Explained | What are private, public, and consortium blockchains?

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Since its introduction, cryptocurrency and blockchain technology has exploded in popularity. Millions of people are investing in crypto as an asset, and it has become an essential part of many portfolios.

The rise in investment has also led to developers and creators experimenting with the technology, customising it to serve various sectors such as governance and supply chains. This has led to the emergence of different types of blockchains, each with its own set of parameters and functionalities that can be used for various tasks.The three most prominent kinds of blockchains being used are:Public blockchainPrivate blockchainConsortium blockchainsHowever, before we delve deeper into how these blockchains differ from each other, let us first look at some blockchain basics.

This will help us better understand public, private and consortium blockchains and their features and benefits.Also Read| Warren Buffett’s Berkshire invests $1 billion in crypto-friendly NubankWhat are blockchains, and how do they work?A blockchain is a peer-to-peer network that allows data to be stored in multiple locations instead of one central server or location.Without a central entity to govern the database, the job of updating, maintaining, and securing the data is done by the various parties or nodes within the network. You can think of a blockchain as a public ledger whose copy is stored by multiple individuals.

Each data entry in the ledger is linked to the previous, so any alteration to any entry will affect all the other data entries. In addition, the ledger is kept by multiple nodes, so any modifications to a single ledger would be meaningless as it needs to be verified by the other nodes in the network.The blockchain system might not be as