If you’ve been watching the news lately, you might have heard about something called a blockchain. It’s a concept that makes data ultra-secure for specific uses. You’ve probably heard it in connection with Bitcoin, but it has applications far beyond everyone’s favorite cryptocurrencies. Here’s a quick explanation of how it works. It All Begins with Encryption RELATED: What Is Bitcoin, and How Does it Work? To understand blockchains, you need to understand cryptography. The idea of cryptography is far older than computers: it merely means rearranging information in such a way that you need a specific key in order to understand it. The simple decoder ring toy you found in your box of Kix cereal is a form of the most basic cryptography—create a key (also known as a cipher) that replaces a letter with a number, run your message through the key, and then give the key to someone else. Anyone who finds the message without the key can’t read it, unless it’s “cracked.” The military used more complex cryptography long before computers (the Enigma Machine encoded and decoded messages during World War II, for example). Modern encryption, though, is entirely digital. Today’s computers use methods of encryption that are so complex and so secure that it would be impossible to break them by simple math done by humans. Computer encryption technology isn’t perfect, though; it can still be “cracked” if smart enough people attack the algorithm, and data is still vulnerable if someone aside from the owner finds the key. But even… Click below to read the full story from How To Geek
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What Is a “Blockchain”?
