The Ohio Electronic Records Commission recently created a new tip sheet that outlines considerations that can be used to determine whether blockchain technology might be a good fit for a particular project.
“Blockchain technology” is a consensus digital ledger comprised of unchangeable, digitally-recoded data in packages called blocks. Each block is “chained” to the next block using a cryptographic signature. This allows blockchains to act like a ledger, which can be shared with an accessed by anyone with the appropriate permissions. Blockchains are typically maintained across multiple computers that are linked in a peer-to-peer network. Additional information about blockchain features and functionalities can be found in the OhioERC companion document, Blockchain Basics: Introduction to Blockchain Concepts.
The tip sheet compares the advantages and disadvantages of using blockchain versus existing database technology. It also distinguishes between public, private and federated blockchain, and identifies the features commonly found with each.
For more information about blockchain technology, please visit https://ohioerc.org/?page_id=1948.