Understanding blockchain

Picture one big shared notebook

Picture a notebook in which every exchange between a group of people is written down.

• Alice gives 5 tokens to Paul.
• Paul trades an item with Sarah.
• Sarah becomes the owner of a rare character.

In a traditional system, that notebook would be kept by a single person or a single company. They would be responsible for recording it, protecting it and deciding who gets to look at it.

The problem is that this person could make a mistake, alter an entry, lose the notebook, or suddenly decide to stop letting you see it.

Blockchain works differently.

Instead of one notebook kept in one place, identical copies are held by many independent computers spread around the world.

When a new operation is added, those computers check together that it follows the rules. Once it is validated, it is written into the notebook and every copy is updated.

So there is no single copy that can be easily altered or deleted.

That is what a blockchain is: a shared digital register, secured and verifiable by every participant in the network.

Why is it called a "chain of blocks"?

New operations are gathered into sets called blocks.

Each block holds several pieces of information, for example transfers, changes of ownership, or the running of an automatic rule.

Once a block is complete, it is given a kind of unique digital fingerprint.

The next block carries its own fingerprint, but also a reference to the fingerprint of the block before it. Blocks are therefore attached to one another, like the links of a chain.

If someone tried to alter an old entry, that block’s fingerprint would change. It would no longer match the blocks that follow, and the network would spot the anomaly straight away.

That is where the name comes from:

block means block, and chain means chain.

How does an operation get added to the blockchain?

Let us take a simple example.

Alice wants to send a digital item to Paul.

1. Alice requests the transfer

   From an application or a game, Alice selects the item and confirms that she wants to send it to Paul.

2. She signs the request

   The request is signed using her digital wallet.

   That digital signature proves Alice is indeed allowed to use this item, without her having to reveal her password or her private key.

   It is a little like a handwritten signature that cannot be copied.

3. The network checks the operation

   The computers taking part in running the blockchain check several things:

   • Does Alice actually own this item?
   • Is she allowed to send it?
   • Does the request follow the rules that were set?
   • Has the item not already been sent somewhere else?

4. The transfer is recorded

   Once the operation is validated, it is added to the blockchain.

   Paul then becomes the new owner of the item. That information can be checked directly on the network and no longer depends solely on one company’s database.

Why does decentralisation matter?

Decentralisation means that the system does not rest entirely on a single company, a single server or a single authority.

To see why that matters, think of a board game.

One person holds the bank, hands out the money and keeps the scores. You have to trust them. If they cheat, lose track of the accounts or walk off with the cash box, the game stops.

Now imagine every player holds a copy of the register. When something happens, everyone checks that it follows the rules before writing it down.

One person on their own can no longer bend the result in their favour.

Blockchain applies that logic to a worldwide digital network.

1. No authority holds the only copy

   The information is not kept on a single server that could be destroyed, hacked, or used to quietly rewrite history.

2. The rules can be checked

   The rules applied by a blockchain program can be read and inspected.

   You no longer have to simply believe a company when it says an operation went through correctly. You can have digital proof.

3. The history is hard to falsify

   An operation that has been validated and recorded cannot easily be altered behind users’ backs.

   This creates a form of shared digital memory.

4. Your digital belongings can genuinely be yours

   In a traditional game, a character or an item is usually recorded in the publisher’s database.

   You can use it, but you do not really own it. The publisher can block its transfer, close your account, change the item, or shut the game down for good.

   With blockchain, an item can be tied directly to your wallet.

   Depending on the project’s rules, it then becomes possible to keep it, transfer it, trade it, or prove that you own it, without depending solely on a line in a private database.

5. The system can carry on without relying on one player

   In a decentralised system, several participants contribute to running and checking the network.

   Trust is no longer placed in a single company. It is spread across the software rules, the cryptography and the participants in the network.

What can blockchain be used for in real life?

Blockchain is not only a way to buy or sell cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrency is just one of its applications.

The same technology can be used in many other fields.

1. Proving ownership of a digital item

   A game character, a ticket, a certificate, a digital artwork or a collectible can be tied to an identifiable owner on the blockchain.

2. Checking where a product came from

   A company can record the main manufacturing and shipping steps of a product to make it easier to verify its origin.

3. Sending value

   A blockchain makes it possible to send digital assets straight from one person to another, including across borders, without necessarily depending on the opening hours of a central institution.

4. Automating an agreement

   Some blockchains let you use programs called smart contracts.

   A smart contract works like a vending machine.

   You put in a coin, you pick a product, and the machine applies the rule it was given. It does not decide based on its mood, and it does not need an employee to approve each purchase.

   On a blockchain, a smart contract can for instance carry out an exchange automatically once the agreed conditions are met.

5. Building more transparent communities

   Blockchain can also be used to run votes, grant rights, or let a community take part in certain decisions.

The words worth knowing

1. The wallet

   A wallet is a digital purse.

   It lets you hold and use assets recorded on a blockchain.

   Every wallet has a public address, much like an account number you can share, along with a private means of signing operations.

   That signing method must stay secret. It is the proof that you are allowed to use what the wallet holds.

2. The token

   A token is a digital unit created on a blockchain.

   Depending on the project, it can act as an internal currency, an access right, a resource, a reward, or a governance tool.

   So not all tokens serve the same purpose.

3. The NFT

   NFT stands for "non-fungible token".

   The term may sound complicated, but the idea is simple: an NFT is a unique digital certificate.

   One euro can be swapped for another euro of the same value. They are interchangeable.

   A rare character with its own look, its own story and its own stats is not necessarily interchangeable with another. It can therefore be represented by an NFT.

   An NFT is not simply an image.

   It can stand for a character, a piece of equipment, a skin, a virtual house, a ticket, a certificate, or any other identifiable digital item.

4. The smart contract

   A smart contract is a program installed on a blockchain.

   It automatically applies the rules it was given.

   It can handle an exchange, check a condition, hand out a reward, or authorise an action without a person having to step in each time.

Is blockchain magic?

No.

Blockchain is a tool, not a magic answer to every problem.

It can prove that a recorded piece of information has not been altered. It cannot always guarantee that this information was true before it was recorded.

If someone writes bad information into a register, the blockchain will keep that bad information very securely.

The quality of a project therefore always depends on its rules, its design, its security, and the people building it.

That distinction matters.

Blockchain does not remove the need for trust. It reduces blind trust and replaces part of it with verifiable proof.

Technology that is invisible, but never hidden

Making blockchain invisible does not mean hiding that it is there.

It means nobody should have to become an expert before they are allowed to have fun.

Players who simply want to play can enjoy MonsterMine without running into technical vocabulary at every turn.

Those who want to understand what happens behind the game can reach a dedicated learning section, move at their own pace, and gradually discover how blockchain works.

Our aim is not to force players into Web3.

Our aim is to let them discover it naturally, in a setting that is familiar, concrete and playful.

Instead of explaining blockchain only through financial charts and complicated terms, MonsterMine lets you understand it through simple actions:

• owning a MonsterMine;
• checking that it is genuine;
• equipping it;
• growing it;
• trading it with another player;
• keeping the proof of its history and its stats.

Blockchain stops being an abstract theory.

It becomes something the player uses and understands through experience.

A blockchain built to run at scale

Solana is a layer-one blockchain using a Proof of Stake system, complemented by a mechanism called Proof of History.

Proof of Stake lets validators take part in securing the network and validating operations.

Proof of History acts as a shared cryptographic clock. It helps the network put events in the right order without every participant having to argue at length about the exact time each operation took place.

That combination was designed to let the network reach agreement quickly while handling operations at scale.

Fast interactions

In a game, every second counts.

A player should not have to wait long minutes after opening a chest, trading an item or taking an important action.

Solana delivers fast confirmations, which makes it easier to build experiences where the blockchain does not break the rhythm of play.

The player acts, gets a result, and can carry on playing, without constantly feeling they are operating a complex financial system.

Very low fees

Every operation carried out on a blockchain requires computing resources. Fees exist in particular to pay for validation work and to limit abuse of the network.

On some blockchains, those fees can become too heavy for small, repeated actions.

That would be incompatible with MonsterMine.

A player should not pay a significant amount every time an item changes hands or a blockchain-related action takes place.

Solana uses very low base fees and also allows priority fees to be added when needed. That structure is particularly well suited to applications carrying out a large number of small operations.

The option to cover fees on the player’s behalf

Solana allows an account other than the player’s to pay the fees for an operation.

In practice, that means an application can cover certain fees instead of the user.

This possibility is essential to building a smooth experience.

A new player should not be forced to buy SOL just to take their first action. The technology lets us reduce that friction and build an experience much closer to a traditional game.

Infrastructure suited to game items

Solana makes it possible to create digital assets representing characters, equipment, collectibles or other game elements.

Those assets can carry information about their collection, their stats, their rarity or some of their abilities.

That logic maps directly onto the world of MonsterMine.

A MonsterMine can have its own identity, its rarity, its stats, its equipment and its history of evolution. It is not merely a static image, but a genuine game element able to grow alongside the player.

Tools built for gaming

The Solana ecosystem offers resources aimed at game development, including on-chain game examples, Unity integrations, NFT handling, WebGL connectors, and systems that avoid asking the player to manually confirm every small interaction.

Those tools do not replace the development, security and design work MonsterMine requires. They do, however, provide a technical foundation consistent with our ambition: to build a game accessible on the web and across platforms, without turning every action into a complicated blockchain procedure.

The blockchain must serve the game

We did not choose Solana so we could display the word "blockchain" on MonsterMine.

We chose Solana because its speed, its low fees, its tools and the ways it can be kept out of sight allow the blockchain to stay where it belongs.

Behind the game.

At the service of the player.

The best infrastructure is not the one the player notices with every action.

It is the one that gives them more freedom, more transparency and more possibilities without complicating their experience.