Technical Fundamentals of Blockchain Systems

Abstract

This work provides a short but technical introduction to the main building blocks of a blockchain. It argues that a blockchain is not a revolutionary technology but rather a clever combination of three fields: cryptography, decentralization and game theory. In addition, it summaries the differences between a public, private and federate blockchain model and the two prominent consensus mechanism Proof-of-Work (POW) and Proof-of-Stake (POS).