Blockchain as a technology started to gain importance only when Nakamoto’s whitepaper, ‘ Bitcoin: a peer-to-peer electronic cash system’, was published in 2008. This led to the Blockchain’s introduction to the world again, it was imagined by Stuart Haber and Scott Stornetta in 1991 when they started work on such a technology that would be cryptographically secured in the form of blocks in the network chain that no one could tamper with timestamps. After that, blockchain developers started to develop the new concept of peer-to-peer currency in the form of Bitcoin that does not involve central entities.
So, historically we can say that the concept of blockchain was originally founded in 1991, but gained prominence only with the debut of Bitcoin
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What are the benefits of blockchain technology?
Trust
Blockchain creates trust among all the participants, as it validates every transaction and holds a single version of the truth that all can trust. Any transaction over the blockchain’s distributed ledger is immutable and is copied onto several nodes so altering a piece of information is not feasible for any hacker.
Security
As mentioned above, altering a piece of information in the ledger or deleting data becomes virtually impossible for external parties as with cryptographic signatures, automated verification, and decentralized storage users can append data all over the Blockchain.
Automation
Network participants can set up a wide range of self-executing agreements, contracts, and smart contracts in the Blockchain ledger, which conveniently automates repetitive processes. Any contract triggered by measurable conditions can be executed by Blockchain.
Resilience
Blockchain can continue to operate even if part of the network fails, as the database is distributed across multiple locations in the network. Even if a participating party exits the network none of the data on the blockchain will be lost, as there is no scope for single-point failure.
Some use cases of blockchain in different sectors
Finance sector
Blockchain in financial services normally comes in handy to Streamline the Banking and financial processes, as it can be applied to a lot of data processing purposes, payments, and detect frauds. Blockchain virtually nullifies the need for an arbitrator between two different parties.
Healthcare sector
Blockchain technology has the potential to revamp and bring wide changes in the present medical sector, like allowing patients to assign access rules for their medical data to be seen by researchers for a specific time. Further Blockchain technology can connect to other hospitals and access their medical records in no time, thereby creating a sort of data bank, which would ultimately provide convenience for both the medical fraternities as well as patients. In short, it would be time and cost-saving for us.
Retail sector
In the retail sector, blockchain can assist in the monitoring of distribution chains by removing the manual work involving paper avenues and pinpointing different inefficiencies within the supply chains on a real-time basis. Besides that, blockchains for tracking distribution chains enable companies along with consumers to find out the goods performed from a superb control standpoint at various time frames. Ultimately it becomes a win-win situation for both companies as well as consumers.
Agricultural sector
Blockchain when applied in the agricultural sector can track the source of food products which helps in creating a trustworthy food supply chain and fosters trust between food producers and consumers. Blockchain comes as a trusted way of tracing the whole data on a real-time basis with the use of other data-driven technologies like smart contracts to make agricultural activities smarter. Smart contracts when collaborating with blockchain it can assist in receiving timely payments between different stakeholders automatically triggered by data updating happening over the blockchain network. Blockchain along with the addition of IoT can simply transform agriculture and be said as ‘Smart Agriculture’ in other words.
Real estate sector
Blockchain can make revolutionary changes in the real estate sector by weeding out the loopholes that can enable one to engage in fraudulent activities. Blockchain can create an online marketplace where the lessor and the lessee both meet and where verified information about the property can be made available transparently to everyone. Such information can consist regarding who is the actual owners, the location of the property, the actual carpet area of the property, and more details. To ensure the authenticity of the information, the marketplace can be integrated with government systems.
Cyber security
Cases of cyber-attacks are growing with time, and so comes to the forefront the task of safeguarding our valuable data. Here Blockchain being one of the biggest buzzes of the present can certainly add to the existing technology of cyber security, as Blockchain is originally a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), and is focused on creating trust in an untrusting ecosystem.
Conclusion
Blockchain offers a new range of advantages that till now no other emerging technology has given, which makes it a versatile technology that is growing and getting adopted by several businesses around the world.
Co-founder of Rejolut Amit Kumar opines that blockchain is already collaborating with other emerging technologies like Metaverse, IoT, AI, and ML signifies that blockchain technology is not only going to stay but will grow continuously.
