下面的文章翻译自SalesForce的learing Material
https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/blockchain-basics/blockchain-fundamentals
What’s Up With Blockchain?
Maybe you’ve just heard about blockchain, but aren’t entirely sure what it is. Maybe you have a keen understanding, but are looking for more information on how you can benefit from it. Wherever you are in your journey, we’re here to help demystify the technology and offer some perspective on where it’s going and how you can benefit. Along the way, we’ll give some examples of how companies such as IBM are collaborating to advance the technology across industries.
或许你已经听说过关于区块链,不过不是很确定它是什么.或许你已经挺理解它了,但是想寻找更多关于你可以从中受益的消息.不管你在哪一步,我们会帮助你解密这个技术,给你提供一些有关它趋势方向的观点并告诉你可以怎么用它.在此过程中，我们将举例说明IBM等公司如何合作以跨行业推进该技术。
It Starts with Ledgers
从账簿开始(分类账簿)
Doing business can involve a lot of people and organizations, especially in today’s connected world. Think about the journey simple coffee beans can make:
做生意会涉及很多人和组织，尤其是在当今互联互通的世界中。你可以想一下简单的咖啡豆就可以完成的旅程：
- The coffee beans are harvested by growers.由农民种的咖啡豆
- Growers sell the coffee beans to brewers.农民把豆子卖给酿造商
- Growers and brewers work with shippers to get the beans where they need to go.农民和酿造商与托运人合作，将咖啡豆运送到需要运送的地方
- Brewers make delicious cups of coffee and sell them to customers.酿造商制作美味的咖啡，然后卖给顾客。
Growers, shippers, brewers, customers. Let’s also add in banks and certifiers and coffee critics—it’s a lot to track. And that’s where ledgers come in, to keep track of these transactions.
种植者(农民)，托运人，酿酒者,顾客。我们还要补充银行，认证者和咖啡评论家,这里就有了很多记录而这就是分类帐的来源，以跟踪这些交易。
Many stakeholders connected to business, symbolized by people in circles connected in a network with transaction blocks shown on the right.
许多与业务相关的利益相关者，由圆圈中的人象征，这些人在网络中连接，右侧显示了交易块。
A typical ledger tracks specific information, such as the date of transaction, important details, and amounts transferred between participants (the growers, brewers, and shippers mentioned above).
典型的分类帐跟踪特定信息，例如交易日期，重要详细信息以及参与者（上述种植者，酿酒者和托运人）之间转移的金额。
A financial ledger tracks accounts and details of transactions including date, details, reference, debit, credit, and balance.
财务分类账跟踪帐户和交易明细，包括日期，明细，参考，借方，贷方和余额。
So What’s the Problem?
那么,这样会有什么问题呢?
Traditional ledgers can be inefficient, subject to error and tampering. Think about the coffee bean. Growers and brewers have their own ledgers. But when they do business with each other, they have to make sure the numbers add up.
传统分类帐可能效率低下，容易出错和篡改。 想想咖啡豆。 种植者和酿酒者都有自己的分类帐。 但是当他们彼此做生意时，他们必须确保数字相加。
When they don’t, it leads to disputes, from buyers requesting refunds and getting banks involved to people seeking legal action. Having to resolve disputes—and possibly reverse transactions or get additional insurance—can be costly.
如果他们不这样做，就会引起纠纷，从买家要求退款，让银行介入到人们寻求法律诉讼。要解决纠纷，并可能取消交易或购买额外的保险，这些要花钱。
To make things more difficult, having out-of-sync ledgers between participants leads to poor business decisions. At best, the ability to make a fully informed decision is delayed while these discrepancies are sorted out.
让事情变得更加复制，参与者之间的账本不同步会导致糟糕的业务决策.至少,在解决这些差异的时候，就不能在全部知情的条件下进行决策了.
Moving Ledgers Forward
让账簿进步
To improve the process, we’ve seen the introduction of distributed ledger technology. This is a type of database that is shared, replicated, and synchronized among participants.
为了改善流程，我们看到了分布式分类帐技术的引入。 这是参与者之间共享，复制和同步的一种数据库。
A network of transactions represented by blocks.
区块代表的交易网络。
No intermediary is needed. Every record in the distributed ledger has a timestamp and is encrypted, making it an auditable, permanent record of all transactions.
无需中介。 分布式分类帐中的每个记录都有一个时间戳记，并经过加密，使其成为所有交易的可审核的永久记录。
Blockchain is a Distributed Ledger with Super Powers
Blockchain is a type of distributed ledger that can record transactions in a public or private peer-to-peer network. But that’s not the innovative part. It takes things to the next level by how it works. With blockchain:
区块链是一种分布式账本，可以记录公共或私有对等网络中的交易。 但这不是创新的部分。 它通过其工作方式将事情提升到一个新的水平。 使用区块链：
- Transactions are usually distributed across all members in the network. They're called nodes.
交易通常分布在网络中的所有成员之间。 它们称为节点。 - Instead of one version, it tracks transactions in a chain of encrypted records called blocks.
它不是一个版本，而是在称为块的加密记录链中跟踪教育。 - All blocks are validated by the network. Then they are linked from the beginning to the most current—hence the name blockchain.
所有块均由网络验证。 然后，它们从一开始就链接到最新版本，因此被称为区块链。
The blockchain acts as a single source of truth, as altering any existing transaction will break the chain.
区块链表现为单一事实来源，因为更改任何现有交易将破坏链条。
That Was a Lot
You got all that, right? Okay, here’s a handy reference to come back to when explaining blockchain to your friends.
| Key Term You Should Know | Description |
|---|---|
| Participant参与者 | Any person or organization who is involved in conducting business. This can be the producer, supplier, partner, consumer/buyer, and so on. |
| Transaction交易 | Actions, such when someone produces, sells, buys or trades, and takes ownership of an asset. |
| Ledger/Business Ledger分类帐/业务分类帐 | System of record where transactions are recorded.记录交易记录的记录系统。 |
| Distributed Ledger分布式分类帐 | A database that tracks transaction data. It is replicated, synchronized among participants, and protected through encryption.跟踪交易数据的数据库。 它被复制，在参与者之间同步并通过加密进行保护。 |
| Block | A set of transactions bundled together to share with the network and lock into a chain to prevent changes.一组捆绑在一起以与网络共享并锁定链以防止更改的事务。 |
| Node | A participant in a blockchain network.区块链中的一个参与者 |
| Blockchain | A distributed ledger technology that tracks transactions in a series of blocks instead of updating a single copy. It is designed to deliver more efficient transfer of goods and services and be a more reliable source of truth. 一种分布式分类帐技术，可跟踪一系列块中的交易，而不是更新单个副本。 它旨在提供更有效的商品和服务转移，并成为更可靠的真相来源。 |