When records are linked through cryptography, a blockchain is formed. Here the digital information is distributed but not copied. It not only records the financial transactions but also anything that has value. New transactions modes which have emerged are the advertising inventory either for buying or selling, listing of the sellers of inventory, validating assets etc.

It has its genesis in the 1990s. The first cryptographically secured chain of blocks was made by Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stometta in 1991. Blockchain technology is attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto, either an individual or a group of individuals who developed it 2008. The first blockchain was conceptualised , and it evolved over a period of time to encompass a variety of applications. Nakamoto worked on Bitcoin — the very first application of blockchain. The first white paper was released in 2009. Its distinctive feature was decentralisation. Blockchain 2.0 applied the technology beyond currency (2014). Ethereum later developed Ethereum blockchain. It came to be known as smart contracts.

Bitcoin was in assembly language. Ethereum gave blockchain a level of traction and scalability.