[English Translation] The Complete Guide to Blockchain for Beginners

What on earth is blockchain? I think there are still a lot of people asking that.

For me, the idea is to simply explain it to friends who are basically online with their smartphones, can use LINE to some extent, shop online occasionally, and don’t hate using a PC—just give them a quick explanation that makes them go “I see!” and that’s enough. But I still can’t crisply and concisely explain it in one go (laugh).

Probably because I haven’t fully digested it yet myself. I’ll study more…。

This time I translated an article that seemed easy to understand for folks like me who aren’t tech-savvy, and I’m curious what you’ll think.

The Complete Beginner's Guide to Blockchain

Even if you’ve heard the word “blockchain,” you might have dismissed it as a passing trend or buzzword, or as a technical term you don’t need to pay attention to. However, I believe blockchain is a technological development with broad implications that will transform not only financial services but also other businesses and industries.

Blockchain is a distributed database, which means that the storage devices of this database are not all connected to a single processor. In a blockchain, the list of transaction records continues to grow, and these are called blocks. Each block has a timestamp and is linked to the previous block.

Thanks to cryptography, by possessing a private key necessary to write to a file, a user can edit a portion of the blockchain they “own.” Additionally, copies of the distributed blockchain are synchronized and saved for all users.

Imagine digital medical records.

Each record is a “block.” A timestamp indicating when the record was created is stamped onto it. And those records are intentionally designed to be immutable, so they cannot be altered retroactively. This ensures that diagnostic and treatment records remain clear and unmodified.

Only the doctor with the private key and the patient with another private key can access the information. Sharing of information occurs only when those users share their private keys with a third party, such as a hospital or specialist.

From above, this is how you can explain a blockchain for a medical database.