A blockchain (also known as "the protocol of trust") is a technology that aims at decentralization as a security measure. They are distributed and shared records and data bases that have the function of creating a global index for all the transactions that occur in a given market. It functions as a ledger, only in a public, shared and universal way, which creates consensus and trust in direct communication between two parties, that is, without the intermediary of third parties. It is constantly growing as new complete blocks are added to it by a new set of records. Blocks are added to the blockchain in a linear and chronological way. Each node - any computer connected to this network has the task of validating and passing on transactions - gets a copy of the blockchain after joining the network. The blockchain has complete address and balance information directly from the genesis block to the most recently completed block.
The blockchain is seen as the main technological innovation of bitcoin since it is the proof of all the transactions in the network. Its original design has served as inspiration for the emergence of new crypto-coins and distributed databases.