BLOCKCHAIN FOR DUMMIES - what would be your explanation? [question from my recent interview]
INTRODUCTION
Just a few days ago, I was contacted by a representative of a local company (within the blockchain industry) and they had offered me an opportunity to work for them. I had already passed two separate 1 hour long interviews - ending up with very mixed feelings. Right now, my strong conclusion is that I'm not the right person for the offered job position.
Regardless, whether I would end up working with that particular company or not - today, I would like to share with you some of that experience. I was asked some questions which made me feel quite puzzled and unprepared. Truth is, I'm still not sure how to answer some of those questions, however, the aim of this post is to ask you, dear readers, to help me out.
Perhaps someone here could steer me in right direction and help me find a way to reply one simple question:
HOW WOULD YOU EXPLAIN BLOCKCHAIN TO NEWBIE
How would you explain what blockchain is about to someone who doesn't know anything about blockchain?
I truly didn't even know where to begin. Part of me felt like I was being asked to explain what is the "Internet" to someone who has never used it before. At that very moment I realized that for over the past 2 years, I've only been dealing with people who are familiar with blockchain technology. I have stopped talking about it with those who are not familiar with the topic and do not understand the basics.
My TARGETED AUDIENCE has been very different. Educating people with ZERO knowledge has never been my goal. And at that very moment when I've heard this question - I ended up feeling so clueless and unprepared. Not knowing where to start and where to end. Unsure if it is even possible to achieve such a task within just a couple of minutes.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS WITH ME
Please share your thoughts with me. How would you explain "blockchain in 5 minutes" to someone who doesn't know anything about it? What is this technology about? `
IMPORTANT: Please do that using YOUR OWN WORDS.
WITHOUT using google and looking at youtube to see how other people did it. Just imagine going through an interview and being asked a similar question. What would you say, assuming that you've managed to attract someone's attention for just a couple of minutes. And every minute counts :)
I WILL CONTACT AUTHORS OF BEST ENTRIES
I will contact the authors of most valuable comments and offer creating a publication on this topic - which will be then strongly upvoted with my personal account, project.hope as well as on our curation trail.
Yours, Piotr
@project.hope founder
Visit our partner www.steemscan.com/convert if you're looking for easy and fast way of converting STEEM to other major cryptocurrencies.
Well, getting a perfect definition of the blockchain is a very tedious task. Blockchain has evolved so much in recent days and has shifted so much from the very basic concept. But a newbie just need a basic description to get started.
Now take for instance you are moving to new location and you'll need to sort your belongings into separate boxes. For organizational purposes, the boxes are filled and arranged 'as they come'. Now, to make sure you don't lose any of your important belongings, these boxes are tied to each other in an orderly form. Now, your boxes are the blocks, the material used to tie them to each other is the the chain. This is a very basic representation of the blockchain.
According to your arrangement of these boxed and how you tied them to each other, you'll need to repeat the whole arrangement before you could change the position of any the boxes, and of course, each box is sealed so it is almost impossible to change anything in your arrangement. When you get a new box filled, it is attached to your arrangement. This is how the blockchain works.
In the blockchain, each block is container of data, these data could be transactions, state changes, mining details e.t.c (just as you can pack anything into your box in the example above). Each block is connected to the subsequent block via hexadecimal identification stamps, this is the chain.
Hi @joelagbo
I would like to say: BIG THX for taking the time to read my post and for your comment. I trully appreciate it.
Stay safe buddy
Cheers, Piotr
The pleasure is mine!
Such a nice question I must say. I just hope my answer will be able to help a little.
I have met people who have zero knowledge about Blockchain and with my explanation many understand what a blockchain is.
In a bit to explain it to somebody who has zero knowledge about cryptocurrency and blockchain, I run faster to using the Bank as a case study. Now, this is how I explained it to them.
I go ahead to explain that Blockchain is just like your local bank. Imaging Blockchain as the structures, by structures, I mean the building where different bank related activities is been carried out. All activities in the bank is been stored in their database this same thing is applied to Blockchain. In Blockchain all your activities is been recorded in their database. Bank is the opposite of Blockchain. By opposite, I mean that the Bank is a physical structure while Blockchain is a coded structure that is build online i.e it is not a physical structure.
Just like in a bank, you can swap your local currency to any other currency, same thing can be done using the blockchain. Your different currency can be swap to any token.
Just like you have money like dollar, naira, pounds and so many currency in the bank, you have cryptocurrency in blockchain. The Cryptocurtency ranges from different money to the other. You have popular cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, Ethereum, hive, steem, litecoin, Uniswap, Eos, etc all in the blockchain, samething like having Dollar, naira, pounds etc
Now, how is this Blockchain better than our local. In blockchain, you can buy any Cryptocurrency without needing to leave the comfort of your home. You can easily sent token and receive token with ease without visiting your local bank. If the money hasn't delivered in your list of asset, you can easily check the transaction to ascertain if the person send it or not. But in case of bank, you will need to visit bank or call their customer care line to help you check the transaction status.
In blockchain, you can trade your token for additional gains, unlike bank. Although their is also the negative side. You have to have trading knowledge. While using the blockchain, just buying a coin and holding it can see you making good reward without you even engaging in any activities. This happens if the coin rises in value. You can still make loss just holding a coin if it drops in value too. This can't be done in banks except maybe you open a fixed deposit account and freezes your money for a particular time frame. You don't need to freeze your token before you can make good gain in blockchain.
With this few point of mine, I think I am able to explain what blockchain is in a lane terms.
@tfame3865 How did you changed the color to red? :O I'm amazed. xD
If you can chat me on discord, I will show you.
Username
Tfame3865#5186
I also want to know! :D
Amazing comment @tfame3865
Thank you for taking the time to share your view with me
Greetings dear friend @crypto.piotr
What a tricky situation! It is so simple but NOT easy question.
And when faced with a query like this, I think it is best to focus only on the main aspects and ignore small details.
Even if your explanation is not complete, I think it is better than drowning the newbie recipient with so many details that will eventually obscure the crux of the subject.
Let me try:
Imagine a room censored by cameras from every direction and these cameras are broadcasting live to all parts of the world.
You have in this room well-locked boxes (block) made of transparent glass so that anyone anywhere in the world can monitor the contents of these boxes without accessing them.
These boxes are linked together (chain)and each of them has an amount of money.
Each box has two types of keys: the private key and the public key, and each has its own use.
Let me start with the private key:
The private key is the ONLY way that you can own one of these boxes and can access its contents. Anyone who has a copy of the private key to your box can control the money so you MUST be careful with it.
If you want to withdraw your money or transfer it to another box you will need your private key to confirm the withdrawing or transferring process.
Public key:
Assuming that you own one of these boxes (box A) and want to transfer money to another box (box B ), then you need the public key of box B to make that transaction, and after confirming, the money will be transferred from (box A) to (box B) through the links between the boxes, and given that there are cameras in the room anyone can monitor the transfer process.
Now, we have miners:
Think of them as the ones who are responsible for getting all transactions between boxes executed. In exchange for doing so, they take a fee from each transaction process.
Certainly, This approach does NOT cover all the aspects of Blockchain technology, but I think it could introduce the basic description to someone with zero knowledge to get started.
Thank you for sharing your experience :))
Wow. I absolutely appreciate this awesome feedback @qsyal
Just as in the beginning money were coins based on metals, especially silver and gold, issued by monarchies and ancient empires, it evolved into paper money, the current banknotes issued by governments with their constitutions, each government has local laws on how it should print its Paper money and the global market dictate the prices of currencies, the most important being the dollar, in this same sense the natural evolution of this system is the blockchain where the block code is the technology that supports the issuance of cryptocurrencies being the most important bitcoin, but taking into account that their prices are subject to the global economic market.
So blockchain technology works in a very safe way, so that no one can alter it, in underdeveloped countries governments print paper money without control destroying the economy, in the blockchain something like that cannot happen because it is a large accounting book that is stored in All the computers that participated in that process, you can put your computer to order and collaborate in the registration process, that is why blockchain technology is infallible and ultra-secure, if you transfer money to another wallet that record is stored in all computers and even if there is a catastrophe that damages many computers, the process is recorded in the "blocks" giving truthfulness and maintaining balance in crypto assets that, as they are intangible, generate many doubts in their users.
Amazing comment @ramsesuchiha
Thank you for taking the time to share your thought with me
Hey @crypto.piotr, they asked you the million dollar question!
If it were easy to make it clear to those who know nothing about the functioning of the blockchain today we would have had a mass diffusion of everything that revolves around this technology such as crypto currencies.
However, I understand your frustration because that's what I feel when I try to explain blockchain to my 70-year-old father.
I usually make a comparison with our bureaucracy, we Italians are famous for this.
So I tell my dad that our data is kept in public offices and we need an intermediary to print our documents for us.
Instead, with the blockchain we can access our documents alone, because our data is kept in a secure database shared with all the others who, like us, have entered their data, and this is precisely the guarantee that our data cannot be modified without our permission because we all watch over everyone's data.
So each of us can manage their data without it being kept in a central archive.
Another example is the food supply chain because my father is greedy so I explain to him that every step of the food, from cultivation to harvesting and finally to the shelf, through the blockchain is all verifiable by everyone, not only by professionals but also by us. consumer citizens.
Traceability is guaranteed.
While with the old systems the data can be forged, perhaps altering a product expiration date, because that type of database can be overwritten.
On the other hand, blockchain-based systems guarantee the truthfulness of the information because once entered it can no longer be changed.
Then, when I have to explain to my father that everything can be controlled with an app and a QR code, I start having difficulties because he doesn't have a good relationship with his mobile.
I hope I was helpful, but simpler than that I just can't find other words.
Amazing comment @mikitaly
Thank you for taking the time to share your thought with me
In theory, the Blockchain is a man in the middle between buyer and seller and acts as a kind of bank. We all know banks and the money we leave with them when we make transactions and leave money with the bank and they become "too big to fail". To get around this problem the block chain was introduced, which works with a simple ledger. In this ledger all transactions like Bitcoin or other (crypto) currencies are recorded. The peculiarity of this ledger is, that every transaction that is recorded in the ledger causes a "mathematical problem". The "mathematical problem" can then be solved by one of the users in the block chain and records it in his ledger, whereby all other users of the block chain automatically copy the solution of the "mathematical problem". Each individual transaction (block entry) is thus recorded in the ledger and so that they are correctly linked together to form a "chain". This chain is mathematically balanced, so that fraud or incorrect postings are virtually impossible, because all other users of the block chain follow the invoice. In the future the length of the block chain can become problematic and that there are different block chains, which all have to be supplied with power. By the way, in my opinion the Blockchain has the potential to break for example large monopolies of search engines, because then the many individual users could be the search engine.
The MIT has a cool site to try and to see how it works!
The practise how the blockchain works is a little bit more complicated and in my opinion to exaggerated for a five minute explanation.
Sincerly
litshit69
Amazing comment @litshit69
Thank you for taking the time to share your thought with me
Extraordinary content that shares with us on this occasion, actually a difficult task as being able to transmit in a few minutes the information of the blockchain with a person who does not have any information about it is not easy, but however, it would be important to start transmitting some aspects in a general way and that can raise the attention of that person and perhaps motivate it to seek more information.
For example, that block chain technology will be the payment transaction system of the future through digital currencies called crypto-currencies (somewhat similar to payments by transfers between banks), however, this technology is independent of the banks' platforms and their charges for commissions and quantity restrictions, i.e. the relationship is entirely person-to-person.
And that the above is one of the most remarkable advantages of this type of technology and also provides great support to our cryptographic investments (or digital money) due to its great shielding system for being a series of chains or computer equipment that support and protect our investment.
Thank you leader for allowing us to be part of this extraordinary debate, and that sometimes we believe that the transference of any type of learning is trivial, but nevertheless, it is not, here a sample of it.
Amazing comment @rbalzan79
Thank you for taking the time to share your thought with me
Are you asked to lighten up those,no matter their age, about the blockchain, how it is built or it's possibility?
"What is the blockchain," my child asked me only a few days ago.
To me it's not different from the internet but just the way it is made (built) is.
Little 'blocks', build by computers, make a chain where information can be stored and found with a bit extra... cryptocureencies (alt) couns can be mined.
"Those computers always run?"
Most of them do
"What if 50% is shut down?"
Everything slows down.
To be honest I doubt if it is interesting to know what exactly it is, how it is build since this isn't the most interesting part for those who literally knownothing. What I do know is those who tried to explain it use mainly words insiders know about what they mean.
A question like this I would return with a question "What exactly do you like to know? How it's build? What the options are or better: What exactly do the people I need to inform like to know?"
Many can ask the same question but it doesn't mean they are interested in hearing the same answer.
Wow. I absolutely appreciate this awesome feedback @wakeupkitty.pal
Hey there, what a coincidence, I was helping a friend with her interview at a blockchain company. My explanation of target crash course for her was two fold, the why and the what
The why :
All disruptive tech revolves around cutting out the middle man. If you can cut them out, you can make a pretty good business out of it. That's what bitcoin is, cutting out the middle man which in this case, is the bank. That's what some other projects are built around too. In a sense, steemit is Facebook without Facebook Inc if that makes any sense.
As for the what, blockchain essentially a record keeping tool, a ledger. But it's magical record keeping tool of who spends what. This record is also distributed over the internet and it can't be shut down unless you kill the internet?
Then we went into how this can be applied into local SMEs but that's a story for another time. Hope that helps!
Love your explanation @alvinauh :)
Big thx for taking the time to drop this comment