Bitcoin Forum

Satoshi Nakamoto always referred to it as such:

However, I see the term "blockchain" used a lot anyways. Do you think we should use Satoshi's terminology to prevent confusion with Blockchain.info, who will usually just refer to themselves as Blockchain? Or am I worried about nothing? :P

From my little background in mathematics blockchain would be the highest order of appreciation.

"block chain" refers to the two english words, which would be a regular description of any chain of blocks. Since the blockchain was something new at the time it is only natural that satoshi worded it in that way.

Blockchain with a capital B even in the middle of a sentence would refer to a proper name or the name of a service.

What does that have to do with mathematics you ask? Its all linguistics! Well yes... many mathemtical theorems are named after mathmaticians. They are usually writen with a capital letter since the derive from the name of a person. Not so abelian[1] which derives from to the mathmatician Abel, but is used in lower case.

Its also less work to write blockchain :)


[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abelian

PS: I voted "who cares"

I voted Blockchain and it seems I hit the majority. I think blockchain has gone a long way since its creation and now it should be called Blockchain, just like the Internet.  :P Or we could call BTC blockchain a Blockchain and all other altcoin blockchains just blockchains - not start with a capital letter like the original BTC Blockchain that started it all :P

I use "blockchain" with small "b". I can't see a reason to capitalise it.

"blockchain" is good enough me too.

I discovered btc in early 2013 and had no idea there was any other choice besides blockchain.  Thanks for the history.


I believe shorena covers it very well including his "vote".

Alfred E. Neuman

Well, "blockchain" is the more common spelling and it's the one I personally prefer but I know a few others in addition to Satoshi use "block chain" instead. For example, Nick Szabo (http://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-dawn-of-trustworthy-computing.html) uses the latter spelling.

When referring to the company that provides online wallet services, I usually type it as "Blockchain.info" or simply "Blockchain". Proper nouns should be capitalized and it's probably a good idea to add the ".info" part to reduce ambiguity and the possibility that someone reading it might end up on a phishing site.

Wouldn't performing extra work during the PoW process, viz. penning Blockchain or block chain, exert more hashing power to...

blockchain

Satoshi called it a block chain. Most bitcoin and altcoin developers call it a block chain. Academic writings call it a block chain. Ordinary consumers started calling it a blockchain after blockchain.info basically coopted the word.

Blockchain

I can see this is going to be the new version of the "percent" or "per cent" battle.

Personally, as long as people don't start telling other people one is right or better or more accurate I really don't care.

I think it's one word, "blockchain". Also, it's a unique thing to bitcoin it's like a proper noun, no? If so it should be "Blockchain".

'blockchain' hurts my OCD :P

I'm going to have to stick with Blockchain.

Not that it makes a big difference, but I always used "blockchain", non-capitalized and one word. I think that if "bitcoin" can be one word, then the same should apply for the blockchain. "block" and "chain" on the other hand are words oftenly used in the English language, it can be confusing for people that don't know blockchain is a different thing.

Somewhere along the lines it seemed like it belonged in a new word category
While a Block Chain is the same as a blockchain
People recognize it better together than seperately rather that is because it has become a force of habit or a force of adaptation I guess the former dominates
Block-Chain meets it half way just to throw that wrench in there XD (-) good old - sign

blockchain is fine but sometime i say it blockchain.info because there is another website blockchain.com and this is also a wallet service but i dont know its legit or not

I always thought the proper way was one word blockchain but I wasn't aware that satoshi used it as two. I think blockchain.info was silly (or maybe genius) idea to name themselves after it though as it always leads to confusion or people mistakenly thinking they are the official block explorer.

Its on blockchain 8)

I choosed blockchain and I know it can be confused with the web wallet "blockchain.info". However I find more correct block chain, but it is almost 1,5 year that I'm using the terminology  "blockchain" .

blockchain

i call it blockchain because name of the website it self "blockchain"

For what it is worth: while drafting an electronic mail item before my break-fast this morning I used the term "block chain".

This is where people run into problems constantly. They claim to have problems with the blockchain, while they actually have a problem with the service blockchain.info. I dont think its important whether you use "block chain", "blockchain" or "Blockchain" as long as you use something distinct when refering to the service blockchain.info like e.g. bc.i.


Sadly there are many mistakes due to people thinking something is official regarding to bitcoin. There is no official client, no official blockchain explorer etc. This typically leads to confusing statements, like: "the blockchain is broken".

I voted 'blockchain' with a lower case 'b'

In response to the OP's concerns about satoshi calling it the 'block chain' - a lot of bitcoin's terminology has changed somewhat over the years. I am not sure what caused these changes, probably just the way the people on the forums in general write. Even theymos used to write Bitcoin as "BitCoin" on one of his first posts

It is the block chain but people call it the blockchain. The blockchain.info may be part of the cause for this.

I didn't realize that Satoshi referred to it as block chain.  :-\ But anyway, since the first day that I got into bitcoin, the only terminology that I understood is "blockchain" and that is also what I saw everybody is using as well. This will stick and last for sometime and I have to admit it will be very difficult to change it. As long as when I saw everybody understood it's the same thing, then I'll continue to use it.

One can call whatever they want Blockchain or Block chain. Basically it gives the same meaning. I prefer to call it as "Blockchain". :)

I would call it the blockchain without capitals. Like stated previously capitals implies a proper name. A space between the two words separates the ideas to "block" and "chain" rather than a new technological entity known as the blockchain.

I think therefore Satoshi had the idea of te block chain, and the adaptors dubbed the idea into a new single word blockchain. I do not think it has to do with the .info site, though people do mistake them for one and the same thing. When working and developing an idea, the two words are describing what is going to become what we call it. The blockchain. Just like the bits and the coins we call bitcoins :)

Here's a bit of trivia relevant to this topic.

In the earliest code release, Satoshi calls it "timechain"
which is actually more descriptive of what it really is.

I beg to disagree, but thanks for the trivia anyway, I didn't know that :)

i call it like this : "blockchain" easy man .

Do you call it dog house or doghouse?

As a natural progression of English words commonly used together often join to form a new single word, or compound word. Satoshi used block chain because that made the most sense then. Prior to 2005 there certainly were no blockchains around. What usually happens is words start as two independent words like school bus, or rail way. Then people add a hyphen like rail-way. Eventually this merges into the single word: railway. It's "most correct" I believe to denote each stage as it happens in print over time.

We should probably be calling it block chain right now because most people still don't even know what crypto currency is. However, many of us that live and breathe this stuff daily have already skipped any hyphenated forms and went straight to blockchain based cryptocurrency ;)

please add option "bloatchain"

blockchain in relation to technology

Hey now, people are (supposedly) working on this issue so it doesn't become a bigger problem in the future.  ;D

If it's in a sentence "blockchain". If it starts a sentence "Blockchain" for me ;D

I call it "blockchain"

I rarely mention that word at the beginning of the sentence

Rarely is not never ;)

For example: "Blockchain technology is cool" or plural: "Blockchains are cool" ;D

Blockchain all the way :D

After reading all previous comments I can see that majority of people is now using term: 'blockchain'. I just think for now any  name will suffice whether it will be blockchain, Block Chain, block chain or Blockchain. We all know what is going on. But it would be helpful to use one standardized name in the future.

It's Blockchain  ;D

I wrote about this here (https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/blockchain-info-vs-the-block-chain-redditors-discontent/):

Blockchain or Block Chain?
Bitcoiners spell Bitcoin’s transaction database two different ways, and it is likely that you will see both used: the blockchain (one word) or the block chain (two words). When discussing Bitcoin’s transaction database, they both mean the same thing. There isn’t an official term because there is no official Bitcoin dictionary. However, Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, called it the block chain on multiple occasions. Also, the most popular Bitcoin wiki, bitcoin.it, calls it the block chain. For these reasons, block chain is considered to be more correct, however blockchain is often used colloquially.

I think calling it the "Blockchain" (proper noun) is the worst idea of all, because keeping it lowercase was one last stance against confusion with the company :-\

I have alway written it as Blockchain.
I this when you see it as block chain written by people like Satoshi it could have just been the auto correct.

Pretty interesting find that Satoshi used an space between block and chain. Personally I say blockchain because im used to blockchain.info, or Blockchain if it's the begining of a sentence lol.

I used to call it blockchain, but after knowing satoshi called this 'block chain' I will follow him too.

I only call the Bitcoin version "Blockchain" but call an altcoin a "blockchain" if it uses Proof-of-Work to build it. Satoshi's "block chain" still exists for those that also use his extra spaces between sentences.