What are the different types of blockchain networks?

Currently, there are at least four types of blockchain networks — public blockchains, private blockchains, consortium blockchains and hybrid blockchains. A public blockchain has absolutely no access restrictions.

What is a hybrid blockchain?

To distinguish between open blockchains and other peer-to-peer decentralized database applications that are not open ad-hoc compute clusters, the terminology Distributed Ledger (DLT) is normally used for private blockchains. A hybrid blockchain has a combination of centralized and decentralized features.

What is a bitcoin 'block chain'?

The network's 'nodes' — users running the bitcoin software on their computers — collectively check the integrity of other nodes to ensure that no one spends the same coins twice. All transactions are published on a shared public ledger, called the 'block chain.' ^ Gervais, Arthur; Karame, Ghassan O.; Capkun, Vedran; Capkun, Srdjan.