The team here at MEDIA Protocol are deeply committed to creating a more direct, transparent and secure ecosystem for content creators, publishers, and consumers through the revolutionary application of blockchain technology. In fact, it’s the very revolutionary nature of the technology that really excites us.

We’d like to share our thoughts about blockchain technology and how we see it progressing into the future, hopefully demystifying and clarifying some of the misconceptions that currently exist about blockchain and its applications. We want to help create a common understanding of the technology for everyone’s benefit.

This series of articles aims to explore developments within blockchain technology, the relationship between institutional investors and blockchain, and the move towards regulation within the space. We want to help everyone — the marketeers, the technologists, and the content consumers — understand the potential for this game-changing technology.

Strap in, and welcome to the MEDIA Protocol Future Of Blockchain Series.

Part 2 — What Does The Future Hold For Blockchain Technology?

In essence, blockchain technology is a distributed ledger where transactions between users are publicly recorded. Even though the basic concept of blockchain might sound simple, this technology is incredibly powerful, and it is quickly opening new doors and generating new opportunities for a large number of industries. With the use of blockchain, nobody is required to blindly trust a centralised institution that could be the potential target of a cyber attack.

Today’s economy is already starting to shift away from centralised ecosystems, and it is demonstrating a preference towards decentralised peer-to-peer businesses, such as the hugely popular Airbnb, Uber and various crowdfunding websites.

Blockchain technology is here to stay. But where is it heading? The future for blockchain looks seriously promising as it has already started disrupting several industries. If they aren’t already, publishers, advertisers and marketers should keep a close eye on blockchain developments in artificial intelligence, data security and intellectual property. We’ll explain why below.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence was invented to exhibit intelligent behaviour that replaces error-filled algorithms with smart coding. AI learns and adapts from the information it collects.

‘AI can use information gleaned from and manipulated by blockchains to sort through problems more quickly than ever before — and it can do it freely, in a distributed manner, without being confined to a single entity’s data set or restrictions.’ — Blockonomi

When embedding Artificial Intelligence into the blockchain, it can become more efficient and powerful as it grows and learns. As a result, we obtain a blockchain with nearly limitless potential.

By 2020, it is estimated that there will be a collective 44 zettabytes of data to handle. To give you a better idea, a zettabyte equals a trillion gigabytes. The biggest asset of blockchain is the networking of so many computers and their processing power. The speed offered by blockchain will make a massive difference to Big Data as it is the key to handling and processing huge amounts of data successfully.

Data Security

It is no secret that the current systems that are implemented worldwide to prevent data and security breaches are not working correctly. Users and organisations want to know their personal information is secure and trust those who acquire and use their data.

Data in a blockchain is distributed across a network, making it highly resistant to cyber attacks — all copies of the ledger spread across the network would have to be targeted simultaneously for an attacker to be successful. This means that putting together an attack would take immense resources and a tremendous financial cost, which is likely more significant than the potential profit that could ever be generated by attacking the blockchain.

‘Even larger governments would struggle to corral the computing power necessary to launch an attack of this nature, making it even less likely for private individuals.’ By using blockchain technology, we’re bringing organisations and individuals closer to a safe online experience with higher resistance to cyber attacks.

Intellectual Property

The intellectual property industry already authenticates its trademarks and patents through third-party organisations. However, IP is not always as clear as it needs to be, and that is when costly, time-consuming disputes and lawsuits can occur.

‘Blockchain could take away such issues by enabling individuals and companies to identify their own innovation and place it on record within a blockchain. Any future issues around who was the first to create an idea would then be easily identified through the blockchain’s timestamp.’

— Information Age

Blockchain could be a game-changer when it comes to resolving IP, especially in cases when ideas weren’t immediately protected upon their creation.

Our CryptoCatnip partner Quadrant Protocol is already providing a way to “stamp” data, providing a mark of authenticity amongst other benefits. Learn more about Quadrant in our AMA highlights.

Content Creation And Distribution

One of the industries that will be most impacted by blockchain is the media, advertising and publishing sector, where creation and distribution of content is fundamental to their business model. However, the question on everyone’s lips is, “where is the real value in sharing content?”

Simply put, it’s in real people, who really engage and interact with the content being published, because they see a value in it that they feel is worth sharing with their extended network. With MEDIA Protocol, this now becomes an actual, tangible value that can be attached to a piece of content, using MEDIA Tokens (MPT), via a URL.

MEDIA Protocol decentralises the current content model, pulling away from the third-party platforms that control who and what we see. This content model puts the power back in the hands of publishers, content creators, advertisers and, now also, the content consumers themselves.

Consumers will be encouraged to continue sharing the content they love as normal; whether or not they have tokens against them. Great content will always prevail. But now there’s a new way to incentivise interactions and devise content strategies around a direct relationship between content creator and consumer.

Other Industries Impacted By Blockchain

The financial ecosystem is one of the first ones making the shift towards blockchain. A great example is Ripple, a blockchain company that facilitates the transfer of value without a centralised institution, offering frictionless cross-border payments in real time with end-to-end tracking.

Traditionally, banks and other financial institutions would have to hold on to various international currencies at a local branch. The result would be increased fees and time-consuming processes that would end up negatively affecting the customer. Ripple supports liquidity between any two currencies by using its own balance sheet to make markets with other currencies, effectively reducing the need for transactional fees and removing the middleman.

Another industry that will inevitably make the shift towards using blockchain technology is the healthcare industry. Today’s health record system forces medical professionals to work with incorrect or incomplete medical records. Health care providers may have different or incomplete records of the same patient making it difficult for a provider to look at a patient holistically. When implementing blockchain technology, a database will be created where no one healthcare provider owns any part of the ledger. Instead, all the information is saved in one place and visible to the patient and the providers who will need access to it in the future.

‘Blockchain technology, with its ubiquitous security infrastructure for seamless health data exchange, holds potential to eliminate the burden and cost of health data reconciliation and facilitate interoperability. Emerging blockchain systems promise to unlock new economic advantages by disintermediating high-cost gatekeepers and automating transactional services across healthcare workflows (e.g., claim adjudication, billing management, RCM, drug supply chain).’

— Frost & Sullivan, “Blockchain Technology in Global Healthcare, 2017–2025”

It’s clear that blockchain technology is revolutionising the way that both society and multiple industries work, and we’re only just beginning to scratch the surface of its potential applications.

In the next segment of our Future Of Blockchain Series, we explore some of the reasons why tokens aren’t mainstream — yet.

Read All Parts In Our Future Of Blockchain Series

Part 1 — What Is Blockchain?

Part 2 — What Does The Future Hold For Blockchain Technology? (Above)

Part 3 — Why Aren’t Tokens Mainstream?

Part 4 — Investing In The Future (Coming Soon)

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