Mummy, Daddy, what is a blockchain?

Listen, Kid! Once upon a time, in a faraway land call the Internet, villagers were oppressed. They could not transact without obliging to the will of the Intermediaries, an organization that, in exchange for their services, required fees and “losing some control.”

Then comes a mysterious warrior (or group of warriors, no one really knows for sure) called Satoshi Nakamoto. He brought a magic book with properties unheard of:

  • Anyone could get a copy of this book; they only had to ask.
  • When a new line was added to one copy, it would appear on all other copies.
  • No sentence, no word, no letter, not a single drop of ink could be removed.

But, who could add a line? Anyone?

No. Only the initiated Scribes could. They would take the words of the people and transcribe them. This was a long and arduous task for the Scribes, involving a lot of guesswork to devise the perfect incantation to lay the word on the paper. People only had to whisper their words to one Scribe or as many as they wished to have their line eventually added.

I want to be a Scribe when I grow up.

Well, you will have to choose carefully which Scribe you want to become. Because some of them use too much Fire and it is not clear how they will fare in the future.

What did the villagers use the book for?

They used it first to transact and record those transactions in the magical book:

“Alice the Artist pays two coins of gold to Bob the Baker.”

“Bob pays one coin from the previous transaction to Fatou the Farmer for the wheat.”

What would you have done with that book?

I would have written that I love my parents a lot.

Aw, thanks, sweetie.

I would also write about myself, my friends. And the promise grandpa made.

Remember you have to consider what you want to write. Nothing added can be modified.

Speaking about promises, this quickly became the other important usage of the book. The villagers could write magical contracts in the book.

“Fatou the Farmer will provide wheat all year long to Bob the Baker. In exchange, She will get half of all the coins he earns.”

“Whoever tells me Charlie the Chancellor’s secret will receive ten coins.”

This is the story of the blockchain, and it is still being written. Who knows which use cases will be created and which ones will stand the test of time. Maybe you will pen the next chapter?