When most people think of blockchain, they only see the surface level of buying

and selling cryptocurrencies, but its uses are far more wide-reaching than the
financial world. Companies of all sizes are able to create “tokens” and raise
money for their business by letting investors buy and sell them (like they’d buy
and sell shares of a stock). Investors can trade 24/7, without significant fees.

But it doesn’t just apply to finance. Blockchain technology will also make waves
in the digital marketing world, which we’ll cover in depth.

This guide is for anyone who wants to learn more about blockchain, its uses in
digital marketing, and how to implement cryptocurrency for your business, and
how-to growth hack an ICO. We’ll cover it all! Chapter listings are below, so feel
free to skip around.

The blockchain is pretty technical at its core, but essentially, it’s a way for digital
information to be stored and distributed, but not copied. It is the ultimate peer-
to-peer network. Eric Siu

What is Blockchain ?

Many years ago, music-sharing software Napster pioneered the way for the first
of its kind – peer-to-peer file-sharing networks – and, despite being illegal, paved
the way for companies like Spotify and Skype.

Here’s a simple way to imagine this. When you edit a document in Microsoft
Word, you can’t have your co-worker edit that same document unless you send it
to them and ask them to make revisions. Then, if they want you to make revisions
to that same document, they’ll have to save their version and send that one to
you; only one person can make edits at any given time.

But with Google Docs, multiple people can make edits to the same document, at
the same time.

The blockchain is like one “shared” document. It has blocks of identical

information that’s stored across its network, so it can’t be controlled by any one
person and has no single point of failure. Because of this, the blockchain hasn’t
had any problems due to its structure, only human error (i.e. hacking).
Diagram: How the Blockchain Works

Source: WeForum.org

You can also think of blockchain as a public ledger, but one that everyone can see
and is shared amongst all its users. All the people using the blockchain keep the
ledger up to date. It’s stored in a chain-like configuration, where the transaction
history is stored in ‘blocks’ and can only be built upon, not changed.
Source

To change the history – say, if someone were trying to hack it – the ledger would
have to be changed in the majority of participants. With the number of people
already using it, that’s near impossible. Imagine how secure it’ll be when there’s a
mass uptake of it.

By having this digital ledger recorded on everyone’s computer around the world,
it becomes decentralized. This is unlike a bank, where transactions are stored
privately and are managed only by the bank. Blockchain is outside of any bank or
government, which means there’s no central authority setting regulations on it.
So you can say goodbye to the middleman who takes a fee (i.e. banks or other
financial institutions).

The Advantages of Blockchain

In a report for the World Government Summit, ConsenSys gives a comprehensive

summary of the main advantages of blockchain:

 Blockchain has no center, meaning everything is the same (it’s

decentralized)
 Transactions are protected by the unchangeable nature of the ledger,
offering greater cybersecurity
 Nobody owns or is in charge of the blockchain as a whole

If you want to learn more about blockchain today, check out the Growth
Everywhere interview with the creator of online blockchain learning platform
Blockgeeks.

There are many ways that blockchain is used by smart and innovative companies,
but the very first one – and the one you’ve probably heard of most – is Bitcoin.
This is where cryptocurrencies come in, but first, let’s talk about using blockchain
for digital marketing.