Blockchain Database Technology: A Quick Guide

Perhaps you’re a startup trying to get your idea off the ground. Or you’re a crypto expert wanting to deploy a decentralized app to the world. Regardless of who you are, it’s important to know the fundamentals of blockchain database technology. To further your understanding, keep on reading.

Types of Databases

It’s important to know the different types of databases before talking about blockchain database technology. Knowing the difference will help you decide which one is best for your development strategy. Here are the two main forms of databases you’ll encounter:

Centralized Databases

Centralized databases organize the data in tables using the SQL language. During the 80s, centralized databases became the norm. Even if their infrastructure and architecture changed over time, the data is still stored in one location.

Over 90% of the database market uses this method. Also, centralized databases have the most well-known systems and vendors: Oracle, SQLite, MySQL, SAP, IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, etc.

Distributed Databases

Distributed databases (DDBMS) has the storage devices spread throughout a network. This is different than a centralized database because it’s not attached to one processor such as a CPU. With the creation of the internet, businesses required solutions that could handle large amounts of unstructured and structured data.

DDBMS has consensus mechanisms that create fault-tolerant communications. Additionally, they provide concurrency control through time-stamping/locking mechanisms. Here are their multiple technology forms.

NoSQL: NoSQL databases are horizontally scalable, non-relational DDMBS, and are designed for real-time applications. The most commonly known solutions are Google BigTable, Couch DB, MongoDB, Mark Logic, Apache Cassandra, and Riak.
Distributed Ledgers: Distributed Ledgers leverage cryptography and DDMBS to make a decentralized concurrency control mechanism. And it maintains consensus about the status and existence of shared facts in trustless environments (i.e., when the environment hosts are independent and don’t trust each other).
Hadoop: An open sourced software framework for running applications and storing data on clusters of hardware. It provides a massive amount of data storage, the ability to complete concurrent tasks, enormous processing power.
Peer network node data: Systems that allow users to share files through a network leveraging P2P protocols such as Mnet, Freenet, NNTP, and BitTorrent.

Where Does Blockchain Come In?

Blockchain Database Technology uses a DDBMS system to help store all transaction data. What makes this interesting is that it’s not owned by one person. Blockchain technology uses a distributed ledger where all of the PCs in the network work together to create Bitcoin. Since its decentralized, it can still operate even if one computer isn’t functioning properly.

Without blockchain technology, it works by encrypting the data that passes through it. As a result, users can create anonymous transactions with Bitcoin. Even though the government is attempting to regulate cryptocurrency, blockchain technology still keeps your account information safe and private.

Conclusion

Database technology has been used for decades to help store important information. It will start to implement more decentralized frameworks as it continues to evolve. Know how to use blockchain database technology to your advantage to remain successful!

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