To understand blockchain and distributed ledger solutions, one should also understand the underlying technologies and concepts that make up, or at least have influenced, the creation of blockchain technology. Only that way we can hope to understand how the idea of Bitcoin and blockchain saw the light of day. You can simply pass through this section, but you will see that if you are willing to take the time to understand what underlying principles have helped to define blockchain, it will give you an edge once we start to dive deeper into blockchain itself.