Bitcoin and Other Blockchain Technologies: Mechanisms, Governance, and Applications

Shoutong Thomas Zhang ()
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Shoutong Thomas Zhang: Queen Mary University of London

Chapter Chapter 10 in The Palgrave Handbook of FinTech and Blockchain, 2021, pp 243-257 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Why was Bitcoin created? How do Bitcoin and other blockchain technologies work? Bitcoin was foremost designed to be a system that operates without any single entity in control. This chapter discusses this fundamental goal of decentralization that Bitcoin intended to achieve, and describes how it was implemented via a mechanism called a blockchain. The chapter then moves on to consider Bitcoin’s three layers of governance to coordinate decision-making among a large decentralized base of users: the consensus protocol, mining incentives, and network upgrades. We end with a discussion and critique of some major categories of current applications of blockchain technologies: payment systems, resource sharing, smart contracts, data security, and private blockchains.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-66433-6_10

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