A blockchain is a decentralized ledger, secured using cryptography and stored in a digital database. It logs transactions in a time-stamped and verifiable system, as in its original development as a means to trade Bitcoin. In cryptocurrency trading, blockchain networks permit users to remain anonymous, and all transactions to be visible to the entire network. This structural openness, anonymity, and security enables blockchain technologies to circumvent conventional networks of law and finance, or to explore collective authorship and ownership (see HOW ARE WE).