Single Source Provider

It’s a shared ledger for recording the history of commercial transactions – that cannot be altered.

Blockchain is the technology behind Bitcoin

Blockchain is a public electronic ledger – similar to a relational database – that can be openly shared among disparate users and that creates an unchangeable record of their transactions, each one time-stamped and linked to the previous one. Each digital record or transaction in the thread is called a block (hence the name), and it allows either an open or controlled set of users to participate in the electronic ledger. Each block is linked to a specific participant.

Blockchain can only be updated by consensus between participants in the system, and when new data is entered, it can never be erased. The blockchain contains a true and verifiable record of each and every transaction ever made in the system.

There are a variety of blockchain permutations, and they fall mainly into one of two categories – public or private. Public blockchains allow anyone to see or send transactions as long as they’re part of the consensus process. There are also consortium blockchains, where only a pre-selected number of parties are authorized to use the ledger. For example, a group of commercial companies and they use use blockchain to do secure transactions between the member companies.

Private blockchains, in contrast, restrict the ability to write to a distributed ledger to one organization, such as a group of employees within a corporation, or between a set number of organizations.

Blockchain benefits:

• Enhanced coordination and choreography between parties through a shared view of the latest status, obligations and other information
• Master source of data instead of disparate data stores that require constant validation and reconciliation
• Complete traceability, ensuring integrity of data that is continuously updated and maintained by multiple parties
• Reliable and accurate audit trail with transparency of the identity responsible for each data change