Blockchain
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A shared record of past transactions in a distributed network, typically used for cryptocurrency.
"By the way, mobile wallets differ from most software wallets in that they don't download the entire Bitcoin blockchain with every transaction. (Many software wallets do, interestingly.) Because the blockchain is a file several gigabytes in size, this would eat up a ton of mobile bandwidth and probably cause your mobile provider to either enact overage charges or just plain cancel your account. In addition, your mobile phone probably doesn't have enough onboard storage to host the entire […]"
Example
More examples"A blockchain is a growing list of records, called blocks, which are linked and secured using cryptography."
Etymology
From block + chain, from earlier “block chain”. In the 2008 Bitcoin paper block and chain are used separately; the concept is referred to as “chain of hash-based proof-of-work” or “chain of digital signatures”.
Related phrases
More for "blockchain"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.