Hi ,
What if I told you one of the most important technologies of the 21st century was nothing more than a glorified database?
Hard as it may be to believe, that is exactly what the
blockchain is.
Each blockchain (such as Ethereum, Koinos or Binance) is nothing more than a distributed database, spread across many nodes, not dissimilar to what you might find on AWS or Azure.
What sets the blockchain apart, though, is that, rather than each node
sitting on a server of a big tech company, the nodes are hosted on individual computers throughout the world - creating a permissionless network that anyone can use.
One of the most common uses for blockchain is recording cryptocurrency ownership details - much like a bank's database would record details of the ownership of its accounts.
However, because the blockchain is just a database, it can literally do anything a database can do.
Why Should You Care?
One of the biggest
challenges of data science is gaining access to relevant data. Yet, the blockchain presents a treasure trove of data anyone can use.
With the big tech companies increasingly moving to hide the details of their models and data from the rest of the world, the limitless nature of the blockchain presents a pleasant alternative for data enthusiasts.
I recently spoke to blockchain expert Luke Willis on Value Driven Data Science, where we discussed all the above and much more.
Click the link below to listen right away: Episode 31: Blockchain and Cryptocurrency for Data Science
Talk again soon,
Dr Genevieve Hayes.
