A blockchain, also known as a distributed ledger technology (DLT), is a special type of database.
Data is added through structures called blocks. Each block is built on top of the last, in order, and includes information to link back to the previous, parent block. The very first block in the chain is known as the genesis block.
These blocks are connected using hash functions. A hash function essentially takes in some data and passes it through a mathematical function and returns a hash of the data. The returned hashes are always the same length.
A collision can occur when two different inputs give us the same output. However, the odds of this occurring are astronomically low and there aren't any known SHA256 collisions. SHA256 hashing is used extensively in Bitcoin and Ethereum. What this means for Bitcoin and Ethereum is that each block in the chain can point back to its parent block using its hash. Blocks already mined cannot be edited, the hash cannot be changed.