# Blockchain
A blockchain is the technical underpinnings for [crypto assets](cryptoasset.md) such as [bitcoin](bitcoin.md) and [ethereum](ethereum.md).

In computer science terms, a blockchain is a data structure that maintains a list of transactions that are authenticated using public key cryptography and linked using a hash function. A blockchain is a partial ordering of transaction event into windows of discrete time by which the transactions are programmatically committed to a shared history which is synchronized via a [consensus algorithm](consensus-algorithm.md).

The term has been overloaded extensively and other data structures and topologies have been described as blockchain regardless of their use. See [permissioned-blockchain](permissioned-blockchain.md).