Explained: The parent child relationship between blocks of a blockchain

For the unacquainted, blockchain technology can seem extremely complicated. However, the basic principles are pretty simple: new transactions are verified, grouped into blocks, and added to the blockchain. All blocks in a blockchain follow a parent-child relationship and are linked to one another.

This entire chain of transaction data is distributed and visible to all network participants. Hence the term distributed ledger technology (DLT). Let’s take a deeper look into the block creation process and the parent-child relationship between each block in a blockchain.

So, the big question is - how are blocks created? Let’s learn it with the example of Bitcoin. Bitcoin follows the proof-of-work consensus mechanism where hundreds of thousands of miners compete to solve a mathematical problem that requires tons of computational power. The first miner to find the answer to the mathematical problem is allowed to create a new block and rewarded with 6.25 BTC for their efforts.