The Generations of Blockchain
Anything that can conceive of as a supply chain, blockchain can vastly improve its efficiency- it doesn’t matter if its people, numbers, data, money. — Ginni Rometty
What is Blockchain?
Blockchain is a rapidly improving technology which is used for various reasons ranging from tracking animals (StudEx Wildlife) to buying a digital coin with a doge on it. Simply put, the information on a blockchain is put in blocks which are chained together, and each block holds three key details.
- A cryptographic hash (sort of like a footprint.) Each block holds a unique hash which contains letters and numbers and is used to identify the information in the block. If there is slight change in the data, the hash gets changed as well.
2. A cryptographic hash of the previous block: each block contains information from the previous block except the first block which is known as the genesis block.
3. Transaction data, which includes the information about the sender, receiver, and time of the transaction.
Currently, there are three defined generations of blockchain.
First Generation — Bitcoin
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency which was anonymously announced on white paper by Satoshi Nakamoto (an anonymous person or group), it’s known as the “gold” of cryptocurrency. Bitcoin allows you to buy, sell and exchange directly without having a “middleman” such as banks. However, this type of technology has many flaws as it is the first in its domain.
Second Generation — Ethereum
Ethereum is a blockchain network introduced by Vitalik Buterin. Unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum is a programmable network which means it offers various features such as cryptocurrency (Ether) and it enables us to use smart contracts (condition-based programs) and DAPPS (decentralized applications) which can be built or run at any time without any interference. Though Ethereum seems absolutely flawless, it is a developing technology and has scalability issues due its low transactions per second (15 t/s)
Third Generation — Cardano
Cardano, on the other hand, is a proof-of-stake platform which was created by peer-reviewed research. Simply put, Cardano is a mixture of Ethereum and Bitcoin and is aimed to solve various problems such as sustainability, interoperability, and most importantly, scalability
So… Is there a fourth generation?
Though Cardano is “perfect,” there’s always scope for improvement and many competitors. Cryptocurrency is rapidly changing; the first gen was a cryptocurrency and slowly, Cardano, a third gen, is rarely used as a cryptocurrency. There have been a lot of platforms claiming to be the fourth generation, however there’s not really a true fourth generation blockchain. Who knows? Maybe you could be the next one to build it!
