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Gauging Blockchain Understanding

The goal of this document is to build a map of the concepts required to understand blockchain technology. Blockchain is a complicated technology that can be understood at many different levels. By now most people have heard of bitcoin and simply think of it as magic internet money but many of those same people have never heard of the concept of blockchain. Blockchain is not bitcoin and understanding the difference can be pretty difficult.

Blockchain Heuristics

  • Database on wheels
  • On the Blockchain you are your own bank
  • Game theory solution to the double spend problem
  • Immutable Ledger
  • Distributed Ledger
  • Trust Protocol, Chain of Trust
  • 100 Word Description

Basic Blockchain Concepts

  • Hash
  • Cryptographic Signing
  • Consensus Algorithms
  • POW (Proof of Work)
    • Mining Pools
  • POS (Proof of Stake)
    • Stake Pools
  • POA (Proof of Authority)
  • Not your keys not your crypto
  • Hot / Cold Key Storage
  • Dapp / Smart Contract
  • ICO (Initial Coin Offering)
  • A fungible token issued on a blockchain, note that ICO tokens require commodity tokens to be used to transfer them
  • Name Systems
  • DNS(Domain Name System)
  • ENS (Ethereum Name System)

Intermediate Blockchain Concepts

  • DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization)
  • Oracle
  • DEX (Decentralized Exchange)

Advanced Blockchain Concepts