block chain
区块链的介绍
A blockchain, originally block chain, is a growing list of records, called blocks, which are linked using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block,[6] a timestamp, and transaction data (generally represented as a merkle tree root hash). By design, a blockchain is resistant to modification of the data. It is "an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way". For use as a distributed ledger, a blockchain is typically managed by a peer-to-peer network collectively adhering to a protocol for inter-node communication and validating new blocks. Once recorded, the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without alteration of all subsequent blocks, which requires consensus of the network majority.
It would not be the first time a novel form of list-making changed the world. More than 500 years ago a new accounting technique, later known as double-entry book-keeping, emerged in northern Italy. It was a big step in the development of the modern company and economy. Werner Sombart, a German sociologist who died in 1941, argued that double-entry book-keeping marked the birth of capitalism. It allowed people other than the owner of a business to keep track of its finances.
这不是创建清单的全新模式头一次改变世界。五百多年前，一种新的记账方式——后来被称为复式记账法——在意大利北部出现。这是现代企业和经济发展迈出的一大步。1941年去世的德国社会学家维尔纳·桑巴特（Werner Sombart）称复式记账法标志着资本主义的诞生。它让企业主之外的人也能追踪企业的财务状况。
Ø 生词
1）sociologist [,səʊsɪ'ɒlədʒɪst]n.
社会学家
Ø 表达
1. accounting technique：记账方式
2. double-entry book-keeping：复式记账法
3. keep track of：追踪
4. capitalism ：资本主义
If double-entry book-keeping freed accounting from the merchant’s head, the blockchain frees it from the confines of an organisation. That is probably not what Satoshi Nakamoto, the still-elusive creator of bitcoin, had in mind when he set out on his endeavour. His aim was to create a “purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash”, as he put it in a “white paper” published in 2008. To do so, he created a new type of database, the blockchain. It provides proof of who owns what at any given moment. It contains the payment history of each bitcoin in circulation; heavy-duty encryption makes it theoretically impossible to alter it once a transaction is registered; copies are spread around the computers, or “nodes”, that form the bitcoin network, so that anybody can check whether something is wrong. A “consensus mechanism”, a complex cryptographic process which replaces the list-keeper, turns the blockchain into an independent entity.
假如说复式记账法让商人不用再自己费心思管账目，区块链则使得会计这一职能突破了机构的限制。这可能是至今行踪神秘的中本聪在创造比特币时未曾想到的。他在2008年发布的“白皮书”中说，他的目标是创造一种“纯粹P2P版本的电子现金”。为此他创造了一个新型数据库——区块链。它可提供证据，显示在任何特定时刻谁拥有什么。它包含所有流通中的比特币的支付历史记录。繁复的加密使得一项交易一旦登记在册，理论上就再也无法修改。交易的拷贝在构成比特币网络的计算机即“节点”间传播，因此任何人都能查看是否存在问题。“共识机制”，即复杂的加密过程取代了管账簿的人，让区块链变成了一个独立主体。
Ø 生词
1）cryptographic [,krɪptə'græfɪk] adj.
密码学的；使用密码的
Ø 表达
1. electronic cash：电子现金
2. as sb puts it：如某人所说
3. bitcoin in circulation：流通中的比特币
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