# Blockchain

*Crypto & Digital Assets — Finicade finance glossary*

A blockchain is a shared ledger of transactions grouped into cryptographically linked blocks, maintained by many computers rather than one authority.

A blockchain is a shared ledger of transactions grouped into blocks, each cryptographically linked to the one before, maintained by many computers rather than one authority. The linking is what makes history tamper-evident: changing an old block invalidates every block after it. Its genuine innovation is agreeing on a single record without a trusted intermediary; its cost is that every participant stores and verifies everything.

**Also known as:** distributed ledger, DLT, chain

**Related terms:** [Bitcoin](https://finicade.com/glossary/bitcoin), [Consensus Mechanism](https://finicade.com/glossary/consensus-mechanism), [Hash Function](https://finicade.com/glossary/hash-function), [Smart Contract](https://finicade.com/glossary/smart-contract), [Node](https://finicade.com/glossary/node)

Source: https://finicade.com/glossary/blockchain