Is the blockchain really secure? I am among the group of persons who believes that anything is possible. Consequently, I find it difficult to accept it hook, line and sinker the word “secure”.
Discoveries are made on daily bases, information is metamorphosing, consequently, changes and adjustments is made in every sphere of life because life itself was programmed to be dynamic. What then is my point? Am I planning to hack a blockchain? Not at all.
It`s just that the whole concept of using a blockchain is to let people. In particular, people who don’t trust each other, share valuable data in a secure, tamperproof way. That’s because blockchains store data using sophisticated math and innovative software rules that are extremely difficult for hackers to crack. But the security of even the best-designed blockchain systems can be disrupted in places where the fancy math and software rules come into contact with humans, who are skilled cheaters, in the real world, where things can get inordinate and discordant.
The Question Of Security In Blockchain
To appreciate my stand point better, start with what makes blockchains “secure” in principle. Bitcoin is a good example. In bitcoin’s blockchain, the shared data is the history of every bitcoin transaction ever made: an accounting ledger. The ledger is stored in multiple copies on a network of computers, called “nodes”.
When a transaction is initiated, it is submitted to the ledger, the nodes check to make sure the transaction is valid—that whoever spent a bitcoin had a bitcoin to spend. The nodes again package valid transactions into “blocks” and add them to a chain of previous ones. The owners of these nodes are called miners. Miners who successfully add new blocks to the chain earn bitcoins as a reward.
Two main idea makes this system theoretically impregnable.
(1)A cryptographic fingerprint unique to each block.
(2) A “consensus protocol.” This is a process by which the nodes in the network agree on a shared history.
The fingerprint, called a hash, takes a lot of computing time and energy to generate initially. It thus serves as proof that the miner who added the block to the blockchain did the computational work to earn a bitcoin reward. For this reason, Bitcoin is said to use a “proof-of-work” protocol. This activity leaves a permanent impression, kind of a seal, since altering the block would require generating a new hash. Verifying whether or not the hash matches its block. However, is easy, and once the nodes have done so they update their respective copies of the blockchain with the new block. This is what is known and referred to as the consensus protocol.
Final Security Element
Is the blockchain really secure depends on an element called “hash”. The final security element is that the hashes also serve as the links in the blockchain. Each block includes the previous block’s unique hash. So if you want to change an entry in the ledger retroactively, you have to calculate a new hash not only for the block it’s in but also for every subsequent block. And you have to do this faster than the other nodes can add new blocks to the chain.
So unless you have computers that are more powerful than the rest of the nodes combined (and even then, success isn’t guaranteed). Any blocks you add will conflict with existing ones, and the other nodes will automatically reject your alterations. This is what makes the blockchain tamperproof, or “immutable.”
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