2 Mark Questions
Define centralized systems and distributed systems.
In centralized software systems, the components are located around and connected
with one central component. In contrast, the components of distributed systems form a
network of connected components without having any central element of coordination
or control.
List the Advantages of Distributed Systems.
The major advantages of a distributed system over single computers are:
Higher computing power
Cost reduction
Higher reliability
Ability to grow naturally
Define Distributed Peer-to-Peer Systems.
Peer-to-peer networks are a special kind of distributed systems. They consist of individual computers
(also called nodes), which make their computational resources (e.g., processing power, storage
capacity, data or network bandwidth) directly available to all other members of the network without
having any central point of coordination. The nodes in the network are equal concerning their rights
and roles in the system. Furthermore, all of them are both suppliers and consumers of resources
What is the Purpose of the Blockchain?
The blockchain is a tool for achieving integrity in distributed software systems. Hence, it can be seen
as a tool to achieve a nonfunctional aspect of the implementation layer
Justify Trust and Integrity in Peer-to-Peer Systems
• Integrity is a nonfunctional aspect of a system to be safe, complete, consistent, correct, and free of
corruption and errors.
• Trust is also the firm belief of humans in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something
without evidence, proof, or investigation. Trust is given in advance and will increase or decline based
on the results of interactions on an ongoing basis
Define blockchains.
The blockchain is a purely distributed peer-to-peer system of ledgers that utilizes a software unit
that consist of an algorithm, which negotiates the informational content of ordered and connected
blocks of data together with cryptographic and security technologies in order to achieve and
maintain its integrity
What is called block?
A block is merely a selection of transactions bundled together and organized logically
Define transaction.
A transaction is a record of an event, for example, the event of transferring cash from a sender's
account to a beneficiary's account. A block is made up of transactions, and its size varies depending
on the type and design of the blockchain in use
What is genesis block?
A genesis block is the first block in the blockchain that is hardcoded at the time the blockchain was
first started
Write about nonce.
A nonce is a number that is generated and used only once. A nonce is used extensively in many
cryptographic operations to provide replay protection, authentication, and encryption
Define Merkle root.
Merkle root is a hash of all of the nodes of a Merkle tree. Merkle trees are widely used to validate
the large data structures securely and efficiently. In the blockchain world, Merkle trees are
commonly used to allow efficient verification of transactions. This means that verifying only the
Merkle root is required to verify all transactions present in the Merkle tree instead of verifying all
transactions one by one
Define state machine
A blockchain can be viewed as a state transition mechanism whereby a state is modified from its
initial form to the next and eventually to a final form as a result of a transaction execution and
validation process by nodes
Define nodes.
A node in a blockchain network performs various functions depending on the role it takes. A node
can propose and validate transactions and perform mining to facilitate consensus and secure the
blockchain
What is smart contract?
These programs run on top of the blockchain and encapsulate the business logic to be executed
when certain conditions are met
Define Consensus.
Consensus is a process of agreement between distrusting nodes on a final state of data. In order to
achieve consensus different algorithms can be used. It is easy to reach an agreement between two
nodes (for example in client-server systems) but when multiple nodes are participating in a
distributed system and they need to agree on a single value it becomes very difficult to achieve
consensus.
Write about consensus mechanisms.
A consensus mechanism is a set of steps that are taken by all, or most, nodes in order to
agree on a proposed state or value
Define Consensus algorithms.
They are the specific instructions programmed on computers in a network so that they have a
common definition of objects and instructions to agree on changes. Crashes, failures, and Byzantine
faults in computers led to a better approach in forming an agreement in a digital network and so
consensus algorithms rose to great heights, well before the dawn of the internet
Define Proof of work.
It is introduced by the founder of Bitcoin – Satoshi Nakamoto. This type of consensus mechanism
relies on proof that enough computational resources have been spent before proposing a value for
acceptance by the network. It leverages a combination of cryptography, P2P network
communications and a Merkle data structure to offer a distributed immutable and cumulative state
of accounts
Define Proof of Burn (PoB).
It is a consensus algorithm with an interesting approach to solving transition problems from one
version of cryptocurrency to another in the blockchains. Through the PoB algorithm, the old
cryptocurrency (or its preceding version) is burnt in order to reduce its supply and gradually increase
the supply of the new cryptocurrency
Define Proof of Elapsed Time (PoET).
It is a consensus algorithm developed and used by the Hyperledger Sawtooth blockchain framework.
The PoET algorithm ensures security and randomness involved in the leadership of validator nodes
with special CPU instructions available in most of the advanced processors featuring secure virtual
environments
What is called Public Blockchain?
These blockchains are also known as permission-less ledgers.
These blockchains are open to the public and anyone can participate as a node in the decision-
making process.
Public blockchains were designed and developed with a focus on ensuring that any number of
interested parties can execute the business logic and access transactional information
What is called Private Blockchain?
Private blockchains are implemented to ensure that access to business information is limited and
only accessible to a limited set of participating stakeholders.
Private blockchains as the name implies are private and are open only to a consortium or group of
individuals or organizations that has decided to share the ledger among themselves
What is called Define Permissioned blockchains?
Permissioned blockchains are hybrid implementation of both public and private blockchains.
A permissioned ledger is a blockchain whereby the participants of the network are known and
already trusted.
Write about Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is a completely decentralised, peer-to-peer, permissionless cryptocurrency put forth in 2009
by Satoshi Nakamoto.
Bitcoin is the first blockchain application.
It is permissionless , i.e. open to anyone. Bitcoin blockchain size is growing exponentially
What is called mining?
It is a mechanism to generate hash of the block.
Mining involves creating a hash of a block of transactions that cannot be easily forged, protecting
the integrity of the entire blockchain without the need for a central system
What is meant by Bitcoin wallets?
They keep a secret piece of data called a private key or seed, which is used to sign transactions,
providing a mathematical proof that they have come from the owner of the wallet
Write about Ethereum.
Ethereum is a public blockchain that was designed by Vitalik Buterin in 2013 as an enhancement to
the incumbent Bitcoin blockchain, by including transaction-based state management with business
logic scripting using a special-purpose programming language and a virtual machine called
the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)
List few blockchain platforms.
Hyperledger
Ethereum
IBM Bluemix
Multichain
Corda
openchain
Mention IDEs to develop smart contracts.
Remix
Ethfiddle
Define Dapps.
Decentralized applications (dApps) are digital applications or programs that exist and run on a
blockchain or peer-to-peer (P2P) network of computers instead of a single computer.
DApps (also called "dapps") are thus outside the purview and control of a single authority
Define AI.
AI is the intelligence and capability exhibited by a computer to perceive, learn, and solve problems,
with minimal probability of failure
What is meant by AI winter?
AI winter is a term used by many in the IT industry to define a period of time when AI researchers
faced many challenges, leading to severe cuts in funding and the slowdown of AI as a specialized
field
What are the types of AI?
Weak AI
Strong AI
Super AI
List the benefits of combining blockchain and AI.
The business benefit of using AI is the reduction of costs, and the business benefit of using
blockchain is that transparency is enabled in processes. When both technologies are used together,
a new class of solutions to a wide variety of problems in today's world that lack transparency and
cost efficiency can be applied
What are the common properties of decentralized databases?
Allow anybody to store and access information across boundaries
Allow anybody to participate in persisting the data
Persist the updated data and record the changes made to the data in a traceable manner
What are the improvements that may be possible through using Decentralized databases?
Building better AI models using decentralized databases Immutability of data – increasing trust in AI
training and testing Better control of data and model exchange
Define Blockchain analytics
Blockchain analytics aims at identifying, clustering, and representing data stored on blockchains.
More and more companies operating with cryptocurrencies are using Blockchain analytics tools to
analyze transactions and assess the level of risks to meet regulatory requirements worldwide
Name some decentralized databases.
IPFS
Storj
Filecoin
What is called Solid?
Solid is a clever combination of the three powerful words in the age of the internet—social linked
data. Solid's aim to give back users control of their data is made possible by the powerful
combinations of P2P networking and linked data. All data pertaining to a user is stored in a
decentralized data store called as Personal Online Datastore (POD)
Define POD.
Personal Online Datastore (POD).
PODs can be hosted on a PC, an on-premises server, or a Virtual Machine (VM) managed in the
cloud.
Pods are like secure personal web servers for data.
Any kind of data can be stored in a Solid Pod, from structured data to regular files.
Write about Ocean Protocol.
Ocean Protocol is founded in 2017, it uses blockchain technology to connect data providers and
consumers.
Ocean is an open-source protocol that aims to allow businesses and individuals to exchange and
monetize data and data-based services.
Ocean Protocol is a decentralized protocol with services for users to consume storage and compute.
Define the feature Compute-to-Data in ocean protocol
Compute-to-Data is a feature of the Ocean Protocol that enables data processing to be performed
on encrypted data without revealing the data itself. This allows data providers to maintain control
over their data while still allowing data consumers to perform computations on it
How does Ocean Protocol work?
The Ocean Protocol uses custom programs called smart contracts to ensure each datatoken can be
exchangeable across Ethereum’s blockchain and within its decentralized applications.
Define Storj.
Storj, pronounced as storage, is a decentralized cloud-storage platform.
Storj is a cryptocurrency blockchain platform powering a decentralized system for digital file storage.
The Storj network is powered by computers worldwide called nodes and requires the Storj (STORJ)
digital currency for payment
Define Swarm
Swarm is an Ethereum native distributed data storage platform.
The intention of the Swarm project is to facilitate the persistence of Ethereum's historic public data
and enable storage for DApps
What is DAO?
A Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) is a computer program representing a group of
stakeholders and entities and is not influenced by external environments.
A DAO is programmed by a set of rules and governance protocols to ensure that transactions occur
between parties without the chance of any conflict
Define Aragon.
Aragon is an open source DAO running on the Ethereum blockchain network. Aragon is a popular
decentralized autonomous organization that allows other platforms to introduce their DAOs. Aragon
functions to empower clients to connect with anybody from any location globally within a DAO
infrastructure
Define KIP.
It is a blockchain-based protocol that aims to improve the efficiency and scalability of decentralized
applications (dApps). KIP uses a unique consensus mechanism called Proof of Intent (PoI), which is
designed to reduce the energy consumption and computational resources required for blockchain
consensus
List the issues in digital interaction.
Lack of context
Application is limited by the network
How IPFS works?
IPFS is a distributed filesystem that allows users to host and receive content in a peer-topeer (P2P)
manner
It eliminates any need for intermediaries, for storing or accessing data from any corner of the world
What is called Filecoin?
Filecoin, a decentralized storage network, uses IPFS to leverage unused storage space in computers
and incentivizes users to host data for a fee
What is called Ownership of data?
How the data defined in Centralized and Decentralized databases?
Centralized –RDBMSbased
Decentralized -No schemas
What kind of failure is possible in Distributed Database?
No single point of failure. Apps read from another node
What is called Immutable?
Immutability is defined as the ability of a blockchain ledger to remain unchanged, unaltered, and
memorable. Each of the blocks of information, like facts or transaction details, is carried out with the
help of a cryptographic principle or a hash value.
Write about InterPlanetary File System.
IPFS is a distributed filesystem that allows users to host and receive content in a peer-topeer (P2P)
manner. It eliminates any need for intermediaries, for storing or accessing data from any corner of
the world
What is called Bisq?
Bisq is a DAO running on the Bitcoin blockchain network. It offers a P2P cryptocurrency exchange
service with no company or institution in control
Mention the use of Aicumen Technologies?
Aicumen Technologies is a leading digital innovation studio to build the trusted Decentralized
Intelligent Applications (DIApps) using blockchain and AI
List the key issues faced by blockchain technology in maturing and humanizing digital interactions.
Scalability
Lack of context
Application is limited by the network
What is meant by Lack of Context?
Although most blockchain protocols and frameworks are inspired by the decentralization movement,
they fail to capture the context needed to gauge the value generated by the network
