The History of Blockchain

In 2008, the pseudonymous (fictitious name) developer Satoshi Nakamoto created the concept of Blockchain.
Blockchain and other applications are inspired by the design of the Bitcoin, which is further widely used within the field of cryptocurrencies.

Blockchain technology is used in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, which also disrupted the traditional financial systems, but it has faster, cheaper, and secure transactions. Additionally, it also has smart contracts that deal with complex financial agreements, which enhances its efficiency.

What is Blockchain?

Blockchain is defined as a revolutionary technology that revolves around decentralized digital systems, which means there is not any single central authority leading the decision-making and control, instead of this, everything is managed under teamwork or among multiple individuals or entities. Blockchain has not only evolved around finance but also have various applications which are beyond finance.

Blockchain has various blocks, and each block holds a record or a list of transactions (like who sent money to whom) and keeping track of multiple products, can also keep the medical records as well, and each blocks have a special code that link it with earlier blocks, that is why it is called “Blockchain.”

The purpose behind it–

It works in a network where each user has its copies that make sure that the recorded or stored information is in its correct form. It has a secure and transparent chain of information.
One of the most remarkable features of the blockchain is its decentralized nature, i.e., it is not controlled by any central authority, instead, it can be managed or distributed among multiple individuals, and once the information is get stored in it, so it cannot be changed or modified by anyone for hacking or cheating purpose.
Blockchain also reached the healthcare industry, where it kept, stored, and secure the patient data.

History/Evolution of Blockchain-

1991: During this period, two main researchers and scientists named Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta introduced blockchain technology. With the help of cryptography, both scientists have together developed a system of time-stamped documents, which are stored in a networked block.

1992: Following that, a legal corporation was set up by Merkle Trees by using the system developed by Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta in a modified form. Merkle uses a safe chain of blocks that put many data records in a line. But this idea became unused when a patent appeared in 2004.

2000: During this period, the theory of safe chains by using cryptography and the idea of its implementation was shared by Stefan Konst.

2004: During this year, Hal Finney, a cryptographer produced a digital cash system called “Reusable Proof of Work”. This was important for Blockchain and Cryptography. With the help of this system, the Double Spending Problem was solved.

2008: In 2008, the first decentralized blockchain was introduced by the pseudonymous (fictitious name) developer Satoshi Nakamoto created the concept of blockchain (a peer-to-peer electronic cash system).

2009: Following that, the Bitcoin White Paper was introduced this year by Satoshi Nakamoto. It secures the data of an individual.

2014: This year was an important period of blockchain technology, it is the period when blockchain technology is going to be used for more than finance. Which gave rise to the blockchain technology called blockchain 2.0.

2015: During this year, Ethereum Frontier Network has come into the market, which allows developers to create smart contracts, and during the same year, the Hyperledger Project was also started by Linux Foundation.

2016-2017: In the year 2016, Blockchain was popularized as a single word, after the word blockchain separately used in the Satoshi Nakamoto original paper.
And in the year 2017, a company Block.one introduces EOS blockchain operating system for commercial decentralized applications.

2018-2020: During the year 2018, online platforms started banning cryptocurrencies, and a research group called Gartner discovered that only 1% of the top technology executives were using blockchain in their organization.
In the year 2019, the Ethereum network started handling more than 1 million transactions in a single day.

In the year 2020, Ethereum introduced Beacon chain as a step towards Ethereum 2.0.

2022: In the year 2022, Ethereum has changed its way of confirming transactions from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake. This switch has led to a huge reduction of about 99.95% in Ethereum energy use.

Drawback– it has a drawback that if multiple transactions can occur at the same time, then it may slow its speed.