Many of you may be familiar with the Terminator movie series, and if you are not, then it's time to catch up because the sixth installment of the series, 
comes out November 2019!
So start watching and get your kids up to speed!
In this blog post, I will take your knowledge of the Terminator, and explain blockchain in a way that your friends and family may be able to understand when you bring it up after the movie. 😉
The Block Chain Format
had developed thousands of cyborgs, and I'm assuming that there were T-100's before we came into contact with the T-800 in the first Terminator movie. So let's start with the first ever T-800, and then we will make our way to the Terminator we all know that traveled back in time to kill Sarah Connor.
The first T-800 ever made must have been one of thousands to wipe out mankind. The term first here is important, because this is what is referred to in Blockchain as the Genesis block. The first T-800 has his own unique serial number, with the mission of Seek and Destroy .
The Timestamp
Because the Terminator we all know in the movies travels back in time from the year 2029, we will say that 2029 is when the T-800's went into production. Let's make the Genesis of all T-800's be manufactured on the date of Janyary 14, 2029 at 1030 hours and 23 seconds. In Timestamp form, this would look something like this:
The Data
Each block within the blockchain has it's own data such as how much cryptocurrency you currently have in your account. The Terminator's data was "Seek and Destroy".
Data: Seek and Destroy
It's own Serial Number
In the blockchain world, the serial number is known as a hash, and it's a series of numbers and letters that may take a computer about 10 - 60 minutes to compute for verification purposes. This is called proof of work, and we will get into this concept in the next section.
Let's say Terminator's take 30 minutes to be assembled. When manufactered the first ever T-800, he was given the Gensis hash. Let's give this T-800 the serial number (hash) of UrzwXokYRyiRVkf93sJT; that is now our Genesis serial number.
Data: Kill Sarah Connor
Genesis Serial Number: UrzwXokYRyiRVkf93sJT
The Previous Serial Number
Because this Terminator was the first, noone was previous to him and therefore the 4th datapoint in the series would be 0.
Data: Seek and Destroy
Genesis Serial Number: UrzwXokYRyiRVkf93sJT
Previous Terminator's Serial Number: 0
The Next Terminator
would continue to make more Termatinors after the T-800, each taking 30 minutes to be made. This means the the second T-800 would have the following data:
Data: Seek and Destroy
Serial Number of second T-800: LDZjRqEG6gjGIwNHIfqH
Serial Number of the Genesis T-800: UrzwXokYRyiRVkf93sJT
The third T-800 would carry over the serial number of the second Terminator, and in JavaScript stringify format, the code would look similar to the following:
T-800 [20290114113023, "Seek and Destroy", OUYYtdUV6Toyr8GF3EXg, LDZjRqEG6gjGIwNHIfqH]
During the manufacturing process, there would be a group of validators who would verify that the serial numbers match for each one. In the Blockchain world, the amount of time it takes to generate a hash is done on purpose so that the validators can ensure that the chain has not been tampered with, this is called Proof of Work. Sometimes however there may be reasons why we may want to assign a new serial number as described in the next section.
Forking
would continue to make T-800s until one day they decide to develop one of the T-800s to travel back in time and kill Sarah Connor. In the blockchain world, this is known as forking. A fork can be defined as what happens when a blockchain diverges into two potential paths forward, a change in protocol, or other various reasons. As was the case with Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, and Ethereum and Ethereum Classic.
Let's imagine that the T-800 developed to Kill Sarah Connor was manufactured in July of 2029. Because this T-800 has a different mission than the others, this T-800 would be the Genesis of the Terminators programmed to kill Sarah Connor.
T-800 [20290720143045, "Kill Sarah Connor", CSuMY1xSjS4o1XzrwI9H, "0"]
would continue to develop T-800s until they became obsolute, eventually manufacturing the T-1000. Let's imagine that the T-1000 started production on August 18th 2029 at 1430 hours and 23 seconds for Terminator 2: Judgement Day. T-1000 was a huge improvement from the T-800, as it was made out of liquid metal, giving it the ability to take on the shape and appearance of almost anything it touches.
The same process that occured for the T-800, would happen for the T-1000. There would be a Genesis T-1000 and eventually one of the T-1000's would fork over for the mission of killing Sarah Connor and whoeer gets in his way.
Terminator that helped
Some of you may ask, what about the T-800 in the second movie that helps John?
Well, the T-800 in the second movie is a good example of what would happen if someone were to tamper with or corrupt a block. If someone were to try and go into the data of a block and change it, such as changing the amount of cryptocurrency they received, then the system would automatically generate a new serial number for that block, and make a new serial number for the data in the previous block. When this happens, the previous block hash would not match, and the chain would be broken, therefore creating an error.
Corrupted T-800 [20291114103023, "Help John", new serial number, no matching serial number]
When this happens, the block is broken out of the chain, and there is no way of going back. Think of it as being blacklisted at the bar, and never being allowed to get back in. Or rather, "Hasta la vista, baby". Of course, there are ways that the block could be added to the chain, but this would need more than 50% consensus of the validators, which is highly unlikely to happen.
Blockchain resources
I hope that this helped clear up how a Blockchain works. If you stil have questions, you can refer to this youtube video which covers how a Blockchain may be developed in JavaScript.
Image Sources
Font: https://www.dafont.com/terminator-real-nfi.font
Cover Image: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/70/Terminator1984movieposter.jpg
Acknowledgements
Thank you to @cmplxty for referring me over to Palnet, Steemit and SteemPeak. Please follow him and check out his content!
Hi @swayzilla
I really enjoy reading this publication and the best thing is that you made me remember the movie very good all your description, I will continue visiting your blog
I send you many greetings from Venezuela
Hasta la vista baby.
@chekohler another movie buff lol my friend in real life tho!
Awesome post man I liked it, gave some good break down for how things work with relation to java which I don’t know yet.
I lost a valuable opportunity to add that and more puns into the article. I went back and added at least that one into the corrupted block section. Geez, what was I thinking?
Lol nice I saw it, can’t talk about terminator without that!
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Hello @swayzilla
Very interesting your analogy. It makes it easier to understand the structure and functioning of the blockchain. Now the question that follows is where the crypto coins come in here. Are they part of the blockchain information? Is it an intrinsic part of it?
Thanks for sharing
Dear @swayzilla
Another great piece of writting buddy. Seriously solid read.
Not to mention that this title was such an amazing clickbait :) I felt for it right away.
Cheers, Piotr
Thanks @crypto.piotr !
Also, thank you so much for the Steem and the tips on crypto currency channels! I hope to one day add real value
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