Cryptoacademy season5 | beginner's course task5 : Bitcoin - Cryptocurrencies - Public Chains by @dabeerahmed

Hello everyone and greetings to all the fellow steemians. I am good and enjoying my life and I hope that you all are also doing good and having a great time in your respected lives. Welcome to my yet another article in Steemit Crypto Academy and I am glad that you put aside your respected time to go through my post.

Yesterday I go through the lecture taught by our respected professor @stream4u which is all about Bitcoin - Cryptocurrencies - Public Chains and here is my homework post in this regard, so let's begin with it without wasting much time;

1.What Is Public Chain and What will be the Advantages and Disadvantages of Public Chain?

What Is Public Blockchain?

A public Blockchain is a permissionless, self-governing, decentralized platform that is accessible to the whole public. That is to say, anyone can connect to the network and read or publish information. On a public Blockchain, transactions are validated via a consensus method. Bitcoin and Ethereum are the two most popular public blockchains. They both use the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism, while Ethereum has started to move to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism.

In comparison to a private blockchain, transactions on a public blockchain are much more transparent. It is more decentralised, with no single person having complete control over the network, and it eliminates the need for a middleman. When opposed to a private network, however, there is a slow transaction speed, scalability concerns, and a limited consensus mechanism.

The following are some of the similarities between a public and private blockchain: each node on the Blockchain has a replica of their ledger, the stored data cannot be changed, and they both rely on transaction validators. The use of a public blockchain is basically unrestricted, as anyone with an internet connection may view the blockchain, transact, and validate blocks. It rewards people who validate blocks with incentives and validates transactions using proof-of-work and proof-of-stake consensus mechanisms.

Features Of Public Blockchain

The following are some of the characteristics of a public blockchain:

• Both the user and the transaction are anonymous. This means that transactions can't always be tracked back to the user.

• When compared to the private blockchain, it has a poor transaction speed.

• There is no central authority and everything is decentralized.

• Once validated, data is immutable and cannot be modified.

• Anyone can download and add nodes to the network, and it is open to the public.

• The digital ledger can be read and written by any node on the network.

Public Blockchain Examples

The majority of the prominent names in cryptocurrency are based on the public blockchain, with Ethereum and Bitcoin being the most well-known examples.

Advantages Of Public Blockchain

Transparency:

Transparency is embedded into public blockchains. No one has complete control over the network, and users have reached a common understanding. Because everyone can keep track of the transactions, this helps to prevent fraud.

Decentralized System:

The network is entirely decentralised, as I previously stated, and each node in the system has a replica of the ledger, which is usually updated efficiently using consensus algorithms. In contrast to traditional systems, there is no requirement for a central authority. It also makes use of a peer-to-peer computer network.

User Friendly:

Any user with an internet connection can access it. He has access to read and rewrite the Blockchain and can download a copy of it. This basically means that the general public is in control of the affairs.

Immutability:

In a public network, transactions are immutable. That is to say, they cannot be changed or interfered with in any way. It is not possible to modify an entry once it has been decoded and verified by the validators. If a user attempts this, the nodes will reject the transactions.

Anonymity:

A public blockchain's validators and users are kept anonymous.

Disadvantages Of Public Blockchain

Transaction speed:

The speed of transactions in a public blockchain is extremely slow, especially because companies are unable to control access, and it only gets worse as more users join the network. To give you an example, Bitcoin processes roughly about 4.6 transactions per second, while Visa processes about 1700.

Fraud:

Before joining the network, a user is not required to establish his identity, which might be exploited for unlawful transactions, especially because the user's identity is anonymous and cannot be linked to any transactions.

Consensus mechanism:

To validate transactions, some of the consensus processes in a public blockchain require users to answer challenging mathematical puzzles, which not everyone can complete.

Uses Of Public Blockchain

• Mining and Exchanging cryptocurrencies

• Create a record with a chain of custody such as electronic motorization of certificates/affidavit and ownership or property

• Suitable for NGOs and social support groups and also good in the health sector for keeping records.

Conclusion

Immutability, anonymity, and user empowerment are just a several of lots benefits of public Blockchain, which is a permissionless and self-governed platform. Some individuals dislike it because of the slow transaction speed and the need to solve complicated mathematical puzzles to validate transactions. It is suitable for NGOs and can be used to create chain of custody records.

Regards, @dabeerahmed