Everyone has seen stories in the media of massive data breaches that compromise individual privacy and security. Mainstream data storage options usually store each piece of data on one or two servers. This makes the data vulnerable to hackers who could get all the content by attacking only those one or two servers. In contrast, blockchain technology makes decentralized data storage possible by spreading information across a large network of nodes, so it isn’t possible to steal it by attacking only one or two servers. One would have to hack an entire network of nodes. The impracticality of this makes blockchain data storage much more secure than current options. A key mechanism to do this is called “sharding,” which means splitting something up into fragments. Data is encrypted and “sharded,” i.e. split into multiple small fragments. It is then distributed to different nodes in the network. In addition to data storage, blockchain also has the capacity to validate data and detect whether it has been altered. Blockchain technology makes it possible to verify the authenticity of a file using its digital fingerprint or hash. Through this, the data’s owner can also keep complete ownership and access to the information while no one without authorization can access it. Q: Why does blockchain technology Blockchain offer a potential alternative to centralized and cloud-based storage? A: Data is validated and stored in a decentralized way on multiple servers Knowledge provider：io196ka0lv4a9xhz8nsc0fmxawtxx5uxh3jv2nq2f KNOW TO EARN is committed to building the world’s largest blockchain knowledge base and blockchain training academy. Through the interesting form of answering…