Summarizing The What, Why And How Elements of Blockchain

With technology advancement, the fraudster activities have also progressed, that’s creating a dire need of keeping the data on the digital medium highly secure. However, unless the blockchain made its way to the world, it was implausible to keep the data secure without having an intermediary access in between.

Yes, the data on computers or internet cannot be safe until the machine is secluded and kept out of the reach of everyone. It seems impractical in every business case. Thanks to the blockchain technology, which is simple, transparent, trustworthy, immutable and ensure robust security, is pounding hard on the doors.

The disruptive technology buzzing out worldwide is certain to create the positive impact on the business, organizations, communities and individuals alongside the bucket of solution to the challenges they are facing. The ingenious innovation has become the talk of the show and expected to grow by manifolds in the coming years.

Interested to know more about the blockchain?

Let’s begin with, what blockchain is?

You definitely have heard the blockchain along with bitcoin, which advocates predict as the next revolution in the payments. In reality, the blockchain born out of the cryptocurrency, bitcoin as the technology was first devised for the digital currency to run on the blockchain platform for secure financial transactions. But, the potential use cases of blockchain are beyond the financial transactions.

The blockchain is a distributed ledger which runs on the millions of the computers and stores and shares the information among all the participants of the network without having any involvement of the third-party. The data stored on the blockchain is regularly updated and its hundreds of the copies are stored as a backup, which gives a sigh of relief to the users if one copy of the data is damaged. Also, the information stored is protected from revision, deletion or tampering.

In a new way of transparent data storage, the end number of blocks of data can be formed and the block is added to the chain after its validity is checked by the network. Every time, the network validation and data encryption with mathematical cryptography make it impossible for the malware to put a security dent in the system.

The blockchain comes in two flavors – Public Blockchain and Private Blockchain. The public blockchain is wholly a decentralized platform which allows the users to read and send the transactions secured with cryptographic verifications. On the other hand, the private blockchain provides the permission to access and modify the transaction to a single authority in the organization.

The technology with amazing benefits has managed to thrive the businesses when the blockchain ecosystem is adopted. Yet, its full potential has not been explored, but it’s certain to exploit the various industry verticals with different use cases.

Why is it so?

Why its importance is growing across the board?

The reason behind the scene- the novel way the record of transactions created, transactions verified using algorithms, the ledger of all the activities created, the data stored on the distributed system and the data processing in the real-time, makes it a perfect platform that benefits the businesses.

Following are the factors which are surging up the adoption of the budding technology:

• Maintain utmost transparency

The decentralized technology provides the control over the information and the transactions to not a single authority. In the public blockchain, all the users have access to the data in the real-time, which strengthen the relationship between customers and businesses due to sheer transparency in the transactions without any delay they provide.

• You can trust it

No intervention of the third-party in the transaction verification ensures that the data cannot be eavesdropped in between. Plus, the data stored is immutable, which can be traced, but not modified at any cost. It mitigates the risks involved in data tampering thereby making the system robust and trustworthy.

• Improve the efficiency

With the elimination of the role of the third-party in the transaction verification, the time taken to complete a transaction will get reduced by a substantial amount. Embracing blockchain, the transactions can be verified and completed in a couple of minutes and can be processed 24/7. Additionally, using smart contracts when the preset criteria are met, the action gets triggered automatically, which in turn increase the system operational efficiency.

• Cost savvy

When no intermediaries or overhead expenses exist and the transactions no longer remain centralized or go through the complex processes, certainly the speed to execute the transaction gets buck up, which in turn truncate the transaction cost.

• Most importantly- security, for which it’s invented

The information transparency and transaction validation using cryptography by every individual across the network, rest assure the users that the data stored, shared and received will remain intact. This way, the data traceability become zero.

It’s vivid when you want to secure the digital records, keep the dynamic data with an auditable history, uninterested in controlling the data centrally and want the transaction to get completed in the minimum time, the blockchain technology is your cup of tea. These advantages have sprung-up the potential use cases for varied industry verticals such as banking and finance, healthcare, manufacturing and supply chain management, government and public sector, education and retail.

The very next question it poses is-

How can the organization get ready for the disruptive technology?

The businesses looking to adopt the technology first make certain that getting fanatic for the blockchain is not idyllic. Instead, they need to get organized and think how the blockchain can fit with their business vision, processes, infrastructure and operations. Thereafter, they can decide what type of blockchain do they really need based on their business nature.

When the objective is set, the businesses need to find out the route- how they are going to implement the technology by teaming up with tech specialists or leading IT giants; will they embrace the blockchain to transform a line of process, or create an entirely new revenue stream with the blockchain-as-a-service model. The business goal and project scope help you choose the right model.

You should check- which things the business needs to get arranged to fulfill the blockchain initiative? The strategy devised needs to be good, and needs to be put in place by a team of expert and experienced blockchain developers.

Once you are done with this, it’s time to adopt the technology with seamless transition and integration. Initially, perhaps, you found it difficult, so stay flexible by creating shadow ledgers in the sandbox environment. It allows you to co-create the working models and new processes together and then make the transition into real business processes when everyone is on the same page.

Ketan Chavda

With in-depth knowledge in International Business Management and Information Technology, he can effectively craft business enhancement strategies and can skillfully untangle technical complexities. This has laid the path for him as the Co-Founder and MD of Prismetric . Writing about the new age technology and sharing his thoughts on the continuously evolving business trends keep him content.