What is Blockchain?

The history of blockchain began in 1991 when computer scientists Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta developed a computational solution for timestamping digital documents, ensuring the immutability of this information. In 1992, they further improved their system by incorporating Merkle trees, which increased efficiency and enabled the inclusion of more documents in a single block.

However, it was only in 2008 that blockchain started gaining relevance, thanks to the work of an individual or group known as Satoshi Nakamoto. Nakamoto is considered the mastermind behind blockchain technology and the author of the academic paper "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System," in which he defined blockchain as a network that records transactions by marking them in a continuous chain of hashes, forming a ledger that can only be altered by redoing all the work.

Since then, blockchain has evolved and found applications in various sectors beyond cryptocurrencies. Regarded as one of the greatest innovations of the 21st century, its adoption has had a cascading effect in areas such as finance, manufacturing, and education.

This technology enables the recording and tracking of transactions and assets within a business network. It is a shared and immutable ledger that facilitates the process of recording transactions and tracking assets. Assets can be tangible (such as houses, cars, money, and land) or intangible (such as intellectual property, patents, copyrights, and trademarks).

Blockchain is ideal for providing immediate, shared, and transparent information stored in an immutable ledger accessible only to authorized network participants. All participants have access to the distributed ledger and its immutable record of transactions.

The possibilities for using blockchain are vast and still being explored, with the future of this technology yet to unfold.