Chapter 3
Identifying Blockchain Data with Value
IN THIS CHAPTER
Describing blockchain data
Examining common data in blocks
Relating blockchain data to common application data
Mapping blockchain data to business processes
Many descriptions of blockchain technology relate it to well-known data storage techniques. One of the more popular descriptions states that a blockchain is essentially a distributed ledger of transactions. This description is somewhat true but overly simplified. A blockchain does store transactions like a ledger and is distributed, but it contains far more interesting information. If a blockchain only stored transactions it wouldn’t be very interesting because it would be little more than a distributed spreadsheet.
A blockchain is far more than just a distributed spreadsheet — it contains an indelible record of the data’s current state (current values) and a complete historical record of how the data came to the current state. Traditional data repositories generally store only the final state of data. As you make changes, those changes overwrite any previous values. ...
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