You go on vacation. You rent a car. You’re in a rush. You hurry up and get in the new car. Have fun in your vacation. You return the car. They inspect the car. They say:
- “You crushed the car.”
- “No, I didn’t!”
They point to the front of the car:
- “This is new.”
- “But I didn’t hit anything.”
- “Well, it’s new to us. So you need to pay.”
Then you discover by accident that you actually have a photo of the front of the car. Now what? If they even try to screw you for money, they won’t be able to because you have the photo, right?
But they don’t trust you: they’re blaming you for editing the evidences to get away with it. You could’ve change the date and time, add the scratch in the initial photo, or even tap a video record to make it look like you have the ultimate proof.
Now, YOU are the bad guy!
What can you do in this situation?
Whenever you’re sending a message, taking a photo, or recording a video you’re creating data. Data is everywhere. It is continually renewable. And it’s increasing exponentially. Data spawns data. The distribution of data became the essence of your life.
All data is of course, not of equal importance. Sending a funny picture to your friend isn’t as impactful as sending your documents to an accountant. But still, in both cases, the value of data is based on its originality, integrity, and authenticity. Never before has this been more true than today, when you’re relying more and more of virtual transactions. The innovation has created a critical need for guaranteed trust in data and you’re starting to feel this need in your day to day life.
Companies already know the importance of data. They had to deal with this issues long ago. First there were paper records. Day banking books were balanced by hand before machines came out. Records were stored in giant warehouses, and retrieved when needed with the help of card indexes. If transactions were questioned, you had to hope nobody had tinkered with the index, file location, or files themselves. Otherwise you were in big trouble.
Then computers came and even if records were manually entered, the data could be easily indexed. Then they could be scanned. Then, before you could’ve noticed, transactions were processed every nanosecond.
Data is now accessible and created by a wider range of people with more or less knowledge of how computers work. They’re not questioning the way their data is handled. They’re not asking for data integrity through logs of access, changes, and transactions. This is why the ones with a little more knowledge manage to steal or alter stored versions of the truth. Actions that are constantly raising challenges for tracking, correlation, analysis, and protection in the way of handling data.
So who’s winning? Is your data safe? Can you prove your data is REAL?
Traditional security solutions can’t provide both at the same time. This is were a blockchain come in handy. It can validate the data while securely giving you the possibility to keep it safe in your own ways. The fear of compromised data is eliminated because once the transaction is recorded in the blockchain, it can never change. The system itself assures its integrity by verifying each transaction and adding it to the blockchain, which is the consolidated “ledger” of all transactions.
A way for people who don’t really trust each other, to trust each other.
Through the blockchain ledger anyone can track and verify data that is generated by certain devices. It maintains a historical record of all data and is not dependent on a central authority. Since the ledger is distributed, a blockchain is not vulnerable to the exploits seen in centralized systems. This makes blockchains inherently resilient with no single point of failure.
Once created, blockchains are immutable and incorruptible. Mathematically provable algorithms enable continuous verification and calibration of the validity of a blockchain. Attempted modifications are immediately flagged as fraud.
Blockchain can be used for:
- The storage of all types of data and transactions in a secure and open way.
- Creating an identity on the blockchain, making it easier to manage for individuals, giving them greater control over who has their personal information and how they access it.
By combining the decentralized blockchain principle with identity verification, a digital ID can be created that would act as a digital watermark which can be assigned to every piece of data created. The solution can help the organizations to check the identity in real time, hence, eliminating rate of fraud.
Even if using the blockchain technology sounds like a complex solution with lots of benefits, anyone can profit of its advantages as simply as using an app.
Such apps are already in development ready to get adopted by consumers and organizations, aiming to solve the trust issues between them.
Stampery offers a trusted way to sign documents.
Prover.io guarantees the originality, integrity, and authenticity of video material.
Civic app provides control of personal information you share with other platforms.
And many more apps are still in the making, ready to disrupt the way you’re used to manage your day to day activities. In a good way!
