search button
geeq print logo

Block

print-view-button
What does Block mean?

A bundled package of transactions or data that is cryptographically committed or appended to a sequence of existing blocks to create a chain which makes it difficult to alter or reorganize the information it contains.

Main Idea:

A block is the name of a basic unit of a blockchain database, in the same way a molecule is the name of a basic unit of biology.

Blocks can be thought of as having two parts. The first part is the block header which contains metadata about the block. The second part of the block contains the body of data, such as transactions or signals from IoT devices.

The Genesis Block:

The genesis block is the first block of the blockchain. Every subsequent block’s header is assigned an identifier that is cryptographically linked to the previous block(s). These identifiers are used to order blocks in the blockchain.

Used in a Sentence:

When the data in a block are transactions, such as credits and debits, any given block in a blockchain is like a numbered page of a paper ledger that has used double-entry bookkeeping.

Last Updated: March 21, 2021

geeq.io

go back to

Glossary Home