Blockchain Technology: A Fundamental Overview

In November 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto announced the concept of blockchain in a whitepaper about digital payment approach called Bitcoin. Since then, several data-driven domains have identified the potential of using this technology to provide a secure and a trusted platform for transactions processing. In fact, these domains have recognized blockchain as a revolutionized platform of data sharing and data storage. Blockchain technology can be presented as a protocol or software, which offers a secure transfer and storage of exclusive instances of values via the internet and without the need for third-party intermediation. From the functional perspective, blockchain can serve as an open, distributed, and immutable ledger that records transactions in a verifiable and permanent fashion. To understand the revolutionary consideration of blockchain technology, a fundamental overview of the technology is required. Accordingly, this chapter will give an explanation of blockchain concept, its fundamental features, components, categories, and architectures. To emphasize the importance of utilizing this technology in several data-driven domains, a section that addresses the usage of blockchain technology will be presented. Moreover, this chapter will highlight certain aspects related to the future utilization of blockchain technology from Artificial Intelligent (AI) and digital privacy implementations.