Mark Tencaten | Learn more about Bitcoin and how it is different from Blockchain

by Mark Tencaten Mark Tencaten - Co-Founder and owner at NGS Group

All the attempts made in the past to generate digital money failed. The most pressing issue with the failure was trust. How can anyone believe that if someone invents a new currency named the # dollar, he won't give himself a million dollars or steal others' # dollars?

Bitcoin was formulated to overcome this issue by utilizing a special type of database called a "blockchain." A person who is in charge of most regular databases, like a SQL database, can make changes to the entries (e.g., they can transfer a million # dollars into their account). Blockchain is unique in this case since no one is in charge; instead, the individuals who utilize it are the ones who run it. Bitcoins can't be forged, stolen, or doubly spent, so those who own them can be confident that they're worth the value.

How Bitcoin originated

A groundbreaking article titled "Bitcoin" appeared on a less familiar internet forum in late 2008, around the time of the financial crisis. It was written by a mystery figure known as Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonym for the author's true identity.

Satoshi believed that banks and governments wielded too much power, which they exploited for their own gain. Satoshi envisioned a new sort of currency called Bitcoin as a way to change that: a cryptocurrency that was not administered or regulated by central banks or governments and that could be transferred anywhere in the world for free, with no one holding the authority.

Initially, nobody gave attention to Satoshi's outlandish ideas, but as time went on, more and more people began to accept and use Bitcoin. Many people, like Mark Tencaten, have started to believe that Bitcoin is the money of the future. And as the workings of the large banks worsened, it started to become more and more popular.

Since its inception and launch in 2009, Bitcoin has expanded to a network of roughly 10,000 "nodes," or users, who use the Proof of Work mechanism to authenticate transactions and mine bitcoin.

Mark Tencaten noticed that the democracy in mining bitcoin lasted until the invention of special mining computers called ASICs, which outperformed other, less powerful devices, and companies began to benefit from amassing miners and mining technologies. Individuals can still participate in the Bitcoin mining process, but it is costly to set up, and the return on invested capital varies depending on the highly fluctuating value of bitcoin.

In recent times, huge mining pools are owned or controlled by large organizations, and power is centralized once again. This has tarnished Satoshi's original vision for Blockchain, in which members' "power" was supposed to be distributed evenly but is now concentrated in the hands of a few resourceful mining giants.

Because of the exorbitant costs required to be invested in bitcoin mining, the people of Australia began to leave this field. But Mark Tencaten has made some critical efforts to re-engage Australia's public in this exciting industry and to keep the goal of money decentralization visioned by Satoshi alive and keeping it out of the hands of a few resourceful corporations. Mark Tencaten developed the mining centers and relocated them to an offshore tax-free trading zone where the cost of electricity was significantly lower compared to the cost in Australia.

Difference between Bitcoin and Blockchain

A blockchain, to put it simply, is a computer file used to store data. Put another way, it's an open, distributed ledger, which means that the data on the blockchain is distributed among multiple computers and hence decentralized.

Blockchain is the technology that supports Bitcoin and was created particularly for Bitcoin. So, Bitcoin was the first application of blockchain technology, and Bitcoin would not exist without blockchain. As a result, these two terms are commonly used interchangeably.

However, this does not imply that the Blockchain and Bitcoin are synonymous.

Bitcoin is not the only sort of distributed ledger system based on blockchain technology. Many other cryptocurrencies available in the market also have their own blockchain and distributed ledger designs.

Since blockchain and Bitcoin are so closely linked, it took a long time for people to realize that blockchain has much wider applications than just cryptocurrency networks.

Meanwhile, the technology's decentralization has resulted in multiple sects or forks inside the Bitcoin community, resulting in spinoffs of the ledger in which some miners use a blockchain with one set of regulations and others use a blockchain with a different set of regulations.