Blockchains, Cryptocurrency and NFTs explained
Blockchains, Cryptocurrency and NFTs explained

By HCL Tech Sri Lanka

It’s in 2022, and if you still don’t have an idea about what those above words mean, it’s all good. The world has not been itself lately, and so we understand that things are different now. However, we believe it’s high time you know about the whole deal. Because the technology is revolutionary and you might be able to learn it and join its fast-evolving culture. 

What's a Blockchain?

Blockchain is a system of recording information in a structure that makes it difficult or impossible to change, hack, or cheat the system. Also, it eliminates the use of a single point of interaction or record keeping.

As explained by euromoney.com, blockchain is basically introduced as ‘a digital ledger of transactions that is duplicated and distributed across the entire network of participants on the blockchain’. Everyone knows what is happening between themselves, so there’s no central person that keeps records. 

A block in the chain contains a number of transactions, and every time a new transaction occurs on the blockchain, a record of that transaction is added to every participant’s ledger. This decentralized technology is largely known as Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT).

Ok, we get what a Blockchain is, but what's Cryptocurrency?

A cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that is secured by cryptography, which makes it nearly impossible to counterfeit or double-spend. Many cryptocurrencies are based on DLTs running on blockchain technology. 

Its the official token to do any transaction on a given Blockchain. Consider you do perform something on the blockchain, for all the participants to record it in their own ledger you need to pay the network fee, and also the independent ledgers also get a fee to process it. 

All of these are specific to the Blockchain and converted to Fiat money like USD or Euro based on rates predetermined in the market. The more demand the Blockchain has the higher the value of the token of currency (cryptocurrency) that is used in that particular framework. 

The most famous Bitcoin you have already heard; Bitcoin is the cryptocurrency that has the highest market cap in the Cryptocurrency world, followed by the Ethereum Cryptocurrency developed on the ever so dynamic Ethereum Blockchain. 

So what is an NFT?

So NFT stands for non-fungible token. Well, non-fungible means it’s unique and cannot be replaced. A Bitcoin is fungible since you can exchange it for another Bitcoin. But you cannot do the same to an NFT. At a very high level, most NFTs are a part of the Etherium Blockchain. NFTs can be anything digital including digital art, music, and a particular code. However, the majority of the current excitement is around using blockchain technology to sell digital art.

Many claims that owning an NFT digital art is stupid since you can right-click the picture and save it. But NFTs are designed to provide you with something that cannot be copied: ownership of the work (despite the artist may still retain the copyright and reproduction rights, just like with physical artwork). If you put it in comparison with 0hyaical art collecting; anyone can buy a Monet print. But only one person can own the original.

Also, the NFTs are making communities with the particular NFT owners and creating private club-like networks where NFTs are the buy-in for the membership. The Pudgy Penguins club, the Bored Ape Yacht club, and the CryptoPunks are classic examples of the above.

So, we hope you got a basic idea of what Blockchains, Cryptocurrency and NFTs are and what they do in the tech world. We as HCL constantly keep our tech knowledge updated, facilitate trying out new and emerging techs and offer comprehensive services to clients and upskills our developers, and currently our global analytic teams are showing interest in further investigating the usage of the NFTs, cryptocurrency and blockchain in enhancing our services.

Check out The Rise of Blockchain-Fueled Data Security | HCL Blogs (hcltech.com) to understand how HCL is adapting block chain to strengthen data security. 

 
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