Cryptocurrency Blockchain Technology Fundamentals 5

Question 1

What is 'sharding' as a blockchain scalability solution?

Accepted Answer

Partitioning the network so each node only processes a subset of transactions

Answer

Sharding divides the blockchain into parallel partitions (shards), each processing its own transactions, dramatically increasing total throughput without every node handling everything.

Question 2

What is a 'zero-knowledge proof' (ZKP) and how is it used in blockchain?

Accepted Answer

A cryptographic method to prove knowledge of data without revealing the data itself

Answer

ZKPs let one party prove a statement is true (e.g., 'I know a valid transaction') to another party without disclosing any underlying information, enabling privacy and scaling solutions like zk-rollups.

Question 3

What does 'on-chain governance' mean in a blockchain protocol?

Accepted Answer

Protocol upgrade decisions are made and enforced through votes recorded on the blockchain itself

Answer

On-chain governance encodes voting and upgrade mechanisms directly in the protocol, allowing token holders to formally propose and ratify changes without relying on off-chain social consensus.

Question 4

What is a 'rollup' in the context of Ethereum scaling?

Accepted Answer

A Layer 2 technique that executes transactions off-chain and posts compressed proofs to the main chain

Answer

Rollups bundle many transactions off-chain, submit compressed data or validity proofs to Ethereum's Layer 1, inheriting its security while dramatically increasing throughput and reducing fees.

Question 5

What is 'selfish mining' in Proof-of-Work blockchains?

Accepted Answer

A strategy where a miner withholds discovered blocks to gain a disproportionate share of rewards

Answer

In selfish mining, a pool withholds a newly found block, continues mining secretly, and releases the longer chain later, wasting honest miners' work and earning outsized rewards.

Cryptocurrency Practice Test

Cryptocurrency Practice Test

Cryptocurrency Blockchain Technology Fundamentals 5