Contract layer is the core content of blockchain
blockchain is a new application mode of distributed data storage, point-to-point transmission, consensus mechanism, encryption algorithm and other computer technologies
blockchain is an important concept of bitcoin. It is essentially a decentralized database. At the same time, as the underlying technology of bitcoin, it is a series of data blocks generated by using cryptographic methods. Each data block contains the information of a bitcoin network transaction, Used to verify the validity of its information (anti-counterfeiting) and generate the next block
some areas where blockchain can be used can be as follows:
& ᦇ 9642; Smart contract; Securities trading; E-commerce; Internet of things; Social communication; File storage; Proof of existence; Authentication
&9642; Equity crowdfunding
we can compare the development of blockchain with the development of the Internet itself. In the future, something called finance Internet will be formed on the Internet. This thing is based on blockchain, and its precursor is bitcoin, that is, traditional finance starts from private chain and instry chain (LAN), bitcoin series starts from public chain (WAN), They all express the same concept - digital asset, and finally converge to an intermediate equilibrium point
The evolution mode ofblockchain is as follows:
& 9642; Blockchain 1.0 digital currency; Blockchain 2.0 digital assets and smart contracts; Blockchain 3.0: implementation of distributed applications in various instries
broadly speaking, blockchain technology is a new distributed infrastructure and computing paradigm, which uses blockchain data structure to verify and store data, uses distributed node consensus algorithm to generate and update data, uses cryptography to ensure the security of data transmission and access, and uses intelligent contract composed of automated script code to program and operate data
as we all know, blockchain technology is an independent underlying architecture from bitcoin system. From the perspective of architecture model, it is a set of distributed ledger, which is naturally used for bookkeeping
in the blockchain technology, if you want to generate accounting records, you need to have the transaction and flow of funds. Therefore, in the initial blockchain technology, the cryptocurrency corresponding to the main network is used as circulation goods, and the circulation transaction records of cryptocurrency between the accounts of the main network of the blockchain will be recorded on the main network
different from other transaction record databases, transaction records on the main network of blockchain technology will be recorded on all block nodes (i.e. all data blocks) in the main network, which is the so-called decentralization principle. That is to say, in blockchain technology, there is no central database to store all records, Every block on the chain has the transaction data of the whole chain, that is to say, every data block is the center
another feature of blockchain technology is that it can't be tampered with, because every transaction on the blockchain will be recorded in all blocks on the chain, so no single data block can change the record. Even if you change it, all other data blocks will also record real data, and each group of data can be traced back to the first time
because of these characteristics of blockchain technology, after the advent of bitcoin, blockchain has also attracted a lot of attention, and many people also began to want to use blockchain technology to make a centerless, traceable and unchangeable data, so as to ensure the credibility of the data
however, blockchain technology also faces many problems, such as single application scenario, non modifiable original error data, non recoverable currency stolen by hackers, etc.
From the perspective of technology and architecture, I will tell you my understanding of blockchain in common language
what is blockchain? In a word, blockchain is a storage system. To be more specific, blockchain is a distributed storage system without an administrator and each node has all the data
What are the common storage systems like
first, how to ensure high availability
the common storage system usually uses "rendancy" to solve the problem of high availability. As shown in the figure above, if the data can be copied into several copies and rendant to multiple places, high availability can be guaranteed. The data in one place is hung, and there is data in other places. For example, the master-slave cluster of MySQL is the same principle, and the raid of disk is also the same principle
two points need to be emphasized in this place are: data rendancy often leads to consistency problems
1. For example, in the master-slave cluster of MySQL, there is actually a delay in reading and writing, which means there is a inconsistency in reading and writing in a short period of time. This is a side effect of data rendancy
The second point is that data rendancy often reces the efficiency of writing, because data synchronization also consumes resources. If you add two slave libraries, the write efficiency will be affected. The common storage system is to use rendancy to ensure the high availability of dataso the second question, ordinary storage system, can write more
the answer is yes, for example, take this graph as an example:
in fact, MySQL can do a master-slave synchronization of al masters, master-slave synchronization of al masters, two nodes can be written at the same time. If you want to do a multi room multi live data center, in fact, multi room multi live data synchronization. What we should emphasize here is that multi-point writing often leads to the consistency problem of writing conflicts. Take MySQL as an example, suppose that the attribute of a table is self incrementing ID, then the data in the database is 1234 now. If one of the nodes writes and inserts a piece of data, it may become 5, and then these 5 pieces of data are synchronized to another master node, Before synchronization, if another write node inserts a piece of data, a piece of data with self incrementing ID of 5 will be generated. Then, after the generation, synchronize to another node, and the synchronized data will conflict with the two local 5's after it arrives, which will lead to synchronization failure and write consistency conflict. This problem will occur in the case of multi-point writing
how to ensure consistency in multi-point writing
the reform "Swan class" gives you more technical work
1. Data layer
the data layer is the lowest layer in the six hierarchies of the blockchain. We can understand the data layer as a database, but for the blockchain, this database is a tamperable and distributed database, which is what we call "distributed ledger"
in the data layer, that is, the "distributed ledger", the data information on the blockchain is stored, and the blockchain structure, asymmetric encryption technology, hash algorithm and other technical means of the block are encapsulated to ensure the security of the data in the case of the whole network being open. The specific method is:
in the blockchain network, nodes use consensus algorithm to maintain the consistency of data layer (that is, the distributed database), and use asymmetric encryption and hash algorithm in cryptography to ensure the non usurpation and traceability of the distributed database
This constitutes the bottom data structure of blockchain technology. However, it is not enough to have a distributed database. We also need to let the data information in the database be shared and exchanged. Next, we will introce the upper layer of the data layer - the network layer
Second, network layer
the network system of blockchain is essentially a P2P (point-to-point) network. Point to point means that there is no need for an intermediate link or centralized server to control the system. All resources and services in the network are distributed in the hands of each node, and the transmission of information is also a direct communication between the two nodes. However, it should be noted that P2P
(peer-to-peer) was not invented by Nakamoto, and the blockchain only integrates this technology
therefore, the network layer of blockchain is actually a particularly powerful point-to-point network system. In this system, each node can not only proce information, but also receive information, just like sending e-mail. You can write your own e-mail, and you can also receive the e-mail sent to you by others
in the blockchain network, nodes need to jointly maintain the blockchain system. Every time a node creates a new block, it needs to notify other nodes in the form of broadcast. After receiving the information, other nodes verify the block, and then create a new block on the basis of the block. In this way, the whole network can jointly maintain and update the general ledger of the blockchain system
however, what rules should the whole network follow to maintain and update the general ledger of the blockchain system? This involves the so-called "laws and regulations" (rules), which we will introce next: the consensus layer
Third, consensus layer
in the world of blockchain, consensus simply means that the whole network should maintain and update the general ledger of blockchain system according to a unified and agreed rule, which is similar to the rule of updating data. It is one of the core technologies of blockchain and the governance mechanism of blockchain community to let highly dispersed nodes reach consensus efficiently in the decentralized blockchain network
at present, the mainstream consensus mechanism algorithms include: proof of work of bitcoin (POW), proof of rights and interests of Ethereum (POS), proof of rights and interests of EOS (dpos), etc
we now introce the data layer, network layer and consensus layer. These three layers ensure that there are data, networks and rules for updating data on the network. However, there is no free lunch in the world. How can nodes actively participate in the maintenance of the blockchain system? Here is the incentive layer, which we will introce next: incentive layer< 4. Incentive layer
incentive layer is the so-called mining mechanism, which can be understood as incentive mechanism: you can get as much reward as you contribute to the blockchain system. With this incentive mechanism, the whole network nodes can be encouraged to participate in the data recording and maintenance on the blockchain
mining mechanism and consensus mechanism are actually the same truth. Consensus mechanism can be understood as the company's general rules and regulations, while mining mechanism can be understood as the reward rules for what you do well in the general rules and regulations
just like the consensus mechanism POW of bitcoin, it stipulates that more work pays more. Whoever can find the correct hash value first can get a certain amount of bitcoin reward
and Ethereum's POS stipulates that the older the holder is, the more likely he or she will be rewarded
it should be noted that the incentive layer is generally only available for the public chain, because the public chain must rely on the nodes of the whole network to jointly maintain data, so there must be a set of incentive mechanism to encourage the nodes of the whole network to participate in the construction and maintenance of the blockchain system, so as to ensure the security and reliability of the blockchain system
the blockchain is safe and reliable, and it is not intelligent enough, right? The contract layer we will introce next can make the blockchain system more intelligent
v. contract layer
Contract layer mainly includes various scripts, codes, algorithm mechanisms and smart contracts, which is the basis of block chain programming. What we call "smart contract" is at the contract level
if the bitcoin system is not intelligent enough, the "smart contract" proposed by Ethereum can meet many application scenarios. The principle of the contract layer is to embed the code into the blockchain system, in this way to realize the smart contract that can be customized. In this way, on the blockchain system, once the terms of the smart contract are triggered, the system can automatically execute commands< Finally, the application layer. The application layer is very simple. As the name suggests, it is a variety of application scenarios and cases of blockchain. What we now call "blockchain +" is the so-called application layer. At present, the blockchain applications that have been implemented are mainly various blockchain applications built on
eth, EOS and other public chains. There are more applications of gambling and games, and the real practical applications have not yet appeared.
among them, the data layer encapsulates the underlying data block and related data encryption and timestamp technologies; The network layer includes distributed networking mechanism, data transmission mechanism and data verification mechanism; The consensus layer mainly encapsulates all kinds of consensus algorithms of network nodes; The incentive layer integrates economic factors into the blockchain technology system, mainly including the issuance mechanism and distribution mechanism of economic incentives; The contract layer mainly encapsulates all kinds of scripts, algorithms and smart contracts, which is the basis of the programmable characteristics of blockchain; The application layer encapsulates various application scenarios and cases of blockchain. In this model, chain block structure based on timestamp, consensus mechanism of distributed nodes, economic incentive based on consensus computing power and flexible and programmable smart contract are the most representative innovations of blockchain technology.
1, data layer / data layer
the data layer mainly describes the physical form of blockchain, which is a chain structure starting from Genesis block on blockchain, including block data, chain structure, random number, time stamp, public and private key data on blockchain, and is the lowest level data structure in the whole blockchain technology
2. Network layer / network layer
the network layer mainly realizes the mechanism of distributed network through P2P technology, and the network layer includes P2P networking mechanism, data dissemination mechanism and data verification mechanism. Therefore, blockchain is essentially a P2P network with automatic networking mechanism, and the communication between nodes is maintained by maintaining a common blockchain structure
3. Consensus layer / consensus layer
consensus layer mainly includes consensus algorithm and consensus mechanism, which enables highly dispersed nodes to reach consensus on the effectiveness of block data efficiently in the decentralized blockchain network. It is one of the core technologies of blockchain and also the governance mechanism of blockchain community. At present, there are at least dozens of consensus mechanism algorithms, including workload proof, rights and interests proof, rights and interests authorization proof, burning proof, importance proof and so on
data layer, network layer and consensus layer are the necessary elements of building blockchain technology. Without any layer, it can not be called a real blockchain technology
4. Incentive layer / activator layer
the incentive layer mainly includes the issuing system and distribution system of economic incentive. Its function is to provide certain incentive measures, encourage nodes to participate in the security verification work in the blockchain, incorporate economic factors into the blockchain technology system, encourage nodes that comply with rules to participate in bookkeeping, and punish nodes that do not comply with rules
5. Contract layer / contract layer
the contract layer mainly includes various scripts, codes, algorithm mechanisms and smart contracts, which is the basis of block chain programming. Embedding the code into the blockchain or token, realizing the smart contract that can be customized, and automatically executing without a third party when certain constraints are met, is the foundation of the blockchain's distrust
6. Application layer / application layer
the application layer of blockchain encapsulates various application scenarios and cases, which are similar to applications on computer operating system, portals on Internet browsers, search engines, e-malls or apps on mobile phones. The blockchain technology applications are deployed on Ethereum, EOS and qtum, and are implemented in real life scenarios. The future programmable finance and programmable society will also be built on the application layer
incentive layer, contract layer and application layer are not necessary factors for each blockchain application, and some blockchain applications do not completely include the three-tier structure.