Blockchain: Demystifying

Trust is a key element in business. But keeping it - particularly in a global economy that is becoming increasingly digital - is expensive, time consuming, and in many cases inefficient. (Delloite, 2016). However, a new technology emerges that could change the ecosystem of trust in the business world: Blockchain. Blockchain (a protocol of trust) is a digital book of economic transactions, contracts, identities, assets, or any other data that can be translated into digital. However, the great advance is the fact that it is supposed to be incorruptible. Taking an analogy with the past, it can be said that Blockchain is the technological version of the old public books used to store all relevant data: purchase and sale of property, transfer of title deeds, births, weddings, deaths, among others . However, Blockchain may have different configurations, could be public, open source or private, requiring explicit permission to read or write on them. Nitin Narkhede, vice president and head of Blockchain and innovation at Mphasis, says that this technology will make monetary transactions safe at the military level. What are the main components of Blockchain? Blockchain is a database that is made up of two types of components: blocks and transactions. Regarding the blocks, each update (each inserted data) represents a new block added to the end of the chain. Whenever a block is completed and validated, a new one is generated. There are countless blocks in Blockchain that are linked to each other - like a string - where each block contains a reference to the previous block. On the other hand, transactions are not conducted in dollars, euros, or any other currency standardized and controlled by the central bank, are carried out through crypto coins. Simply put, Blockchain are the paths in which bitcoin and other crypto currencies pass, and all these passages are stored and encrypted, being public or not. What are the benefits of Blockchain?     1. Reduction of costs associated with transactions that may be carried out directly, and without the intervention of third parties, but which, currently, are impossible to perform without a central authority to mediate the transaction.     2. Ability to guarantee the authenticity of transactions and all data at institutional borders.     3. Transparency and security of the system could help countries reduce annual loss of about 1.26 trillion due to corruption, theft, bribery and tax evasion.       When Bitcoin was developed, its creator never referred to Blockchain technology, a tool for the support of bitcoin, as a revolutionary technology, but as a necessary tool for the money functioning. Ironically, not even the creator himself was aware of his potentialities. Currently, Blockchain is one of the most debated and controversial topics among all technology leaders, especially in the area of ??finance. Domingos Salvador - Management, Accounting & Consulting