(by Francesco Rugolo) In recent months, the rapid increase (and partial decline) of the value of many crypto-coins has sparked heated debates, often based on wrong and little-known concepts. A widely used term when talking about crypto currencies is “blockchain”: this is the technology that underlies virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, however it can be used in a large number of different scenarios.
The first blockchain was implemented towards the end of 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious creator of Bitcoin, of which we do not have much information, it is believed that behind this name there is a group of people and not a single individual. An information meeting with the R29 Company presented by Paolo Gaggia (R1) and Matteo Mattei (Oracle) was held on Thursday 1 March at the Oracle headquarters in Rome, where the influence of blockchain in the economic, computer and scientific world was widely discussed. The blockchain is a public ledger, divided into encrypted blocks constituting a “chain” (hence the term blockchain).
Each block contains a series of encrypted information concerning the previous block (hash) together with the timestamp, i.e. the information on the moment in which the transaction in the blockchain was carried out, the timestamp is stored within the chain, in this way it is security and authenticity guaranteed, as to modify a block it would be necessary to modify the entire chain it belongs to. Furthermore, the blockchain uses a peer-to-peer connection (a network architecture in which a client-server hierarchy is not needed, i.e. each node of the network is equivalent), which makes it safe from attacks as the data is not registered in a single potentially vulnerable database, it is in fact a decentralized system, in which each node of the network has the same trust status.
Blockchains have a wide use in the banking and economic fields but the potentials are many such as the quality control of a distribution chain, the online voting service or smart contract. Oracle at the end of the event presented the technology based on Hyperledger, a blockchain architecture for enterprises, ready to use and managed in public or private cloud. An appointment between experts in the field, which was attended by representatives of various Italian companies interested in studying the possible uses of Blockchain technology.
