Before diving into Blockchain and Git’s specifics, let’s get this clear right away that Blockchain and Git are very distinct technologies yet somewhat similar. The underlying architectures of both of these technologies do resemble, but the differences are significant.
To facilitate our understanding of this topic, let’s refer to a well-known fact about blockchain, which virtually proponents that every blockchain is a distributed ledger, yet every distributed ledger is not a blockchain. In our context, we will explain how both of these technologies offer a distributed setup, yet the nature of their distributed environments significantly differs from one another.
Therefore, In this article, we will primarily focus on defining these technologies in general and explaining their similarities and differences in particular so that our readers can track the origin of the misunderstanding as to why these technologies are mistakenly considered similar.
What is Git
Git is viral source control, and the developer can use it effectively with best practices. In any software development environment, keeping a historical track of every development process is paramount.
When did we start coding the project, when did the developers give the first build to the testing team, when did we release the first version, and which developer worked on which feature, are a part and a parcel of every software development environment.
Therefore, a smart way of tracking your software’s development progress is essential because it helps identify the blockers and facilitates the software development process’s managerial decisions.
This is where Git comes in handy. Essentially, Git offers a convenient way of keeping a track of changes being done in the source code of your software. It is an open-source distributed version control system that allows non-discriminatory access of the code to everyone on the network. There are other version control systems such as Subversion (SVN) and Team Foundation Server as well.
However, the distributed environment offered by Git made it a more convenient and secure way of version control.
How does Git Work?
It is a necessary component of a DevOps culture where Continuous Development and Continuous Integration (CI/CD) is essential. Git Remote Repository keeps every version of your software’s source code in a centralized server that is publicly accessible for everyone on the network to track the changes in the source code of the software throughout its development history. The very first and the only branch that is obtained by cloning your project from a remote server is called Master Branch. Every developer has a Git Client in their local systems that allow them to connect with the remote server and to fetch the most recent working code from the master branch into their local machines.
The developers may then freely work on that localized code, i.e., the local branches, without interfering with the master branch where actual deployment will be done.
This way, Git allows a non-linear development where developers can work on multiple features simultaneously. After completing the changes, they can simply commit those changes to the local git repository and then push them back to the remote server.
Since everyone is working locally, the updated code is not available to everyone. Therefore, merging the local branches with the master branch ensures that everyone on the network stays in sync. One of the upsides of such an environment is that even if the centralized server crashes, the individual team members have the history of all versions locally saving you from losing the previous versions of the source code.
Why Blockchain and What does it Do
Not many years ago, people used to communicate via letters that could be sent even across continents but only through government or permitted private channels. This delivery service could be utilized by anyone as long as the associated delivery charges were paid. However, with the advent of the internet, sending messages across continents become totally free. Though the internet of information facilitated the free and instant exchange of information, it did not allow the free exchange of value.
If we have to transfer some amount from one bank to another, we have to pay the intermediaries i.e., the banks and the governments. This inability to move value digitally without involving an intermediary led to the development of a revolutionary idea in Blockchain that would ensure the transfer of assets digitally while offering a complete trust without paying the intermediaries.
How does Blockchain Work
Blockchain offers a decentralized distributed network that has innate immutability and trust mechanism. It uses asymmetric cryptography that is essentially a pair of public-private keys to uniquely identify the sender and the receiver in any transaction.
Whenever a sender broadcasts a message on the network, the nodes in the system first verifies the transaction’s validity, and right after that, they race to find the right nonce that must be combined with the hash of previous to get the hash of new blocks. Whenever a miner finds the hash of a new block, he/she shares the proof of work on the network, and the new block is added to the chain only if it gets validated by every other node.
Conclusion
Both Git and Blockchain incorporate a method of verification before permitting the merging into the master branch or creation of a new block in the chain respectively.
The verification in Git is optional and often a single point validation. While in Blockchain, it is mandatory and done by multiple nodes.
Git offers many cool git tips, and it looks very similar to blockchain. But still these both technologies are different. So technically we can not use git as a blockchain.
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