The Potential of Blockchain and Big Data Together

mclynd

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03-02-2018 4:07PM

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﻿﻿﻿Blockchain is a powerful and important digital ledger technology that has reached early prominence due to its origin and use in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple. While nearly inseparable from the current cryptocurrencies craze, the reality is blockchain is very secure and versatile and can uniquely handle and store nearly any type of digital information. This is especially true as it pertains to big data given blockchain's ability to provide big data with an innovative, secure and immutable way to record and store transactional data.

What Is Blockchain

Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology comprised of a continuously growing file of encrypted transactions called "blocks" that are distributed across multiple nodes on a peer-to-peer network. One of the primary benefits of blockchain is that no centralized server or authority is required to hold or escrow these transactions.

Given blockchain is decentralized and does not allow previous transactions or blocks to be altered means it ideal for use in recording tamper-proof transactions and summary transactional data. This transactional data is the most common type used in big data by businesses globally.

Blockchain & Big Data Together

The business need for blockchain and big data combined in industries like financial services, government and healthcare, along with many others, is strong. This is because these industries have numerous big data lakes and repositories full of important data that is critical to their businesses.

Many of these companies have a need to pool and share massive amounts of data with other companies, governmental agencies, insurers and joint ventures in their industry for fraud prevention, anti-money laundering, regulatory requests, compliance audits and joint ventures. So, if there is a better approach to securing the data, while ensuring its integrity when shared, then it is not "if", but "when" big data and blockchain will become the primary way to share their important data.

For example, an insurance provider with questionable claims data or data sources has the potential to falsely deny claims for people in need, process claims slower, create compliance issues or put the insured's personal data at risk creating greater liability for the provider.

Most large insurance providers use historical and current data on big data platforms to produce analytics that effectively predict future claims and claim costs. This is a critical capability for many insurance providers and can have huge impact on their future profitability So, if they do not have confidence in their data or sources, then it can create a big problem that is difficult to solve.

Utilizing blockchain can provide these insurance providers with the confidence they need regarding the proper source, integrity and security of their data given its immutable, validated and tamper-proof capabilities. This not only gives insurance providers more confidence in their data, but also makes the data more valuable as it can have a direct impact on customer service and profitability. This is just one example of how blockchain can impact the way businesses use and value big data and analytics.

Another strong and early example of these two technologies being successfully employed in tandem is by an innovative company called Hade that I work with. This fast-growing company describes themselves as "Where Investment & Crypto Research Meets Breakthrough Technology". They are successfully using blockchain, along with big data to ensure the integrity and legitimacy of their investment research database.

Additionally, they are working on several others uses of the two technologies around identity, advertising, and licensing. They strongly believe that the use of more meaningful research, innovative technologies and a trusted database blockchain will create endless opportunities for their business.

Business Value Together

The future success of blockchain and big data as synergistic technologies is directly related to their legitimate use-cases, along with their ability to provide real commercial value for many different types of businesses.

As shown in the insurance provider example above, it is easy to see how the value of blockchain and big data together can be multiplied when solving large or complex business problems involving transactional data. It is important to note that there are numerous other variations and possibilities for utilizing the two technologies together that can bring true business value to all types of businesses.

Disclosure:

I have received no additional compensation other than the Ethereum that Hade Technologies pays to produce Exclusive content



