I am going to stick with my definition of what Blockchain is and go through it part by part, hopefully without getting too technical.

Bitcoin and Blockchain are currently interchangeable terms, referring to the underlying technology (the blockchain protocol) on which the digital currency ‘ bitcoin’ with a small ‘b’, runs. For clarity I am going to use the term ‘ Blockchain’ to refer to the underlying technology, known as the Protocol layer, rather than Bitcoin. I will use bitcoin, with a lower case ‘b’ to refer to the digital currency.

‘’Blockchain’’ is a descriptive term for a cocktail of technologies comprising; cryptography, peer-to-peer connectivity and consensus algorithms which, when combined, creates a shared database that manifests as a secure ‘cradle to grave’ decentralised digital ledger within which assets may be recorded, accessed and transacted.

The word ‘’Blockchain’’ is derived from the fact that any transaction of an asset is recorded on the digital ledger as a ‘’stand-alone’’ entry, or block, and within that entry there are direct links and references to the previous transaction involving that asset, which creates a chain of data upon which the integrity of the database sits.

This security of the chain of data comes from linking each block of data with conditional cryptographic reference outputs resulting in a consensus acknowledgment, which creates an immutable record on that data base.’‘

Let’s start with:

”a cocktail of technologies comprising; cryptography, peer-to-peer connectivity and consensus algorithms ..”

and what I mean by this.

The Blockchain technology is a culmination of years of trial and error in different disciplines and the philosophy behind the cypher punk movement that were amalgamated by Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor and founder of bitcoin. No one knows who Satoshi Nakamoto is, whether a ‘he’,’she’ or ‘them’, but Satoshi is the individual (we assume) who took the developments of the past and by combining them created the first Blockchain  digital currency in the 2008  White Paper that we know today as bitcoin.

As a side note, What is a White Paper in the Blockchain industry ? A good definition is supplied by HubSpot:

A White Paper is a persuasive, authoritative, in-depth report on a specific topic that presents a problem and provides a solution.

The Blockchain Ingredients comprise

Cryptography

”Cryptography is the method of disguising and revealing, otherwise known as encrypting and decrypting, information through complex mathematics. This means that the information can only be viewed by the intended recipients and nobody else.”  Blockchain uses what is known a Public-Private Key Cryptography, Hashing and Digital Signatures.

Peer-to-Peer Connectivity

Peer-to-Peer Connectivity” are computer systems which are connected to each other via the Internet. Files can be shared directly between systems on the network without the need of a central server.”

Consensus Algorithms

Consensus Algorithms ”are what make the blockchain network so secure and decentralized and are designed to achieve reliability in a network involving multiple computers”

Satoshi Nakamito’s Blockchain was therefore developed by standing on the shoulders of others who came before him, in particular; David Chaum’s e cash (1982),  Adam Back’s Hashcash (1997), Wei Dais’s B-Money (1998,) Nick Szabo’s Bit Gold (1998) and Hal Finey’s RPOW (2004). All of which had some elements of the current bitcoin Blockchain but not all three, nor in the way Satoshi combined them to create bitcoin.