Blockchain Technology & 5G: perfect opportunity for the 3rd world nations
The trending topic of discussion in the telecom industry, particularly the mobile industry is the roll out of the 5G network, which is going to be embraced sooner in the developing third world nations. At the same time, we are also witnessing the spreading of blockchain technology into new sectors after it has proved it’s worth in the field of finances, specially cryptocurrencies. Here in this article we will see the opportunities which can be availed with the fusion of these two trending technologies which could be the most ground-breaking of game-changers.
5G
5G is a technology break through of next-generation telecom network (fifth generation) which have the capability of unleashing a massive IoT (Internet-of-Things) ecosystem and many more. Some of the advanced features of 5G are as follows:
- Up to 10Gbps data rate → 10 to 100x improvement over 4G and 4.5G networks
- 1-millisecond latency
- 1000x bandwidth per unit area
- 99.999% availability
- 100% coverage
- 90% reduction in network energy usage
Blockchain Technology
It is a decentralized distributed ledger system used to store digital information. Literally, it means the digital information, i.e, “the blocks” are stored in a public database, i.e, “the chains”.
Fusion of Blockchain Technology with 5G
The combination of these two technologies can surge greater economic value in the developing countries. We are also witnessing the increasing use of smartphones in these countries like nearly 25% in India to somewhere above 50% in Brazil. The IoT devices could leverage the benefits provided by blockchain technology such as decentralization, immutability, security, etc. This increasing trend of adopting smartphones and their services like IoT along with blockchain technology could reap greater wonders to these nations.
As foundational layers, blockchains can provide consensus and security while the bulk of IoT transactions and contracts occur on second-layer networks, with the chance to settle payment channels and transaction disputes on-chain. The network capacity of IoT, however, are going to be enabled by the facility of 5G coverage. It could also empower the smart-contracts in terms of functionality and performance.
Within this next decade, we could anticipate the advancing automation into the traditional industries like — agriculture, mining, drilling, etc. through high speed speed IoT along with devices communicating via 5G. And not the least, blockchain technology could use network improvements via 5G.
Bottlenecks
No matter how safe and secure these technologies are, there would be some issues that need to be taken into consideration before-hand.
The roll-out of 5G would encompass an explosion in transactions and payments between these devices. Such volumes will likely dwarf the present capacity of centralized and decentralized financial infrastructure. The scalability issue is difficult to resolve even through the blockchain technology.
Conclusion
To truly appreciate the values of 5G, IoT and blockchain, you’ve got to think about them as synergistic instead of offering wholly separate value propositions. With the proper architecture, this technology stack — along side second layer solutions, edge computing, computer game , augmented reality and IoS (Internet-of-Services)— is about to make an unprecedented quantity of value at the same time, radically altering working conditions, employment and recreation. So, it is up to the governments of these developing nations, how they utilize these and get benefited.
