blockchain

See also: Blockchain and block chain

Etymology

From block +‎ chain, from earlier “block chain”. In the 2008 Bitcoin paper block and chain are used separately; the concept is referred to as “chain of hash-based proof-of-work” or “chain of digital signatures”.^[1]

Noun

blockchain (plural blockchains)

A shared record of past transactions in a distributed network, typically used for cryptocurrency. [from 2010s]
Hyponyms: mainchain, sidechain
- 2014, Michael R. Miller, The Ultimate Guide to Bitcoin, Que Publishing, →ISBN, page 93:
  By the way, mobile wallets differ from most software wallets in that they don't download the entire Bitcoin blockchain with every transaction. (Many software wallets do, interestingly.) Because the blockchain is a file several gigabytes in size, this would eat up a ton of mobile bandwidth and probably cause your mobile provider to either enact overage charges or just plain cancel your account. In addition, your mobile phone probably doesn't have enough onboard storage to host the entire […]
- 2014, Pedro Franco, Understanding Bitcoin: Cryptography, Engineering and Economics, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 95:
  […] blockchain is arguably the most important innovation introduced by Bitcoin. It is the missing link that makes distributed peer-to-peer digital currencies possible. The blockchain is in essence a distributed database holding all the Bitcoin transactions since the beginning (January 3, 2009) and a method to secure this database. The blockchain keeps a secure list of all the transactions. However, there are relevant questions, such as whether a particular transaction output is spendable, that […]

Derived terms

Translations

shared record

Afrikaans: blokketting (af)
Armenian: բլոկչեյն (blokčʻeyn)
Catalan: cadena de blocs f
Chinese:
Mandarin: 區塊鏈 / 区块链 (qūkuàiliàn)
Finnish: lohkoketju (fi)
French: chaîne de blocs (fr) f, blockchain (fr) f
Georgian: ბლოკჩეინი (bloḳčeini)
German: Blockchain (de) f, Blockkette f
Hungarian: blokklánc (hu)
Icelandic: bálkakeðja f
Italian: catena di blocchi f, blockchain f
Japanese: ブロックチェーン (burokkuchēn)
Kazakh: блокчейн (blokçein)
Korean: 블록체인 (beullokchein)
Malay: blok rantai
Polish: łańcuch bloków m
Russian: блокче́йн (ru) m (blokčéjn)
Sicilian: catina di blocchi f, blockchain f
Spanish: cadena de bloques f, blockchain m or f
Swedish: blockkedja (sv)
Turkish: blok zinciri
Uyghur: بۈلەكچە (bülekche)

References

[1]
Satoshi Nakamoto (2008) “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎: “The network timestamps transactions by hashing them into an ongoing chain of hash-based proof-of-work, forming a record that cannot be changed without redoing the proof-of-work.”