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Types of Blockchain:

There are four main types of blockchain networks: public blockchains, private blockchains,
consortium blockchain, and hybrid blockchain. Each type has its own set of characteristics and
use cases.
Public blockchain are permissionless, meaning that anyone can join the network and participate
in the consensus process. This makes them the most decentralized and transparent type of
blockchain. Examples of public blockchains include Bitcoin and Ethereum.
 As the name is public this blockchain is open to the public, which means it is not owned by
anyone.
 Anyone having internet and a computer with good hardware can participate in this public
blockchain.
 All the computer in the network hold the copy of other nodes or block present in the network
 In this public blockchain, we can also perform verification of transactions or records.

Advantages:
 Trustable: There are algorithms to detect no fraud. Participants need not worry about the
other nodes in the network
 Secure: This blockchain is large in size as it is open to the public. In a large size, there is
greater distribution of records
 Anonymous Nature: It is a secure platform to make your transaction properly at the same
time, you are not required to reveal your name and identity in order to participate.
 Decentralized: There is no single platform that maintains the network, instead every user
has a copy of the ledger.

Disadvantages:
 Processing: The rate of the transaction process is very slow, due to its large size. Verification
of each node is a very time-consuming process.
 Energy Consumption: Proof of work is high energy-consuming. It requires good computer
hardware to participate in the network
 Acceptance: No central authority is there so governments are facing the issue to implement
the technology faster.

Use Cases: Public Blockchain is secured with proof of work or proof of stake they can be used
to displace traditional financial systems. The more advanced side of this blockchain is the smart
contract that enabled this blockchain to support decentralization. Examples of public blockchain
are Bitcoin, Ethereum.
Private blockchains are permissioned, meaning that only authorized participants can join the
network. This makes them more centralized than public blockchains, but it also gives them greater
privacy and security. Examples of private blockchains include Hyperledger Fabric and R3 Corda.

These are not as open as a public blockchain.


 They are open to some authorized users only.
 These blockchains are operated in a closed network.
 In this few people are allowed to participate in a network within a company/organization.

Advantages:
 Speed: The rate of the transaction is high, due to its small size. Verification of each node is
less time-consuming.
 Scalability: We can modify the scalability. The size of the network can be decided manually.
 Privacy: It has increased the level of privacy for confidentiality reasons as the businesses
required.
 Balanced: It is more balanced as only some user has the access to the transaction which
improves the performance of the network.

Disadvantages:
 Security- The number of nodes in this type is limited so chances of manipulation are there.
These blockchains are more vulnerable.
 Centralized- Trust building is one of the main disadvantages due to its central nature.
Organizations can use this for malpractices.
 Count- Since there are few nodes if nodes go offline the entire system of blockchain can be
endangered.
Use Cases: With proper security and maintenance, this blockchain is a great asset to secure
information without exposing it to the public eye. Therefore companies use them for internal
auditing, voting, and asset management. An example of private blockchains is Hyperledger,
Corda.

Consortium blockchains are permissioned blockchains that are governed by a group of


organizations. This makes them a good choice for use cases where multiple organizations need to
collaborate, but they still want to maintain some control over the network. Examples of
consortium blockchains include Quorum and Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA).
 Also known as Federated Blockchain.
 This is an innovative method to solve the organization’s needs.
 Some part is public and some part is private.
 In this type, more than one organization manages the blockchain.
Advantages:
 Speed: A limited number of users make verification fast. The high speed makes this more
usable for organizations.
 Authority: Multiple organizations can take part and make it decentralized at every level.
Decentralized authority, makes it more secure.
 Privacy: The information of the checked blocks is unknown to the public view. but any
member belonging to the blockchain can access it.
 Flexible: There is much divergence in the flexibility of the blockchain. Since it is not a very
large decision can be taken faster.
Disadvantages:
 Approval: All the members approve the protocol making it less flexible. Since one or more
organizations are involved there can be differences in the vision of interest.
 Transparency: It can be hacked if the organization becomes corrupt. Organizations may
hide information from the users.
 Vulnerability: If few nodes are getting compromised there is a greater chance of
vulnerability in this blockchain
Use Cases: It has high potential in businesses, banks, and other payment processors. Food
tracking of the organizations frequently collaborates with their sectors making it a federated
solution ideal for their use. Examples of consortium Blockchain are Tendermint and Multichain.

Hybrid Blockchain combine elements of public and private blockchains. They are typically
permissioned, but they may also allow some public access. This makes them a good choice for
use cases where some data needs to be publicly available, while other data needs to be kept
private. Examples of hybrid blockchains include Multichain and Wanchain.
 It is a combination of both public and private blockchain.
 Permission-based and permissionless systems are used.
 User access information via smart contracts
 Even a primary entity owns a hybrid blockchain it cannot alter the transaction
Advantages:
 Ecosystem: Most advantageous thing about this blockchain is its hybrid nature. It cannot be
hacked as 51% of users don’t have access to the network
 Cost: Transactions are cheap as only a few nodes verify the transaction. All the nodes don’t
carry the verification hence less computational cost.
 Architecture: It is highly customizable and still maintains integrity, security, and
transparency.
 Operations: It can choose the participants in the blockchain and decide which transaction
can be made public.
Disadvantages:
 Efficiency: Not everyone is in the position to implement a hybrid Blockchain. The
organization also faces some difficulty in terms of efficiency in maintenance.
 Transparency: There is a possibility that someone can hide information from the user. If
someone wants to get access through a hybrid blockchain it depends on the organization
whether they will give or not.
 Ecosystem: Due to its closed ecosystem this blockchain lacks the incentives for network
participation.
Use Case: It provides a greater solution to the health care industry, government, real estate, and
financial companies. It provides a remedy where data is to be accessed publicly but needs to be
shielded privately. Examples of Hybrid Blockchain are Ripple network and XRP token.
Bitcoin:

Satoshi Nakamoto introduced the bitcoin in the year 2008. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency(virtual
currency), or a digital currency that uses rules of cryptography for regulation and generation of
units of currency. A Bitcoin fell under the scope of cryptocurrency and became the first and most
valuable among them. It is commonly called decentralized digital currency.

A bitcoin is a type of digital assets which can be bought, sold, and transfer between the two parties
securely over the internet. Bitcoin can be used to store values much like fine gold, silver, and some
other type of investments. We can also use bitcoin to buy products and services as well as make
payments and exchange values electronically.

A bitcoin is different from other traditional currencies such as Dollar, Pound, and Euro, which
can also be used to buy things and exchange values electronically. There are no physical coins for
bitcoins or paper bills. When you send bitcoin to someone or used bitcoin to buy anything, you
don?t need to use a bank, a credit card, or any other third-party. Instead, you can simply send
bitcoin directly to another party over the internet with securely and almost instantly.

Advantages of Bitcoin:

 Fast and secure transactions: Bitcoin transactions are typically very fast and secure.
 Low fees: Bitcoin transactions typically have very low fees.
 Global reach: Bitcoin can be used to send and receive payments anywhere in the world.
 Privacy: Bitcoin transactions are pseudonymous, which means that they are not linked to your
real identity.

 Step-1 Log-in into your wallet.


 Step-2 Go to Send and Receive icon.
 Step-3 Choose whether you want to send or receive bitcoin.
 Step-4 Send bitcoin: Enter the public address of the recipient and choose the
amount which you want to send. Once you decide the amount, confirm the amount
to avoid mistakes, then click on send transaction, and verify the transaction one
last time for confirming your public address and sender's public address.
 Step-5 Receive bitcoin: To receive bitcoin, you need to share your public wallet
address with the sender. You can also do this by letting them scan a QR code.

Ethereum:

Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain platform that enables developers to build and deploy
decentralized applications (dApps). It is a software platform that runs on thousands of computers
around the world, and it is secured by a distributed network of nodes.
Ethereum is best known for its cryptocurrency, ether (ETH), which is used to pay for
transactions and fees on the network. Ether is the second-most valuable cryptocurrency after
Bitcoin, and it is used by a wide variety of businesses and organizations.
In addition to its cryptocurrency, Ethereum is also known for its smart contracts. Smart contracts
are self-executing contracts that are stored on the blockchain. They can be used to automate a
wide variety of tasks, such as managing supply chains, tracking shipments, and executing
financial transactions.
Ethereum is a powerful and versatile platform that has the potential to revolutionize a wide
variety of industries. It is still under development, but it has already attracted a large and active
community of developers and users.
Here are some of the key features of Ethereum:
 Decentralized: Ethereum is not controlled by any single entity or organization. It is a distributed
network of nodes that are all working together to maintain the blockchain.
 Secure: Ethereum is secured by a cryptographic algorithm called Proof of Stake (PoS). This
algorithm makes it very difficult to attack or hack the network.
 Programmable: Ethereum is programmable, which means that developers can use it to create a
wide variety of dApps.

Hyperledger:
Hyperledger provides the platform to create personalized blockchain services according to the
need of business work. Unlike other platforms for developing blockchain-based software,
Hyperledger has the advantage of creating a secured and personalized blockchain network.

Why Do We Need Hyperledger?

Below are some of the reasons stating the need for a hyperledger project:
 To enhance the efficiency, performance, and transactions of various business processes.
 It provides the necessary infrastructure and standards for developing various blockchain-
based systems and applications for industrial use.
 It gets rid of the complex nature of contractual agreements, as the legal issues are taken care
of.
 Hyperledger offers the physical separation of sensitive data.
 It decreases the need for verification and enhances trust, thus optimizing network
performance and scalability.

Here are some of the benefits of using Hyperledger Fabric:


 Modular and flexible: Hyperledger Fabric is designed to be modular and flexible, so that it can
be customized to meet the needs of specific businesses and industries.
 Permissioned: Hyperledger Fabric is a permissioned blockchain, which means that only
authorized participants can join the network. This makes it ideal for businesses that need to keep
their data confidential.
 Supports a variety of consensus algorithms: Hyperledger Fabric supports a variety of
consensus algorithms, which gives businesses more control over how their blockchain operates.
 Popular choice for businesses: Hyperledger Fabric is a popular choice for businesses that are
looking to build blockchain applications for a variety of use cases, including supply chain
management, trade finance, and healthcare.

Hyperledger Technology Layers

Hyperledger uses the following key business components:


1. Consensus layer: It takes care of creating an agreement on the order and confirming the
correctness of the set of transactions that constitute a block.
2. Smart layer: This layer is responsible for processing transaction requests and authorizing
valid transactions.
3. Communication layer: It takes care of peer-to-peer message transport.
4. Identity management services: these are important for establishing trust on the
blockchain.
5. API: It enables external applications and clients to interface with the blockchain.

IOTA:
IOTA is an open-source distributed ledger and cryptocurrency designed for the Internet of things
(IoT). It uses a directed acyclic graph to store transactions on its ledger, motivated by a
potentially higher scalability over Blockchain based distributed ledgers.

1. Decentralization: The network is not controlled by any single entity, making it more resistant to
censorship and downtime.

2. Feeless Transactions: Transactions in IOTA are free, eliminating the need for users to pay for
file transfers.

3. High Availability: The network's decentralized nature ensures that files remain accessible even
if some nodes go offline.

4. Data Integrity: Proof of checksum ensures that files are not tampered with during the sharing
process.

5. Scalability: IOTA-BT's underlying blockchain technology can handle a large volume of


transactions, making it suitable for large-scale file sharing.
Consensus Algorithms:
Blockchain is a distributed decentralized network that provides immutability, privacy, security,
and transparency. There is no central authority present to validate and verify the transactions,
yet every transaction in the Blockchain is considered to be completely secured and verified.
This is possible only because of the presence of the consensus protocol which is a core part of
any Blockchain network. A consensus algorithm is a procedure through which all the peers of
the Blockchain network reach a common agreement about the present state of the distributed
ledger. In this way, consensus algorithms achieve reliability in the Blockchain network and
establish trust between unknown peers in a distributed computing environment. Essentially, the
consensus protocol makes sure that every new block that is added to the Blockchain is the one
and only version of the truth that is agreed upon by all the nodes in the Blockchain. The
Blockchain consensus protocol consists of some specific objectives such as coming to an
agreement, collaboration, cooperation, equal rights to every node, and mandatory participation
of each node in the consensus process. Thus, a consensus algorithm aims at finding a common
agreement that is a win for the entire network. Now, we will discuss various consensus
algorithms and how they work.

Proof of Work (PoW): This consensus algorithm is used to select a miner for the next block
generation. Bitcoin uses this PoW consensus algorithm. The central idea behind this algorithm
is to solve a complex mathematical puzzle and easily give out a solution. This mathematical
puzzle requires a lot of computational power and thus, the node who solves the puzzle as soon
as possible gets to mine the next block.

Proof of Stake (PoS): This is the most common alternative to PoW. Ethereum has shifted
from PoW to PoS consensus. In this type of consensus algorithm, instead of investing in
expensive hardware to solve a complex puzzle, validators invest in the coins of the system by
locking up some of their coins as stakes. After that, all the validators will start validating the
blocks. Validators will validate blocks by placing a bet on them if they discover a block that
they think can be added to the chain. Based on the actual blocks added in the Blockchain, all
the validators get a reward proportionate to their bets, and their stake increase accordingly. In
the end, a validator is chosen to generate a new block based on its economic stake in the
network. Thus, PoS encourages validators through an incentive mechanism to reach to an
agreement.

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