Blockchain Types

Blockchain is essentially a decentralized database. It does not rely on a third party, but stores, verify, transmits, and communicates network data through its own distributed nodes. After years of operation, blockchain technology has developed rapidly, and its application scope has covered many fields such as finance, games, property rights, medical treatment, and so on. In today's article, we will take the types and characteristics of blockchains.

Blockchain can be divided into public (owned) chains, private (owned) chains, and alliance chains according to its openness. The so-called openness refers to whether everyone can freely join the blockchain and obtain the information on the chain, and whether the information on the chain is open and transparent.

Public chain, private chain, alliance chain

Public chain

It is the most open blockchain in practical application. There are no rigid requirements for the participation authority of the public chain, and any individual and organization can freely join and exit. All data records on the public chain are open and transparent, and anyone can participate in the consensus process. The public chain is considered to be a completely decentralized blockchain without institutional control. The most typical representative of the public chain is the bitcoin system. This system is open to everyone, and everyone can become a node, verifier, and user in the bitcoin system. The information in the bitcoin system is completely open and transparent.

Private chain

Also known as the internal chain, it has a low degree of openness. The authority to write and modify data is only in the hands of a few people/organizations. It belongs to a single-center network of private institutions. At present, many large companies and groups are developing their own private chain, which can be used for enterprise management, financial audit, bank settlement, and so on.

Alliance chain

It is jointly participated by multiple organizations with mutual trust and has a good cooperative relationship with each other. The openness of the alliance chain is between the public chain and the private chain. The permission to write and modify is still in the hands of multiple mutual trust organizations. It is regarded as a partially decentralized blockchain. This alliance can be a kind of alliance between countries, enterprises, or banks. The participants in the alliance chain have high mutual trust, fast verification efficiency, greatly reduced transaction costs compared with the public chain, and some privacy of data can be well protected. Only the members of the alliance can share the information and resources on the alliance chain, such as R3 blockchain alliance.

What are Blockchain Nodes?

A node is a component of cryptocurrency that is required for most popular currencies such as Bitcoin and Dogecoin to function. In addition, it’s an essential component of the blockchain network, which is a decentralized ledger used to keep track of cryptocurrencies.

In layman’s language, a node is an intersection point or connection in a telecommunication network. A node can also refer to any system or physical equipment that is connected to a network and capable of performing specific duties such as creating, receiving, or sending data across a communication channel.

In virtual money, however, a node is a computer that is linked to a cryptocurrency network and may perform certain tasks such as producing, receiving, and moving data. Depending on the protocol, the explanation may differ. For example, a resident network might have a fax machine, three laptops, and a file server. The network in this scenario has five nodes, each with its own MAC address for identification. The term “node” is most commonly used in the blockchain industry.

What is a node in blockchain?

The term “node” is being used mostly in relation to blockchain, a decentralized digital ledger that records all cryptocurrency transactions and makes the information available to everyone via a connected device.

What this means is every transaction has to be chronologically recorded and distributed to a series of connected devices. These devices are called nodes. These nodes communicate with each other within the network and transfer information about transactions and new blocks.

It is a critical component of the blockchain infrastructure. It helps maintain the security and integrity of the network. A blockchain node's main purpose is to verify each batch of network transactions, called blocks. Each node is distinguished from others by a unique identifier.

What are the types of nodes?

There are basically two types of nodes: full nodes and lightweight nodes.

Full nodes

Full nodes support and provide security to the network. These nodes download a blockchain's entire history to observe and enforce its rules.

These nodes download the complete history of a blockchain to observe and enforce its rules. They mainly maintain consensus between other nodes and ensure the correctness and verification of the data on the blockchain by storing a copy of the blockchain. Lightweight nodes: These nodes establish connections between users outside the blockchain.

Lightweight node

It is each user in the network, who needs to connect to a full node in order to synchronize to the current state of the network to be able to participate.

Hidden nodes (non-listening nodes)

These nodes usually run behind a firewall

Miners' nodes

There is also a third type of node: Miner nodes. The term “Bitcoin miners” has now become familiar. These miners are classified as nodes. miner may work alone (solo miner) or in groups (pool miner). A solo miner uses his own full node. In a mining pool, only the administrator can run a full node — which can be referred to as a pool miner's full node.

Listening nodes (supernodes)

And finally, a sub-category called listening nodes. A listening node, essentially, is a publicly visible full node. It communicates with any node that decides to establish a connection with it. A reliable super node typically runs all the time, transmitting blockchain history and transaction data to multiple nodes.

Functions of nodes

A block broadcasts all the network nodes when a miner seeks to add a new block of transactions to the blockchain. Based on the legitimacy of a block, nodes might accept or reject it (validity of signatures and transactions). When a node accepts a new block of transactions, it saves and stores it on top of the existing blocks. In a nutshell, nodes do the following:

• Nodes determine whether or not a block of transactions is legitimate and accept or reject it.
• Nodes save and store transaction blocks (storing blockchain transaction history).
• This transaction history is broadcast and disseminated by nodes to other nodes that may need to synchronize with the blockchain ( updates on transaction history are important).

Nodes are critical to the operation of a blockchain network because they keep all participants honest and assure data integrity. Most blockchain networks utilize monetary incentives, such as mining or staking, to motivate users to operate complete nodes.

However, keep in mind that running a complete node incurs expenses and hazards. And while there are several online manuals, the process of putting them up might be too complicated for folks who are unfamiliar with blockchain and programming.