What is blockchain? A visual explanation from a Stanford professor

A simple visual explanation of how blockchains work

Blockchains are decentralized, distributed, and digital methods to record transactions and prevent alterations and tampering of the record. That's a simplified definition. This easy-to-understand six-minute video further and better explains what blockchains are and how they work using colorful illustrations and clear, concise clarifications on their processes and what makes them so special.

Blockchain, explained in five layers of difficulty

Blockchain, the key technology behind bitcoin, is a new network that helps decentralize trade and allows for more peer-to-peer transactions. Wired challenged political scientist and blockchain researcher Bettina Warburg to explain blockchain technology to five different people: a child, a teen, a college student, a grad student, and an expert.

The blockchain offers tantalizing possibilities for future use

Think of blockchains as a running list of information, where new details are added to the running chain as discrete "blocks." With crypto, the information contained within each block could be virtually anything, providing flexibility for uses in commerce, legal filings, healthcare records, and more.

A definitive guide to crypto and blockchain

The concept of cryptocurrency emerged more than a decade ago, with a famous whitepaper on bitcoin. To fully understand the rise of bitcoin, Bloomberg’s Matt Levine developed this comprehensive four-part series exploring the broader crypto and blockchain ecosystems, where they came from and how they work (subscription required).

A visual guide to how bitcoin transactions work and rely on cryptography

The "crypto-" in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin refers to the mathematical functions that generate pairs of public and private keys and encrypt data in blocks. When combined, these systems secure transactions on the network, verify digital asset and token transfers, and contribute to end-user anonymity.

The future of the internet

Blockchain? Crypto? NFTs? Oh my. Gilles DC provides a simple breakdown of what Web3 is, what it involves, its connection with web currencies, and how you can begin your own explorations of this brave new world. Gilles promises to describe Web3 in one take, explain how the reader can take advantage of it, and how blockchain might build a better society as a result.

See how the concept of verification and addition to the blockchain works in real time.

Every transaction made via bitcoin is recorded on its blockchain—the decentralized, distributed ledger that provides a permanent and transparent record of the currency's entire history. While that may sound abstract, the technology allows anyone to monitor and confirm each of the transactions.

The benefits of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology

At the root of cryptocurrencies' allure is blockchain technology, an innovation bringing profound transformations to industries, especially the financial industry. This simple article breaks down the difference between cryptocurrencies and blockchain as well as the benefits of each.

Why blockchain applications are worth investing and building

Chris Dixon is a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. In this hourlong podcast episode, Dixon shares his overall thesis for investing in the cryptocurrency space, the opportunities and limitations of blockchain applications, and why this is the most interesting area for investing and building over the next 10 years.

Princeton University offers a free online bitcoin course

Want to understand bitcoin and cryptocurrencies? A free online course from Princeton University unpacks the details of bitcoin, from how it works to what distinguishes it from other currencies, to the security and anonymity associated with its use. Explore explainer videos, or take the course as a series of lessons.

Vitalik Buterin explains ethereum in 30 minutes

Every year, ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin explains what his crypto platform is in a 30-minute presentation at the Ethereum Foundation’s event, Devcon. Buterin’s explanation goes deeper than a simple 101 explanation. To learn more about the current state of ethereum, what’s changed recently, and what Buterin expects down the road, watch this video.

Proof-of-work is the original way cryptocurrencies added new blocks to blockchains

It’s a competitive method requiring “miners” to solve cryptographic puzzles, often using equipment that consumes massive amounts of energy. Ethereum switched to proof-of-stake, a less energy-intensive method in which “validators” stake crypto to be randomly chosen to check transactions.

Watch this video that uses Lego bricks to explain how venture capital works.

An explanation of Turing machines—the foundations of digital algorithms and computers

The device reads data, overwrites or ignores it, and then moves on to the next piece of data based on a set of programmed rules. By imagining this data as zeros and ones—binary that makes up computer code—Turing machines became the theoretical models for how any algorithm could be run on a computer if the procedure could be coded into a set of digital rules.

Netflix, explained

From offering an internet-based, mail-order Blockbuster alternative to its eventual status as a market leader in streaming entertainment, Netflix has led nearly every major paradigm shift in the television and movie business since its inception.

Stanford’s ‘How to Start a Startup’ series

Stanford’s archive of lectures about creating a startup includes advice from Y Combinator notables such as former YC president and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and YC Cofounder Paul Graham.

How entanglement lies at the heart of quantum computing

Theoretical physicist and mathematician Frank Wilczek boils down the complex notion of quantum entanglement into this reasonably understandable summary. Wilczek discusses the concepts of quantum entanglement and how it relates to other ideas like the Many-Worlds Interpretation (MWI) of quantum mechanics. What sounds a bit "science-fictiony" can have actual real-world and concrete applications.

A primer on 5G and how it works

You see it mentioned in countless commercials, and your phone might already use it, but do you know what it is? Watch this five-minute primer on the basics of 5G.

The deceptively simple proton

Take a visual deep-dive into the proton, a near-fundamental—but deceivingly simple—building block of nature. Among other beguiling characteristics, the particle can't be described by its constituent particles (quarks), but rather exists in a...

AI vs. machine learning vs. deep learning

Machine learning is best understood with visuals. A collection of the best 9 images, videos and flowcharts that explain what it is and how it works.

An overview of Linux, from the foundational program to its related operating systems

The Linux kernel, which bridges hardware and software, serves as the basis for many fully customizable operating systems, whose components can be modified or removed to optimize performance or reduce bloat on devices with limited resources. This has made these OSes useful for low-power devices like smart thermostats, as well as for powerful supercomputers that require computational efficiency.

What makes Nikola Jokic a basketball genius

Nikola Jokic is widely considered one of the greatest players in the NBA and this detailed exploration of his singular mind shows why, identifying Jokic’s superpower—viewing the court like a chessboard—and helpfully pulling out plenty of footage to definitively prove the point.

Wine explained

Wine is the sublime product of fermentation, the process of breaking down fruit—typically grapes. As the grapes ferment, yeast consumes the natural sugars and converts them to alcohol. With the process first developed and refined thousands of years ago, wine has been a central feature of celebrations throughout modern history. Want to learn more about its origins? Check out 1440's explainer on wine.

A video introduction to demography

The Big Think’s video provides a thorough introduction to the field of demography. Demography provides the tools to address and understand many of the world’s problems. It uses quantitative data and mathematical models to analyze populations....

Where colleges get their money, visualized

If you're curious about how different colleges and universities generate their revenue, this National Center for Education Statistics webpage offers a clear visual breakdown. See how public, private nonprofit, and for-profit institutions fund their operations, highlighting the differences between funding sources depending on the type of institution.

Understanding the basics of football

While American football may be entertaining, for fans who never played the game it can be confusing. Why do teams choose to run, pass, line up in certain defenses, run people in motion, call audibles at the line—or do any of the many other things that happen on the field?

Watch how algorithms can be designed to train themselves and self-improve without human input, to the point where the optimized code is too complex for programmers to understand.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Learn how to read a prospectus, the juicy document that any company must file with the SEC before going public.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

The animatronic shark from Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws,' the first modern blockbuster, was a complex underwater apparatus called 'Bruce.'

According to the physics of black holes, our 4D reality may be a hologram—a projection of information coded on a 2D surface on the edge of the universe.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

Read a deep dive on the 'all-purpose healing' peptide BPC-157.

See how fireworks are made and learn how metals like magnesium and copper are responsible for different colors.

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

The term 'algorithm' originated from the Latinized name of al-Khwārizmī, a 9th-century mathematician whose works introduced Arabic numerals and the decimal-based numeral system to Europe and whose treatise 'Al-Jabr' gave algebra its name.

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

Explore the known asteroids, comets, and spacecraft involved in asteroid studies within our solar system with 'Eyes on Asteroids,' a 3D visualization from NASA.

Explore fun facts from the USPS, including unique post office buildings, a stamp that traveled past Pluto, and more.

Play the role of a student in a game where you try to navigate college and remain debt-free, selecting different income levels, high school experience, race, ethnicity, and more.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

The US Constitution is widely regarded as the longest-standing written national constitution still in force—see how it has influenced rights worldwide.

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

Ebola infects and disables immune cells, triggering a cascade of events that leads to small blood clots throughout the body, weakening blood vessels and interrupting blood flow to key organs.