Introduction
Blockchain technology is a system of ensuring a secure, tamper-proof,
and permanent record of transactions. The fundamental idea of a
distributed secure ledger was invented in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto
(Nakamoto,
2008). Initially, the technology created bitcoin, which verifies
financial transactions without the requirement for a central authority,
the federal reserve, a central bank, or other financial institution.
Because the method of transaction verification involves a network of
computers, rather than a single computer, it is very fault-tolerant. Any
single computer can be added or removed from the network at any time
without corrupting the ledger of transactions. Because the ledger is
duplicated across all network computers, transactions are secure and
immutable. A key feature of blockchain technology is that it is
trust-less: transactions are processed by the network so there is no
need to trust a single computer, database, or institution. The initial
blockchain created bitcoin, which consists of a secure, immutable,
distributed database of financial transactions. However, the technology
has also been extended to create a system of secure, immutable,
distributed computer programs allowing the creation of smart contracts
and artificial intelligence
(Buterin,
2015).