I have always heard about Blockchain having no definite meaning just the hype. I always heard things like Blockchain will change the world, disrupt education, tech, healthcare, and so on. I felt a bit intimidated not knowing what it was but joined the bandwagon in feeling fly by saying I am going to build Blockchain solutions for the health, education, and tech sector to solve problems in Africa. My journey started when one of my Mentors invited me to the African Blockchain Center for Development (ABCD) blockchain event, where we had series of sections breaking down Blockchain and its application. But guess what? I didn't even know whether my confusion deepened or it was the crazy feeling you get when introduced to an unfamiliar concept. All I could hear were buzz words like as nodes, chains, gas, distributed, Decentralised, and so on. The speakers were superb because they all knew their onions. I challenged myself to research and learn till I become a bad guy like those speakers. Now let's get back to the aim of this article. Ever wondered about a way to do online transactions without having to worry about banks, wallets, or a third-party? We must have had at one time or the other a failed transaction at the bank or issues with our bank account. Possible reasons are:

• Technical issues.
• Account Hacked.
• Daily limit exceeded.
• Additional charges example high transfer or charges.

And the solution to these problems led to cryptocurrency. A cryptocurrency is a form of digital or virtual currency that runs on a technology known as Blockchain. they are immune to counterfeiting, don't require a central authority, protected by a strong and complex encryption algorithm. An example of cryptocurrency is bitcoin.

What is Blockchain

Blockchain is a system of recording information in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to change, hack, or cheat the system. Blockchain can be described as a collection of records linked with each other strongly resistant to alteration and protected using cryptography.

A simple analogy of Blockchain:

Amara, Joy, and Udochi are three developer friends that love to enjoy life, always traveling and enjoying, each own one, two, and five bitcoins respectively. During one of their trips, they visited an exotic restaurant and after their meal, Udochi decide to pay the total bill of three bitcoins which the other two will repay her later. Amara sends one bitcoin to Udochi as her payment, a record of the transaction is created in the form of a block and the transaction details between the two parties are permanently inscribed in this block. This record also contains the amount of bitcoin each of the friends owns. Later on, Joy sends the remaining part of the split bills, another block was created containing the transaction details as well as reserve the have. These blocks are linked to each other as each of them takes reference from the previous block for the number of bitcoin each owns. This chain of records or blocks is called a ledger and this ledger is shared with all the friends who access a public distributed ledger. this forms the basics of Blockchain. Imagine a scenario where Amara after reckless spending, has just one bitcoin left and decides to transfer two bitcoins to Udochi, her friends will flag the transaction invalid. A hacker can't be able to alter the data in the Blockchain because each user has a copy of the ledger, and the data within the block is encrypted.

How Bitcoin works

Every user in the bitcoin network has two keys

• public key
• private key

The public key is an address everyone in the network knows of, The public key is used to send cryptocurrency into a wallet.

The private key is a unique address that only the user knows of, The private key is used to verify transactions and prove ownership of a blockchain address.

Another Analogy: When Amara sent her one bitcoin to Udochi through her wallet address through the hashing encryption algorithm. All of these are part of the transaction details and these details are encrypted using encryption algorithms and using Amara's private key, this is done to digitally sign the transaction and to indicate that the transactions came from Amara. This output is now transmitted across the world using the Udochi's public key. The transaction can be decrypted by Udochi's private key only available to her. So many cryptocurrencies use different hashing algorithms. Bitcoin uses SHA256 while Ethereum uses ethash. These transactions are validated and added block by block, people responsible for validation are called Miners. Miners use a complex mathematical problem for validation and the first person to solve this receives 12.5BTC. The process of solving this complex mathematical problem is called Proof of Work, and the process of adding blocks to the blockchain is called mining. With this everybody's wallet is updated so everyone in the network who has completed a transaction.

Keywords:

• encryption: to change electronic information or signals into a secret code (system of letters, numbers, or symbols) that people cannot understand or use on normal equipment
• digital currency: A digital currency is a medium of exchange that is generated, stored, and transferred electronically.
• blocks: Blocks are data structures within the blockchain database, where transaction data in a cryptocurrency blockchain are permanently recorded.
• chains: Each block includes the cryptographic hash of the prior block in the blockchain, linking the two. Each block includes the cryptographic hash of the prior block in the blockchain, linking the two. The linked blocks form a chain.
• DLT: Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is a type of database that is decentralized in nature, eliminating the need for an intermediary to process, validate or authenticate transactions.
• cryptocurrency: A cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that is secured by cryptography, which makes it nearly impossible to counterfeit or double-spend.
• network: A blockchain network is a technological infrastructure that provides ledger and smart contract (chaincode) services to applications.
• node: A node, in the world of digital currency, is a computer that connects to a cryptocurrency network.A node, in the world of digital currency, is a computer that connects to a cryptocurrency network.

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