Blockchain – Empowering Business for Tomorrow

Blockchain – Empowering business for tomorrow

In the December of 2017, the virtual currency market took everyone by surprise. Triple digit tax-free returns and extreme volatility triggered every investor’s adrenaline rush as a lot of them made a fortune in the blink of an eye. Media and experts spoke a lot about the choice of currency, where to invest, how to invest; but only a handful of people realised the significance of the underlying technology supporting the market. Even fewer understood what the technology was, why was it needed and how would it transform multiple industries across several sectors in the coming years.

What?

The idea which was first coined in 1991 saw its first conceptualisation in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto. In a lay man’s language, Blockchain is simply a chain of blocks. These blocks hold batches of valid transactions in hashed and encoded form. These linked blocks form a chain wherein each succeeding block holds the cryptographic hash of previous block. Formally, it is a digital, decentralized, distributed, public ledger managed by peer to peer network that is used to record transactions. These transactions are recorded in distributed manner across several systems so that any record once added to the block cannot be altered without the consensus of the network. Peer to peer participation ensures verification and audit in a cost effective manner.

Why?

Even though majority of people relate Blockchain with cryptocurrency, there are various other uses of blockchain that led to the hype it has created in the industry. Blockchain enables security, ease, flexibility and stability. In today’s world, we heavily rely on trusted third parties to authorise records about transactions including financial transfers, shareholdings, intellectual property, votes and physical asset transfers. Failure on their part may lead to significant losses. Blockchain solves this problem because the integrity of the content of the distributed ledger does not rely on any specific individual or organisation. Blockchain is a highly malleable technology. It’s use removes the characteristic of infinite reproducibility from a digital asset. Thus it is emerging as the next big thing to empower businesses.

How?

As the Deloitte’s CTO, Bill Briggs correctly pointed out, Blockchain will affect every industry we can think of. Smart contracts are one of the breakthrough applications of blockchain that can help companies secure deals transparently. Blockchain will enable secure traceability of certifications and other salient information in supply chains by bringing in smart contracts and digital passports. Blockchain can solve the issues of corruption and inefficiency by making transparent ledger balances in the charity organizations. Human errors are prominent among the existing central