“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” – Albert Einstein
We won’t lie: Blockchain is complicated. The algorithms and mechanisms that make it possible are complex. For most mere mortals, some of the ideas associated with this technology will always be out of reach. (Or is that just us?)
Luckily, help is at hand. Those with a genuine grasp of difficult concepts find better ways of expressing them. Of boiling them down to the basics. Blockchain for dummies, if you will. Because this technology shouldn’t intimidate us. It’s far too valuable.
Here are some examples of the fundamentals described by experts in ways everyone can understand.
Blockchain in 500AD?
As you can see in this article, Blockchain has been around for longer than you might think. Something in the region of 1,500 years, in fact. It would appear that the people living on the island of Yap had something very similar. Their peculiar currency consisted of massive limestone discs called Fei stones. Moving these four-tonne “coins” around was no mean feat, as you might imagine. Small as the Micronesian island may have been, trade with people in other areas was a problem.
Elsewhere in the world in 500AD, centralised ledgers were already the answer. And they still form the basis of most trade systems today. But the people of Yap went in a different direction. The system they invented was startlingly reminiscent of one of blockchain’s pillars:
The distributed ledger
All data on the blockchain exists on every node in the network. In this sense, it is distributed across every user of the system. Every actor involved is witness to all information added. This began as a record of every cryptocurrency transaction ever. The distributed ledger was born.
And, as you might have guessed by now, the Yappians came up with their own to solve the Fei stone problem. Any time a transaction was to take place, they would call a meeting. Every person on the island had to commit to memory the new owners of sections of a Fei stone. Value came from ownership of a chunk of the monoliths. Everyone was witness to the changing of hands of this value.
Blockchain parallels
Fei stone: If someone tried to claim more value, the other Yappians would chime in and stop him in his tracks.
Blockchain: The fact that everyone has access, means falsified data quickly gets red-flagged.
Fei stone: One person might get sick, drown, get killed, or simply forget! Not so a whole village, or a whole island. Mistakes undoubtedly happened; the Yappians were human after all. But distributing the facts across many, rather than a few, made this less likely. In fact, the value could remain in the Yappians’ collective memory even in cases such as this one:
“According to local legend … a large stone in transit was lost at sea during a storm. The claim to this stone continued to have value, even though the stone itself was unrecoverable.”
Blockchain: Systems can fail, even without scams or falsifications. The distributed nature of data on the blockchain makes it very resilient. No central servers or single weak points. No downtime.
The people of the island of Yap eventually moved away from Fei stones to the dominant currencies. Today they use the dollar. Their system failed when they had to scale to trade with people from the outside world. Blockchain, however, is perfectly comfortable on global scale. Its community witnesses transactions every time a block is committed to the chain. And without having to roll 4-tonne stone doughnuts around…
Blockchain explained: from preschoolers to gurus
If we take the Einstein quote as truth then you should be able to explain anything to anyone. We love this video, part of a series in which experts explain their fields at varying levels of complexity. As the expertise of the speakers increases, the language stays relatable and down-to-earth. You’ll get value from each conversation, whatever your Blockchain background might be.
Blockchain explained: Smart Contracts made simple
It goes without saying that our favourite Blockchain feature are its smart contracts. These self-executing, paperless, immutable, traceable little computer protocols can do it all. We could talk about them all day. But, not everyone understands what they do or how they work. Check out our article, which includes some real-life equivalents and applications.
(As well as plenty of reasons to be as excited about them as we are.)
Simple is good.
At eTrustable, we know that many people want to make the move towards blockchain. We also know many feel it isn’t for them. They might feel overwhelmed by the scope or confused by the concepts. We make it our mission to show our clients the difference smart contracts can make today. We listen to their challenges and provide simple solutions. Some want to go paperless. Others are hoping to combat fraud. Many find wasted resources and wasteful processes frustrating.
Once you begin to understand Blockchain, you start to see its potential to make things better.
