Blockchain beyond Bitcoin
Blockchain is the crown jewel of this new era.
The latest buzz-word in the technological arena is ‘Blockchain’. Blockchain will form the backbone of several different Spheres of Life — from banking and secure communications to healthcare and ride-sharing. Of course, to be able to appreciate how blockchain will impact the world around you, you need to first understand what the blockchain technology is and what makes it so unique.
Have you ever come across a 25 year old millionaire on a dating site? Is there any way for you to know that they’re really the 25 year old start-up founders cum millionaire? What about when you buy a Belgian chocolate made out out of cocoa beans grown in the farmlands of Africa? How do you trust that piece of information? What is the certainty that the farmers in Africa are benefitting from your purchase?
Society today faces the dilemma of unreliability and trust issues — and with valid reason. To be doubly sure of the information you consume, you would need a system with strong security where stored records are verified for facts mentioned by not one but many witnesses so that no single authority could cheat it.
Simplifying Blockchain for you
Above mentioned type of system is called blockchain. It is not owned by any central person or authority. Rather, a system composed of many personal computers stores information, thus leaving no room for a middleman. It is distributed and decentralised so that it can not be taken down or corrupted by any single person out of animosity or theft, making it very secure. However, it gives anyone and everyone the ability to use the system and help run it, as information is protected through cryptography.
Blockchain Technology owes its widespread usage to the following features it offers- Decentralisation, Transparency and Immutability.
It is basically an ever-increasing list of transactions (stored as blocks) that are verified, permanently recorded and linked in chronological order. Interestingly, the beauty of blockchain for most users will lie in the unknown. Just as most people don’t know how 4G technology works, we still use our smartphones on a daily basis. Similarly, blockchain will form the perfect “backstage” to many upcoming technologies and will end up impacting the way we communicate with each other.
How will Blockchain Change the World?
Banking and Payment processes will be more efficient: Not only does blockchain allow anyone to exchange money faster, more efficiently and more securely (see bitcoin currency), but many banks are already working on adopting blockchain technology to improve their transactions.
Cybersecurity will be better equipped to hacking: All data is verified and encrypted in blockchain using advanced cryptography, making it resistant to unauthorised changes and hacks. Centralised servers can be very susceptible to data loss, corruption, human error and hacking. If we just take a look at the many hacks we’ve been faced with in the past few years. These would become a thing of the past with a blockchain decentralised, distributed system that would allow to to store data in the cloud. This would make it more robust and protected against any potential attacks.
Shipping industry will get a much needed overhaul: Despite the recent technological revolution, shipping still remains a traditional industry due to the archaic processes the parties follow. Currently, most of the shipping transactions involve a huge amount of paperwork, such as sales contracts, charter party agreements, bills of lading, port documents, letters of credit and other cargo and vessel-related documents. All these documents then pass through a long chain of parties since they possess great importance both for effective payments as well as carriage and delivery of cargo. For instance, the landing bills undergo a lengthy procedure, going through the hands of multiple middlemen to finally reach the receiver. This time consuming procedure has a lot of loopholes for fraudulent and temperament of the value. In our efforts to simplify the current redundant procedures, we are looking at adopting the bitcoin payment system framework. This will lead to greater transparency on prices and performance, hence ramp up the competition. Moreover, this will bring down freight rate volatility over time, which is likely to spill over into less volatile pricing of secondhand vessels.
Internet of Things: Today the Internet of Things (IoT) includes cars, buildings, doorbells and even refrigerators that are embedded with software, network connectivity and sensors. However, as we know these devices are operated from a central location that is used to handle communications. This makes it possible for hackers to gain access to the car you’re driving or to your home. As Kamil Przeorski, an expert in Bitcoin and Ethereum capabilities, puts it “Blockchain has the potential to address these critical security concerns because it decentralises all of the information and data.” This is increasingly more important as IoT capabilities increase.
Unified Communications: Blockchains have the ability to make automated communication more faster, safer and reliable. Automated or digital communication that are based on pre-built algorithms is already starting to gain traction in some industries. Examples of this include emails, system alerts and call notifications. Blockchain has the potential to shift the playing field towards allowing authorised, bi-directional communications and transactions that will occur more freely in an pre-set automated environment and produce an immutable record of communication. This will lead to greater safety and reliability of our communications networks.
Government will become less bureaucratic and more efficient: If corrupt politicians and long lines at the DMV give you a headache, you’re not alone. With the use of blockchain, we would be able to reduce bureaucracy and increase security, thus increasing efficiency and transparency. Simply put, welfare and unemployment benefits would be easily verified and distributed with legitimacy.
Crowdfunding and Donating to Charities will become more legitimate: It is never a bad idea to donate to a worthy cause. But do you know, what percentage of your money is actually being given to those you donated it for? Blockchain has the ability to help you with ensuring that your money reaches the right people. The United Nations’ World Food Programme is already working on one such application of blockchain technology to enable refugees to purchase food by using Iris scans instead of vouchers, cash or credit cards.
Healthcare: Hospitals are looking at blockchain to store all of our medical information in a central database? The ability to centralise such sensitive information makes it of great significance. With hospitals collecting so much private patient data, it is important to create a secure platform. With the coming of blockchain, hospitals and other healthcare organisations could be in for something revolutionary, store medical records and share them strictly with authorised doctors and patients.
Rentals and Ride-sharing: Uber and Airbnb give the feel of a decentralised network, but these platforms give their owners complete control of the network and they indirectly charge a fee for their service. Blockchain will create decentralised peer-to-peer ride-sharing apps and will allow car owners to auto pay for things like parking, tolls and fuel.
While blockchain is still relatively new and many experiments will fail before they succeed, the possibilities for innovation are endless. Along with the eight points listed, it will affect retail, energy management, online music, supply chain management, forecasting, consulting, real estate, insurance and much more. Let’s prepare ourselves for a future where distributed, autonomous solutions will have a huge role — both in our personal lives and in business.
