In conversations with my friends and also with regard to numerous articles in the public media, I have noticed that the terms blockchain and cryptocurrencies are sometimes used as synonyms. In today's article I would like to point out the difference so that hopefully there will be less confusion in the future.

No time to read the whole article?  

Cryptocurrencies are just a simple application of the blockchain, no more and no less.

In the beginning was the Bitcoin (Gen 1,1)?

Everybody knows the first blockchain application ever and is inseparable from the intrinsic cryptocurrency: Bitcoin

The purpose of this blockchain is relatively simple: A value (or money) transfer that does not require a central control authority.

The general ledger, in which you can see who has how many bitcoins, is decentralized. This means that theoretically every computer is connected to the network and can help to check transactions for validity. This procedure excludes the need for a third party, which had to be used as a supervisory body in the past in order to make transactions possible in the first place. Other cryptocurrencies such as Dogecoin, Litecoin, Monero or DASH follow the same principle, but some of them come with additional specifications. Banks and other centralized financial service providers such as PayPal are no longer necessary. 

In addition, the system becomes safer the more people participate and makes it almost impossible for hackers to inflict damage directly on the system at some point. You no longer have to attack a server and gain control of it, but more than half of the entire system. This means that potentially millions of servers would have to be hacked to bring the system down.  

Sometimes it seems to me as if Satoshi Nakamoto only gave birth to the idea of Bitcoin, so that we can understand decentralized systems more easily. In the meantime, the idea of decentralized systems has developed and opens the doors to completely new possibilities, which have little or nothing in common with a pure crypto currency. 

For example, it is possible to protect your digital personality from being accessed by third parties such as Google or Facebook. At all, it is not possible to prove your identity online without a blockchain, but that's another topic.

30 Days Challenge

This month I will publish an article about the Blockchain every day, providing useful and informative information on the one hand and providing insights into my learning process on the other. I love the Blockchain and would like to help you to make your potential visible and to carry it into the masses. The previous articles are linked below:

Day 1: Road to becoming a Blockchain-Expert

Day 2: The Blockchain offers a whole new way of making value visible

Day 3: The EMOTIONAL Aspect of Cryptotrading

Day 4: My Trading Strategy in the Cryptosphere

Day 5: Price Forecasts are Shit and delude the real important Questions

Day 6: Decentralized monetary systems have been around for 1500 Years!

Day 7: With Steemit you can monetize your own learning process!

That's it for today again. I hope I could inspire you with my article in some way. If you have any questions or if you think about a topic that I could work on in an article in the next few days, then I am very grateful to you if you get in touch with me.

Of course I'd appreciate every Upvote and Resteem!

See you ;-)