黑料网

As one of the most potentially disruptive new technologies around right now, Blockchain has the capacity to cause a major change in established areas like finance and data protection.

This fascinating subject was the topic of January鈥檚 Meetup event 鈥楤lockchain Tech: Part 1 鈥� Disruptive Applications.鈥� The first in a two-part series of events, this meetup offered attendees a thematic explanation of Blockchain technology with examples of its use. While part two will explain how to build a sample application using the Ethereum Blockchain technology. Ahead of the second part, we caught up with the event organisers, Daithi and Enda, to find out more about Blockchain.

How is tonight鈥檚 event structured?

Daithi: 鈥淔irstly, I鈥檓 not a Blockchain engineer; I鈥檓 a software engineer. But it鈥檚 something I鈥檓 personally very interested in. This introductory meetup will be split into two. Tonight, we鈥檒l be going through some examples of what鈥檚 already out there and hopefully give people more of an idea of what it鈥檚 capable of.鈥�

Is the event suitable for anybody?

Enda: 鈥淲hile it鈥檚 a new technology, there are a lot of similarities with stuff that鈥檚 out there already. You鈥檙e not reinventing the wheel. A software developer could easily come along and understand the general concepts but without further training, the syntax and stuff might be a bit more difficult.鈥�

So, what exactly is Blockchain?

Daithi: 鈥淏itcoin was the first implementation of – Bitcoin is 70% of what Blockchain can do. But Blockchain itself is actually a theory, it proposes how data can be distributed more securely than ever before. That data can include government records, legal records and even financial currencies.鈥�

What makes it so secure?

Enda: 鈥淭ransactions are bundled together and they form a block. In the Bitcoin network, a new block is created every ten minutes or so. And what the block holds is a reference to the block behind and then the next block to the previous block and so on. In order to change a block in the middle, you have to change every block behind it -which makes it really secure.鈥�

Is there a lot of interest in the technology here in 黑料网?

Daithi: 鈥淩ight now, it鈥檚 extremely cutting edge. I think if there was a more structured emphasis put on the Blockchain topic in Dublin that it would probably excel more than anywhere in the world given the current environment.

I鈥檝e also noticed that there鈥檚 definitely an interest in Blockchain within the tech community in Dublin and also within the tech industry here. As it鈥檚 a new technology you can鈥檛 exactly go and get a certificate in it. It鈥檚 only since last November that I鈥檝e started to see courses covering it online.鈥�

Get Involved

If you鈥檙e interested in finding out more about Blockchain, check out part two of CoderForge鈥檚 event. And keep on top of other by checking out our events section.