Blockchain is very abstract - is it just transactions?

WATERCOOLER
#1

Hey all!
I have done almost two of Ivans and Filips ccourses, and I like them a lot. What I seem not to grasp really is the interface between human and blockchain. For example:

  1. Is any measure done by a miner, made practically, by hand…choosing a transaction…does he pick tx with high fees, or is it done by setting certain values in the software? Or is it all in the software. So how is the miner´s interaction/interface with the blockchain?
  2. Same question but for nodes…what is intentional and what is just software processing.

Part of confusion and abstraction is what blockchain really in the bottom is. You learn all about the technical stuff, and with applications and contracts you can do basically everything.

Question:
As I see it blockchain does two things (simplified):

  1. Issue coins/tokens
  2. Keeps track of all transactions made with this coins/tokens. All other things blockchain can be good for is all off chain…right?

Would it be fair to strip down an explanation to theese simple steps? And I mean in general…for Bitcoin I know it´s all about value transactions, but is it the same for all blockchains?

Hope you get what I mean…but I really think that blockchain must be simplified for average people to understand…and that is also one purpose of mine :slight_smile:

Hope to get some help, cheers!

#2

Hey JohnX,

let me try to give you an answer at least to a small part of your question. What I feel your underlying question is, is to get a better grip on the different use-cases of blockchain.
Talking my background of operations & IT into consideration, there is off course supply-chain which I do see for me personally as my future playing field. By working into operations for more than 15ys, there are lots of things which cost money and time which could at least partially be solved or minimized. What do I mean in specific: a lot of validation, milestones and cross-checks basically from the customer order, over the deliver, installation up to hand-over for first use. I can’t even remember one single project where documents where not incorrect, deliveries incomplete etc. All these checkmarks which have to be completed during the mentioned process is just a part for blockchain validation and verification usecases. But even more important there is the financial aspect (in this case towards supply-chain): So many intermediaries which ask for fees e.g. document checks, translations, contracting etc. Here is a great possibility to use smart-contracts - say, the fright forwarder just gets his money when he delivers under certain conditions (on time, completeness, temperature controlled etc.)

All in all is the usecase for supply-chain enormous, since having today all these manual measures and intermediaries (which on top costs lots of time and money) still don’t guarantee you really get the product which you initially payed for (only to mention here fair-trade products… do you really know that the promise they give you in their advertising is true? -not that they are all scams, but just saying).

Other usecases for example would be identity checks, drug-validation in the pharma industry or notary. Don’t forget the finance industry: DeFi. It is all about the possibility to mathematically verify, where today in the traditionally model you have to trust (and frankly quite often) have to pay someone loads of money for.

Hope I was able to provide you with some initial thought you can now get your own research started on :grinning:

Cheers,
Stefan

#3

Hey, Stefan and thank you for response.
Actually, I see a lot of usecases, so that´s not my problem. Your answer confirms the need of a blockchain in your business, which is good. I can also see how services like banking and insurance can be put in the blockchain, since it is all digital in a sense.

I think my concern is more one of storage. Let me give you an example:
I have a diploma. It´s in paper. I would like to secure that on a blockchain. So how do I do that? I scan it, then hash it and put the hash in a block. But to show it to someone else, I must store it digitally so it can be sent or read online. So it would be an image in file format. Where is this file stored? In the blockchain or somewhere else? Because files takes space, and would make the chain very heavy.

So I did some more research and this is how I see it, right or wrong…

In order to store anything, you put it on a P2P network connected to the blockchain. Theese P2P databases would be like the IPFS or Bigchain DB. That makes both storage and transactions separated and decentralised.

Could that be the simple answer, and why didn´t I see it? :grin:

Cheers!
Ulf “John X”