区块链是什么？区块链技术具体是什么原理和应用？

　　那么当下最热的区块链概念到底是什么意思？它有哪些实际应用前景？未来发展还面临什么挑战？

So what does the hottest block chain concept really mean? What are the prospects for its practical application? What are the challenges for future development?

　　区块链是一种技术

　　“最简单、最通俗来说，区块链技术就是人人记账，或者分布式账本。”互联网分析师张孝荣在接受记者采访时这样解释。

& & ldquo; the simplest and most popular word is that block chain technology is a book of accounts for everyone or a distributed book of accounts. ” Internet analyst Zhang Xiaoyong explains this in an interview with a journalist.

　　在互联网时代，每个系统背后都有数据库，这个数据库可以看作是一个大的账本，以往都是维护系统的人负责管理数据库，记录用户的行为，也就是记账，而区块链“去中心化”，它让系统中的每一个成员都参与其中，不仅人人记账，而且通过链接，人人都能拥有完整的账本。

In the age of the Internet, each system has a database behind it, which can be seen as a large account book, which used to be managed by the person who maintains the system and records the user's behaviour, i.e., the bookkeeping, while the block chain & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & &, which involves every member of the system, not only for everyone, but also for everyone, through the link.

　　“区块链实质上是一种集体式记录方式。特别之处在于它别出心裁地采用一组技术，实现了记录结果的真实可信，难以毁坏也无法篡改。”张孝荣说，“一是人人都有权记录，并且互相认证以辨真假，这叫共识机制；二是人人都无法篡改记录，因为有密码学签名；三是人人都有副本，所以即使有的账本损坏了，整体也不受影响，这叫分布式存储。通过这种方式记录下的信息以区块方式按照时间链条呈现，所以叫做区块链。”

& & ldquo; block chains are essentially a collective recording method. In particular, it uses a combination of techniques to achieve the true credibility of the recording results, which cannot be destroyed or tampered with. & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & ; & & & & & & & & & &, & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & ;

　　以比特币为代表的各种加密数字货币本是区块链技术的一种应用，可谓是区块链1.0版本。但2014年前后，业界开始认识到区块链技术的重要价值，区块链逐渐从数字货币中剥离出来，应用于数字货币外的经济社会各个领域。

The various encrypted digital currencies represented by Bitcoin are one of the applications of block chain technology, or version 1.0 of the block chain. But around 2014, industry began to recognize the important value of block chain technology, which has gradually been removed from the digital currency and applied to various areas of the economy and society beyond the digital currency.

　　应用领域前景广泛

There is a broad perspective in the field of application

　　区块链技术被认为是继蒸汽机、电力、互联网之后的颠覆性创新。如果说蒸汽机和电力解放了生产力，互联网改变了信息传递的方式，那么区块链作为构造信任的机器，将可能改变价值传递方式。

Block chain technology is seen as a disruptive innovation that follows steam machines, electricity, and the Internet. If steamers and electricity liberate productivity and the Internet change the way information is transmitted, the block chain, as a machine that builds trust, may change the way value is passed.

　　例如在金融领域，金融机构特别是跨境金融机构间的对账、清算、结算的成本一直很高，还有复杂的手工流程，而区块链技术具有数据不可篡改和可追溯性，其应用有助于降低金融机构间的对账成本及争议解决的成本，能显著提高支付业务的处理速度及效率，还使小额跨境支付成为可能。2017年12月，招商银行完成从香港永隆银行向永隆银行深圳分行的人民币头寸调拨业务。这是全球首笔基于区块链技术的同业间跨境人民币清算业务。

In the area of finance, for example, the cost of reconciliation, liquidation, settlement among financial institutions, in particular cross-border financial institutions, has been high, and there are complex manual processes, while block-chain technology has data integrability and traceability, and its application has helped to reduce the cost of reconciliation and dispute resolution between financial institutions and has significantly improved the speed and efficiency of payment processing and made it possible to make small cross-border payments. In December 2017, the recruiting bank completed the transfer of the People’s Currency position from Yonglong Bank in Hong Kong to Shenzhen Bank’s Shenzhen branch.

　　此外，根据中国工业与信息化部发布的《中国区块链技术和应用发展白皮书2016》，区块链的应用已延伸到医疗健康、教育、慈善公益、社会管理等多个领域。拿文化产业来看，复制成本低、维权成本高、举证困难等使得知识产权保护一直是行业痛点。有了区块链，文化产品的生产、传播、交易等记录真实透明、可信可查，问题迎刃而解。

In addition, according to the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Informatization's White Paper on Technology and Applied Development in Block Chains 2016, the application of block chains has been extended to a number of areas, such as health care, education, charitable public goods, and social management. In the cultural industry, the low cost of reproduction, the high cost of defending rights, the difficulty of proving evidence, etc., has left intellectual property protection in the throes of the industry.

　　张孝荣表示，区块链技术解决了数字经济时代的两大问题：一是流向可见，二是零信任成本。在过去，实体纸币的流通是看不见的，但所有数字化资产的流向都有“链”可查。中国社科院知识产权中心研究员杨延超也认为，区块链的最大优势是真正完成了一个匿名社会下的信用构建，给诸多领域带来新的机遇，因此就使各种创新应用成为可能。

In the past, the flow of real banknotes was invisible, but the flow of all digital assets was “ chain & rdquo; and it is available. Researcher Yang Yang Yao, of the Intellectual Property Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, also argued that the greatest advantage of the block chain is that it truly completes the construction of credit in an anonymous society, offering new opportunities in many areas, thus making it possible to apply innovations.

　　未来发展任重道远

There's a long way to go.

　　财讯传媒集团首席战略官段永朝向本报记者表示，在技术推广上，区块链不存在太大的壁垒，这在全球的比特币实践中已经得到证实，其主要阻力还是来自观念和施行上的障碍。

The Chief Strategic Officer of the Financial Media Group has consistently stated to journalists in this newspaper that there are no significant barriers to the development of the technology chain, which has been confirmed in the global Bitcoin practice, and that the main resistance remains from perception and implementation barriers.

　　“一方面，社会对于区块链中的‘裸露’状态可能会很介意。区块链为商业社会构建了一个‘天网’，公司的经济活动全部被记录，也就没有任何秘密可言，这样一些商业策略在区块链之下很可能无法实施。”

& & ldquo; on the one hand, society may mind the state of ‘ nudity & rsquo; state in the block chain. The block chain builds a & lsquao; Skynet & rsquo; the company’s economic activities are all recorded and there is no secret, so that some business strategies are unlikely to be implemented under the block chain. & rdquao;

　　“另一方面，现在的法律体系滞后于信息技术的发展，新兴的区块链技术如何置于法律的监管之下是需要进行研究的。”段永朝说。

& ldquo; on the other hand, the current legal system lags behind the development of information technology, and research is needed on how emerging block chain technologies can be brought under the control of the law.

　　区块链的核心是去中心化，这就会对长久以来社会形成的中心管理模式造成冲击。除了法律，如何建立能够促进区块链技术应用的监管环境，让技术造福社会而不用于作恶，也是急需解决的问题。（记者 叶 子 张一琪）

At the heart of the block chain is decentralisation, which can have an impact on the central management model that has long been formed in society. Besides the law, how to create a regulatory environment that promotes the application of block chain technology so that it benefits society and does not use it for evil purposes is an issue that needs to be addressed urgently.