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Repost, don't ask me 🤷So a real dear old investment banker pal called me and said, "As a financial professional, I'm humiliated to say this, but people talk to me about this Blockchain/Bitcoin thing, and I don't have a clue. Can you give me the skinny on it?" I said, "Sure! It's a lot easier to read about than to take it all on-board by talking about it, so I'll type-up a tutorial and send it right off to you." Since other friends have asked me about Blockchain/Bitcoin in the past too, I figured I'd reproduce my email to him here if anyone is interested…**********************************************************************In a somewhat strange way of thinking, Charles Dickens invented Blockchain, the underlying technological structure of BitCoin. In "A Christmas Carol" when Marley's ghost appeared to Scrooge, he was dragging a long chain of locked cash boxes. That's a perfect physical-world analogy for Blockchain (See illustration below).Marley's cash boxes on the chain are the equivalent of Blockchain's blocks. Those Blockchain blocks are "locked" by encoding, or "scrambling," them cryptographically so that no unauthorized person has any even remotely reasonable chance of fooling with them. The "key" to "unlock" their "locks" is an extraordinarily large number, sort of a "combination to the lock," that for all intents-and-purposes is impossible to guess. The blocks contain data of any kind that you want to keep securely recorded. In the case of BitCoin, that data inside the blocks are one or more "certificates," so to speak, representing redeemable currency of any national issuance and denomination. Or, more generically under Blockchain, it could be things like stock certificates. Or ledgers. Or deeds. Or negotiable checks. Or contracts. Or classified information. Or… The data in the blocks are also immutable, meaning that even individuals or programs authorized to access it cannot change it without that change being duly and irrevocably noted.Marley's Chain to which the blocks are attached is the equivalent of each Blockchain block's pointers to its next and previous block on the chain -- connected trunk-to-tail like elephants in a circus. So, a Blockchain is the collection of Marley's chain, cashboxes, and the cashboxes' locks.Does that sound too simple? It probably does, but it really isn't; that's the whole Blockchain concept. Now, huge books have been written about the cryptographic aspects of Blockchain that secure the boxes and chain -- really, really scary math and algorithms -- but that part is only important to Blockchian-based app developers, not for any users of Blockchain/Bitcoin.By all means, get back to me with any questions. Oh, and we're overdue for our usual dinner at Smith & Wollensky. I'll be in New York soon-ish...Your Faithful Geek Pal, Jeffrey