Blockchain does it need to be cryptic?
With the rise of Bitcoin as a worldwide cryptocurrency, Blockchain (the technology that underpins it) is gaining rapid pace.
What is Blockchain?
In simple terms think about an Excel spreadsheet that everyone in your company can view and edit from a central location i.e SharePoint.
The difficulty with this is that there may be multiple copies and versions of the spreadsheet stored locally on employees machines, with different, updated or out of date data.
Decentralising the single source of truth (the spreadsheet records) and having a network of the same spreadsheet that regularly updates to ensure everyone’s spreadsheet is in sync is the very basics of Blockchain.
Blocks are made up of records from the spreadsheet with each encrypted block of code containing the history of every block that came before it with timestamped transaction data down to the second.
This causes a chaining effect that brings those blocks together. Hence Blockchain.
Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?
Well he/she/they are in fact the creators of Blockchain. With it originally being the distributed database behind Bitcoin, Blockchain was used to ensure that Bitcoin had an incorruptible digital ledger of the cryptocurrency’s transactions.
It is thought that Satoshi Nakamoto (a pseudonym) was a group of people who didn’t wish to reveal their real names as Bitcoin was so disruptive.
Bitcoin originally had headlines for the wrong/unknown reasons (those who didn’t back it originally will be kicking themselves today) but the technology that is Blockchain is what interests me.
How does Blockchain work?
Rather than a mountain of paragraphs take a look at the below info graphic:
Who could use Blockchain?
Simple really — anyone or any organisation that requires any form of record-keeping, agreement, contract or register.
I have listed below two examples outside of mainstream financial services as this industry is a common use case for Blockchain.
- Music and Artist Royalties
With Artists, Music labels and many more in the music industry missing out on revenue due to piracy and illegal activity, Blockchain could be the answer to the immediate collection of royalties. This would give realtime distributions to everyone from the artist to the producer, every time a song is played.
Check out Harvard Business Review for Imogens Heaps article.
2. Online Voting
In countries where voting could be thought of as rigged, there could be a case to use Blockchain.
Blockchain would allow votes to be recorded and then transmitted across a network in a transparent nature.
Moving voting online in this digital age and using Blockchain technology for both accuracy and security of the vote’s could save millions on election days throughout the world!
If you want to know more take a look at Forbes article.
Where is Blockchain today?
With Blockchain still in its infancy there are small pockets of early adopters using Blockchain in production activities.
Microsoft are working with a number of companies including J.P. Morgan Chase and are working on the Coco Framework. Thus giving enterprises the opportunity to adopt Blockchain faster.
While current public Blockchain networks may be prohibiting some enterprises progressing, the Open Source Coco Framework provides enterprise-ready Blockchain networks that deliver:
- Throughput and latency for database speeds.
- Confidentiality models that are business specific.
- Governance for Network policies.
- Support for transactions that may run differently each time they are run.
Now for the best bit:
Microsoft + Open Source are releasing the Coco Framework Source Code to the open community in early 2018.
Microsoft recognise the talent that exists in the Open Community and hope that by releasing the source code it will enable innovation and development far beyond the development team that exists today.
The Redmond software giant has also created the Azure Blockchain Partner Council.
It is believed this is due to the number of requests they get from partners to provide Blockchain services.
Members of the council will compete for work to enable Microsoft to provide further Blockchain services to the current customer base while having direct access and support from Microsoft’s blockchain engineering team.
Review with a view
Blockchain is a technology of the not too distant future that I believe will really change how we do business.
The financial sector has a lot to gain from Blockchain including easy auditability and reduced transaction costs.
Other industries such as those listed above can also take advantage of Blockchain, it does not just have to be the big enterprises. I would love to see more businesses become early adopters.
Blockchain may be in its infancy but within the next 12–18months I can see it being in production and most of us won’t even realise we are using Blockchain in one form or another.
My view is that no one should try to create there own Blockchain network (purely down to cost), instead adopt the Coco Framework or Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) which has many options as shown here.
Currently there is over $1billion believed to be invested in Blockchain applications and testing platforms further proving the case that businesses should be looking at Blockchain today!
MyMateTech’s Conclusion
The ability for technology to transact, package, verify, encrypt and execute any unit of value at such a secure and rapid rate really is a game changer.
Intermediaries will need to adapt or rapidly differentiate otherwise they will end up like Blockbuster.
With the introduction of Blockchain in developing countries the people can start to believe in economies that are not full of crazy regulations, a lack of banking competition, rigged elections, fines and ‘cash and criminal’ money markets causing further damage to their already fragile economies.
It is great to see the alliances that have formed and the investments made by some of the biggest companies in the world today.
That said Blockchain isn’t cryptic its encrypted — if everyone can get behind it, I firmly back Blockchain to be a technology of great benefit to the world we live in.
