s settled, you can prove it.

Therefore, the essence of blockchain is to help make people’s lives more convenient. It is equivalent to upgrading on the basis of the Internet, making it safer and more convenient. This is blockchain! It's that simple.

The security of the blockchain is reflected in its irreversibility and the data cannot be tampered with. We all know that in today's society, any data can be modified and conquered by hackers, but the data in the blockchain is impossible to change. Once generated, it cannot be modified unless all users in the blockchain work together. Agree to modify the data, but this is unlikely to happen.

At present, the blockchain is still very immature, just like the Internet bubble burst in 2000. When the bubble bursts, a truly valuable blockchain Internet will be hatched. company.

The wheel of history will not go backwards. Many people are unwilling to accept blockchain. Just like telling you that you can shop online 20 years ago, this is the same ridiculous thing. Time will eventually prove it. .

1. The main function of blockchain is to store information. Any information that needs to be saved can be written to the blockchain and read from it, so it is a database.

2. AnyAnyone can set up a server, join the blockchain network, and become a node. In the world of blockchain, there is no central node. Every node is equal and stores the entire database. You can write/read data to any node, because all nodes will eventually be synchronized to ensure that the blockchain is consistent.

3. Everyone works on the same blockchain, everyone publicly shares the current state of the blockchain, everyone agrees on the rules for new data submission and tampering with the blockchain is prohibited. It is difficult to operate in terms of computing power.

If we assume that the database is a ledger, reading and writing the database is an accounting behavior:

Anyone can verify this public ledger, but there is no single The user can control it. Participants in the blockchain system will jointly maintain the update of the ledger: it can only be modified according to strict rules and consensus, and there is a very exquisite design behind this.

(1) Accounting, the system will find the person with the fastest and best accounting within a period of time, let this person do the accounting, and then broadcast the information on this page of the account book to everyone else on the entire network. node, which is equivalent to changing the database record; (consensus mechanism, cryptography)

(2) Verification, other valid nodes in the entire network check the correctness of the block accounting, and stamp the time Stamp to confirm that the block is legal; (timestamp, mathematics)

(3) Form a single chain, that is, compete for the next block after the previous legal block; (smart contract, encryption technology)

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(4) Storage, the account book is stored in blocks. As transactions increase, new data blocks will be appended to the existing chain to form a chain structure; (distributed structure, information technology) < /p>

(5) Backup, every participating trader is a node of the block network, and each node has a complete backup of the public account book, which is a distributed ledger.

Features

1. The blockchain has no administrator and is completely centerless. It is precisely because it cannot be managed that the blockchain cannot be controlled. Without an administrator, everyone can write data into it. In order to ensure the trustworthiness of the data: the technology of blockchain makes it impossible to tamper with the data once it is written.

2. Close to zero trust cost.

The cycle time required for Internet companies to build their credit is extremely long. For example, Taobao often takes several years to build its credit. In the blockchain, everyone trusts the code, algorithm and rules, so the cost of trust is extremely low.

3. The marginal cost of constructing and trading assets approaches zero.

If traditional assets are to be used for trading, they need to rely heavily on third parties, such as investment banks, banks, securities firms, etc., for packaging and endorsement, and the fees and thresholds are extremely high. With blockchain, these will not be a problem, and the cost is extremely low.

The value transfer attribute of the blockchain also naturally solves the payment problem, and has the gene to support global payments.

Blockchain, simply put, is the underlying technology that supports ICO (virtual currency). The popular Bitcoin is an application of ICO. In other words, the connotation of blockchain is richer, and its main features are:

1. Blockchain is equivalent to digital trust. Both parties to the transaction can independently enter into digital contracts, and companies providing blockchain services are equivalent to Digital trust company;

2. The purpose and characteristics of blockchain are "3 de-intermediaries" - de-intermediation, de-currency, de-sovereignty; yes

3. Bitcoin is An application of blockchain, Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, and all blockchains apply digital encryption technology;

4. The "3 Go" feature is targeted at the financial industry, and only when high frequency is required Blockchain is only needed in the financial field of transactions;

5. Large platforms with a user base are more suitable for applying blockchain, and small companies’ participation is of little value, so Zuckerberg’s 2018 New Year’s wish includes To study digital cryptocurrency. Kodak also launched a digital currency, sending its stock price soaring.

Furthermore, when it comes to Bitcoin, it can be cashed out and exchanged into the currencies of most countries. Users can use Bitcoin to purchase some virtual items, and they can also use Bitcoin to purchase real-life items. In this sense, Bitcoin is similar to the world's currency, close to gold.

Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook, believes that Bitcoin is "undervalued" by people and compares it to gold. He said: "If one day Bitcoin becomes the online equivalent of gold, then it will have room for appreciation."

But on January 3, the "People's Daily" published an article saying, "Whether it is from The increase can still be seen from the value of the currency itself. There is a bubble in the price of Bitcoin. This is an issue that needs no discussion." Data show that in the past 2017, Bitcoin has skyrocketed and plummeted: within a year, the price skyrocketed by about 20 times, and in one day It fell more than 40% within the period.

Indeed, Bitcoin has risks. However, blockchain with richer connotations obviously still has greater room for development.

Last night, screenshots of Xu Xiaoping, founder of ZhenFund, encouraging the embrace of the blockchain revolution in an internal group were posted online. In his view, the blockchain revolution has indeed arrived. “I strongly encourage everyone internally to embrace the blockchain revolution and learn blockchain technology. This is my understanding after long-term observation and thinking. I feel the responsibility to tell our entrepreneurs. I don’t want my understanding of blockchain The views have been misunderstood as views on ICO."

However, in the context of the collective entry of Internet companies and investment institutions, the government will definitely take measures.

Recently, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) expressed concerns about this and shelved the proposal of two U.S. companies to launch a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).

In fact, this is only a matter of time. Because the "three-go" feature of blockchain is inherently contradictory to government centralization.