When you hear of Bitcoin, and Ethereum, you usually hear about Blockchain. But what is it and why is it important?

<aside> 👉 A blockchain is a public database that is updated and shared across many computers in a network. - Ethereum.org

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Plain & simple, blockchain is records of data stored on networks of computers.

Blockchain technology was first written about in 1991, but its first real application was Bitcoin. The reason it is important is because it is the foundation of Web3.

The innovation of Blockchain is that everyone is able to access to the same database. Before Blockchain, there wasn’t an easy way for two entities to share access to the same database or access the same information simultaneously.

For example, for digital money to work without Blockchain, multiple entities would need to keep track of their own versions of a ledger, or transaction history. So if I made a transaction, everyone one would need to update their ledger. But, with Blockchain, if I make a transaction or do something then everyone knows and the ledge is automatically updated for everyone.

Let’s put this into an analogy: Word vs. Google Docs

Before Google Docs, where everyone can edit the same document at the same time, we had Word documents. If you’re working on a Word document with multiple people, you need to update the document, send it to everyone, they read it, update their copy, make changes to yours then send it back.

Now with Google Docs, everyone is able to access the EXACT same copy at the same time, and can edit it in real time. All changes to the document are transparent and completed instantantly. Didn’t Google Docs make editing SO MUCH better?