What is BlockChain Technology

Nowadays cryptocurrency has become a buzzword in both industry and academia. As one of the most successful cryp-tocurrency, Bitcoin has enjoyed a huge success with its capital market reaching 10 billion dollars in 2016. With a specially designed data storage structure, transactions in Bitcoin network could happen without any third party and the core technology to build Bitcoin is blockchain, which was ﬁrst proposed in 2008 and implemented in 2009.

BlockChain is technology that allows data to be stored and exchanged on peer-to-peer basis. It is used in a decentralised manner and removes the need for intermediaries or “trusted third parties”.

Types of BlockChain:

Depending on how the nodes in the network join and the restrictions placed on the roles, a blockchain can be permission-less (public) or permissioned (private).

Permission-less blockchain is also a public blockchain. Any node can join and leave at any point in time by merely running the node software. Transactions can be sent by signing the transaction with the private key that can be verified by peer nodes. Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains are examples of public permission-less blockchain.

Permissioned blockchains are at a consortium or private level (within an organization). Here, the nodes need to be authenticated before joining the network and information needs to be contained within.

Revolution of BlockChain Technology:

Are we still in the early days to put forward Blockchain as a technology? The question is still holding the long-lasting debate. We are yet to see the powerful impacts that Blockchain will have on the world that we presently live in. Albeit, it is already showing potential across a number of industries and entering the public consciousness, so now, the real question is, what will happen if Blockchain starts to mature?

Presently, speculating on the future of blockchain is the same as predicting the future of the World Wide Web back in 1990.

In this new era of EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other online data privacy legislation on the way, Blockchain is ready to take its place at centre stage in today’s economy. It is more likely that this change will be top-down; people will not be demanding Blockchain, so the businesses will have to lead the charge while transitioning to this system.

Let’s see how much revolutionary the Blockchain technology is and how it is going to change the future.

Blockchain and Cybersecurity:

The global figure of cyber breaches crossed $200 billion annually. Here nothing more than blockchain technology can save our day; Blockchain was created back in 1991 as a means to ensure the security using cryptography. And today it becomes the reason for the most secure way of transactions. It should not come as a big surprise that it is a niche where much of the innovation still occurs. The blockchain technology is playing a major role in cybersecurity especially.

With the upsurged prevalence of data breaches along with the massively interconnected world, the new ways to verify identity and security will be game changers. Blockchain technology is a natural answer for this role because, as a whole, it is robust, incorruptible yet encrypted and recordkeeping that anyone can easily verify.

Blockchain and Transactions:

The transactions made via Blockchain are free; hence you can transfer or receive the minuscule amount, let’s say 1/100 of a cent per video views. Why would you pay The Economist or National Geographic an annual subscription fee; instead pay per article you read or pay for one particular show or video. As the blockchain transaction carries no transaction cost. You are open to charge for anything in any amount without worrying about the third party cutting into the profits you make.

Blockchain and Music:

Blockchain can make the sale of recorded music profitable for artists by eliminating music companies or distributors such as Spotify and Apple. The music you purchase can be encoded in the blockchain itself, making it a cloud archive for each song which has been purchased. Because the charged amount is small, the subscription and streaming services will be irrelevant.

Blockchain and eBook:

It goes further. eBooks could be fitted with blockchain code. For example, instead of Amazon taking its cut, and the credit card company earning money on each sale, the books can be circulated in an encoded form and a successful blockchain transaction would transfer the money to respective author and unlock the book. One can do this on book reviews websites such as Goodreads, or directly on any online web library. The marketplaces such as Amazon will become an unnecessary thing. Successful interactions may include reviews and other third-party information about the book.

Blockchain and Financial World:

In the financial world, blockchain can bring revolutionary changes. It will change the way stock exchanges work, insurances contracted and loans are bundled. Blockchain will eliminate bank accounts and slowly but practically all the services offered by banks. Most of the financial institutions will go bankrupt or forced to change the fundamental ways of working as financial mediators; once the benefits of safe ledger without any kind of transaction fees are widely understood and will be implemented. After all, all the financial systems are built on taking a small cut from your money 😦 for the privilege of facilitating each of your transaction. Bankers and banks will become mere advisers, not the gatekeepers of money. Stockbrokers will out the pictures as they won’t be able to earn more commissions.

Blockchain: Challenges and Obstacles

Blockchain while paving its way, will face many challenges and obstacles but still, it offers many promising applications; Let’s look at the challenges and application of the Blockchain Technology in 2019 and beyond:

The hype of Blockchain is somehow similar to Virtual Reality. A few years back from now, people of various sectors have been hearing about Blockchain; it is been portrayed as a game changer. The problem is; so many people still are not able to see the real-world benefits. To them, like the virtual reality, Blockchain is a nifty technology without any practical application that they can wrap their heads around.

In 2018, we have already seen the increased funding to the Blockchain focused startups. However, the same as all the new technologies, blockchain is still immature while the implementation; and this is the prime reason why many Blockchain based startups fail. The false start in Blockchain deployment can lead an organization to bad decisions, failed innovations and at last, it leads to the refusal to this amazing technology.

There is no Doubt that Blockchain technology in the nearby future will affect every aspect of businesses; however, this gradual process demands time and patients. Gartner predicts that most of the traditional businesses will continuously keep an eye on Blockchain technology, but will not plan anything, waiting for more successful examples of Blockchain applications.

The reason behind this is that traditional businesses need more transformation for Blockchain deployment than the newly poped business. As Gartner said, only 10% of traditional businesses across the world will achieve any type of radical transformation with Blockchain technologies by 2023.

Well, this doesn’t conclude how much potential Blockchain technology can bring. For example, Blockchain could be more useful for content streaming companies such as Netflix; because it can be used to save data more securely and also to pave the way for interoperability. If nothing else, it can provide something resembling an API, allowing the third-parties to Tx and Rx the data to the blockchain.

Above and Beyond…

As revolutionary it sounds, Blockchain is a mechanism to bring everything to the highest degree of accountability. No more human or machine errors no more missed transactions no more involvement of the third party with whom you have to share your cut. Above everything, it is a much secure and efficient system of systems; as it guarantees the validity of the transactions by recording it not only on the main register but also on a connected distributed systems of registers which will be further connected through the secure validation mechanism.

Seeing Off:

The ones associated with mobile app development are not unfamiliar with what Artificial Intelligence (AI) is and how it has become a blockbuster in the technological arena. The basic algorithm of AI has enabled machines to perform functions that they were not programmed for. Now, just imagine if this advanced technology will shake hands with Blockchain which drives future tech tools largely influence a number of industries what the outcome would be.

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