Blockchain Technology Overview

Yaga, Dylan; Mell, Peter; Roby, Nik; Scarfone, Karen

doi:https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.IR.8202

NISTIR 8202

Blockchain Technology Overview

Documentation Topics

Date Published: October 2018

Author(s)

Dylan Yaga (NIST), Peter Mell (NIST), Nik Roby (G2), Karen Scarfone (Scarfone Cybersecurity)

Abstract

Blockchains are tamper evident and tamper resistant digital ledgers implemented in a distributed fashion (i.e., without a central repository) and usually without a central authority (i.e., a bank, company, or government). At their basic level, they enable a community of users to record transactions in a shared ledger within that community, such that under normal operation of the blockchain network no transaction can be changed once published. This document provides a high-level technical overview of blockchain technology. The purpose is to help readers understand how blockchain technology works.

Keywords

blockchain; consensus model; cryptocurrency; cryptographic hash function; asymmetric-key cryptography; distributed ledger; distributed consensus algorithm; proof of work; proof of stake; round robin; proof of authority; proof of identity; proof of elapsed time; soft fork, hard fork; smart contracts; data oracle

Control Families

None selected

Documentation

Publication:
NISTIR 8202 (DOI)
Local Download

Supplemental Material:
None available

Related NIST Publications:
White Paper NIST CSWP 9

Document History:
01/24/18: NISTIR 8202 (Draft)
10/03/18: NISTIR 8202 (Final)

Topics

Security and Privacy
digital signatures; secure hashing

Technologies
blockchain