What type of records can be kept in a Blockchain?

Blockchain is a decentralized peer-to-peer network. A blockchain network generally consists of nodes, a distributed ledger, and a consensus algorithm. Blockchain rose to fame due to the success of Bitcoin, primarily used to perform financial transactions and store them in the ledger.

Note: To read more about the Bitcoin and its working, click here.

What is the ledger?

A ledger is a component of blockchain that is immutableThe data in the ledger can neither be modified nor deleted, this makes the ledger immutable. and visible to everyone on the blockchain network. Ledger serves as the primary storage in a blockchain and can be used to store different things according to the use case. It comprises sequentially linked blocks containing the data to be stored in the blockchain. Blocks are linked together using the previous block's hash, as shown below:

Note: The genesis block is a specific exception as it does not contain a hash of the previous block because it is the first block in the ledger.

What types of records can the ledger store?

Records in the blockchain are stored according to their use case. We must keep in mind that a space constraint as a single block in many blockchains can only hold a maximum of one megabyte of data.

Ledgers can store virtually anything with a defined material or financial value recognized by the nodes in the network, also referred to as an asset. Some examples of assets are as follows:

• Financial transactions: Blockchains like Bitcoin and Dogecoin use the ledger to store the data of transactions of their cryptocurrencies.

• Code blocks: Blockchain like Ethereum use it to store code in the form of smart contracts, which serves as the basis of the concept of Dapps.

• Medical records: Private blockchainsA blockchain that requires nodes to be verified before being added to the network. usually store patients' medical records to maintain integrity in an untrustworthy environment.

• Business transactions: Businesses can use private blockchains while performing transactions involving other businesses to ensure the integrity of the product and that certain conditions are met, leading to more security and accountability.

• Property transactions: The current property owner and transfer details can also be stored in the ledger.

Note: The space of the block in the blockchain can be increased if it is implemented from scratch, but it still poses an issue that the whole ledger needs to be stored on a node that mostly runs on devices with low storage space, therefore it creates space scarcity.