The article was received on April 21, 2021.
In modern Russian humanitarian science, there are already enough studies devoted to current problems and issues of digitalization of public administration [9–12, 16, 17], economics [8, 14, 15], and politics [18– 20]. Meanwhile, IT is transforming these state and public systems on an almost daily basis. IT is increasingly being used in these areas, breaking out of the private business sphere. This applies in full measure to blockchain technology.
Blockchain is a digital registry in which all transactions in the Bitcoin network are recorded chronologically and publicly. In other words, blockchain is a distributed and decentralized database created by members of the ecosystem, in which it is impossible to falsify data due to the chronological record and public confirmation of the transaction by all participants in the network, as well as full control of the digital asset by the system participant.
The key and central feature of blockchain is the use of mathematical calculation algorithms and the exclusion of «humans» and the human factor in decision-making by the system.
The main advantages of blockchain are trust in the algorithm. Every Internet user can see the source code of the blockchain, which is inherent in the complete trust in the system.
1. Decentralized system. Currently, all data on the Internet can be deleted at the request of businesses, government authorities, or due to hacker attacks. A decentralized blockchain network solves this problem. It is worth noting that the decentralized system is not a database or cloud storage, the technology of distributed registries contains only a code that certifies the existence of a certain document, but not the document itself.
2. Data immutability. For the committed action (transaction) to be considered valid, its format and signatures must verify and confirm the data stored by other participants in the system. The transaction is then recorded in a «block» (a special structure for recording transactions (groups of transactions) in the system), which contains such related actions so that they can be quickly rechecked. Blocks are lined up in a chain that contains information about all operations ever performed on a particular database. The distributed nature of the database and its many copies does not allow all the chains associated with the block to be changed simultaneously, which makes it impossible to forge information.