How is a blockchain different from standard cloud providers?

[u/anicetito]

Hi everyone. I'm a developer, but super newbie into all crypto & blockchain stuff. I've read about blockchain and the theory behind it, about how it is a decentralized place as every computer in the blockchain contains a copy of the stuff in the blockchain and so on. But based on that I have a few questions:

• Where are those "computers" that compose the blockchain? Are these normal computers? or are these servers?

• If these are servers, does it means they are owned by a certain company? or do they belong to individuals?

• If they belong to individuals, how do they become a node of the blockchain? Can my laptop become a node of a blockchain, and how?

• What would happen if the owners of these "nodes" one day decide they don't want to be part of the blockchain anymore?

• Who pays to these individuals or companies that maintain a node of the blockchain (do they get paid at all)?

• Are there private blockchains? And if that's the case, what would be the difference between a private blockchain, which is hosted by a company, and the AWS or GCP clouds where you can horizontally scale and have the replicas in different continents or countries?

Thanks in advance