Blockchain Basics: A Non-Technical Introduction in 25 Steps

in order to achieve and maintain its integrity.

The most important weapon of the blockchain against dishonest nodes is the power of the honest majority and the effects of reward and punishment.

The blockchain is a tool for achieving integrity in distributed software systems. Hence, it can be seen as a tool to achieve a nonfunctional aspect of the implementation layer.

this approach depends on the assumption that there really is a majority of honest nodes.

Nakamoto, Satoshi. Bitcoin: a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. 2008. https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf .

blockchains that determine the difficulty level dynamically do not utilize the longest-chain-criterion

The blockchain, as discussed so far, decided in favor of transparency and security to the disadvantage of privacy and speed.