BTUniverse - Getting a Better Understanding of Blockchain Technology!
Hello Steemians! One of the main goals of BTUniverse is to educate our readers about cryptocurrency markets, new and emerging decentralized technologies and applications that make lives easier.
As we make our way through 2019 it seems as good a time as any to educate users in one of the fastest growing industries of this decade.
I'm talking about blockchain. Without a doubt, it has the power to completely transform society in the coming years.
When people hear the world blockchain thrown around, the most common thing that comes to mind is Bitcoin. But is Bitcoin blockchain? Well, Bitcoin is certainly the first mainstream cryptocurrency to utilize a blockchain for wealth preservation and wealth transference but it's not what people are referring to when they mention blockchain.
In this article, I will review many of the ways blockchain has already been integrated into our world. The development of new and innovative technologies is moving at light-speed and blockchain technology is being incorporated into modern day business applications at an accelerating pace.
One area in which blockchain is being utilized is in cybersecurity as companies look to capitalize on the technology to create keyless signature systems with the capability of securing health records.
A company called Guardtime is looking to accomplish this task currently to secure the health records of one million Estonian citizens. Securing extremely sensitive information in a decentralized manner has many benefits and allow health care providers to reduce costs by saving them time and expense.
Another company called REMME is basically a decentralized authentication system which is making a sincere effort to replace logins and passwords with SSL certificates stored on a blockchain.
These are just a few of the many ways blockchain is being applied to cybersecurity with many exciting new ventures sure to be just around the corner as we make our way towards Q4 of 2018!
Image Source: Pexels
A recent article published by CoinTelegraph entitled 'Standard Chartered, Siemens Partner on Blockchain Pilot to ‘Fully Digitize’ Bank Guarantees' sparked my interest and as it fully supports the thesis of this article I thought; I'd share a few interesting points mentioned and touch upon them.
Basically, the famous UK multinational banking and financial services company, Standard Chartered (SC) plans to unleash a blockchain pilot for bank guarantees using R3 Corda blockchain technology.
This points out a fact that I've long believed, essentially money as we know it will no longer exist in its current digital format but rather be converted to a digital format existing on a blockchain resulting in increased transparency and interoperability across other blockchains.
In partnership with Siemens’ financing arm Siemens Financial Services (SFS) and trade finance platform TradeIX, the pilot program has been operating since March and was expected to be completed by the end of 2018.
Industry experts hope this new move will “digitize trade and leverage real-time data to deliver efficiency gains and transform the way trade finance is conducted,” or at least thats how Samuel Mathew described it.
“The future of trade is going to be all about data,” Mathew added.
Bank guarantees are traditionally a highly “paper-intensive” area, the parties state in the release, with the industry first blockchain solution designed to significantly streamline current practices by “fully digiti[zing] the process, from initiation of the bank guarantee to the claim handling.”
“We believe that global trade is at the cusp of multi-level digital transformation which will revolutionise the entire business and operating model,” TradeIX CEO Rob Barnes continued.
If this isn't progress, tell me what is? I know that blockchain, AI and robotics will all play a role in the future and it's not a matter of approving of it but rather understanding it so we will be prepared to take a stand one way or another as these new systems roll out.
Image Source: CoinTelegraph
Another industry which is being transformed by blockchain technology may come to you as no surprise. I'm talking about the financial services industry.
One project I think shows a lot of potential, is called Bank Hapoalim. It is essentially a collaboration between the Israeli bank and Microsoft. The project aims to create a blockchain system for managing bank guarantees.
Soon we will be seeing investors looking for blockchain exposure in the stock market. This will be an interesting opportunity to cash in on the new and emerging technology while limiting the potential volatility of investments when compared to cryptocurrency markets.
Another interesting project has been launched by a company called Maersk. Traditionally their business has been described as a shipping and transport consortium but they have recently unveiled plans to launch a blockchain solution for streamlining marine insurance.
The final topic I would like to discuss revolves around how blockchain technology is transforming manufacturing and industrial distribution systems.
A company called Provenance is creating a project to provide a blockchain-based provenance record of transparency within supply chains. This will make it possible to track a product all the way from its raw material inputs to the final consumer and be aware of a product's journey from A to Z.
Image Source: Julius Silver - Creative Commons - Pexels
Another company called Jiocoin is a subsidiary of India's biggest conglomerate, Reliance Industries, is currently developing a blockchain-based supply chain logistics platform that will operate alongside its own cryptocurrency, Jiocoin.
One last really promising project is that of STORJ.io which plans to be the first decentralized provider of distributed and encrypted cloud storage. This will allow users to share unused hard drive space and take a dent into popular paid storage services like Google Drive and Amazon AWS.
So when people talk about blockchain they are not necessarily talking about Bitcoin. They may not be even referring to other cryptocurrencies that operate on blockchains.
They are most likely referring to the underlying technology that allows for decentralized transferrence of information across time and space.
There are many advantages to running a decentralized service as opposed to a centralized one but one of the biggest advantages is free and open access to information with limited risk of corruption.
What do you guys think about the applications discussed in this article?
Which fields do you belive blockchain technology will be most successfully implemented in?
Lets get a discussion going about your favorite blockchain projects and the potential you feel they have to transform our world.
Thanks for reading.
Authored by: @techblogger
In-text citations sources:
35 Amazing Real World Examples Of How Blockchain Is Changing Our World - Forbes
Standard Chartered, Siemens Partner on Blockchain Pilot to ‘Fully Digitize’ Bank Guarantees - CoinTelegraph
Image Sources: Pexels, Pixabay
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@thecryptodrive (witness), @cryptomancer and @reggaemuffin (witness)
These are great examples of how blockchain will transform and disrupt current industries. I am very interested in the financial services sector as there is plenty of “low hanging fruit” to have in some processes that remain inefficient such as settlements of financial securities which still take up to three business days to clear given the counterparties needing confirmations!
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I agree, BuildTeam is actually entering the crypto financial services market, with our new platform https://dlease.io (to be released later this week) which will be an appealing interface to the finance world. We drew up an interesting comparison between Digital Asset and Real Estate leasing, I myself having been a landlord find leasing STEEM POWER to be relatively hassle-free and without risk of constant tenant issues, late payment, default and arbitration, in fact I would rather not own rental property after all the hassles I went through and prefer leasing out Digital Property that is 100% within my control.
that's a really cool explanation of the blockchain
but i have a question
don't you think that more then 95% blockchain will disappear destroyng crypto world?
disappearing i mean by scam or simply by lost of interest by the market
Unfortunately, many tokens were get rich quick scams and were really a testament to how greedy, opportunistic and selfish the human race can be. This set many people against crypto and probably will never enter the market again, I however think that the worst is over and the bad actors are mostly gone, dormant or worthless. What is left is likely the future of blockchain.
i really hope that
BLOCKCHAIN IS THE FUTURE
i don't want to lose the future cause of some little stupid scam
go ahead with this kind of post, i like them very much and i will continue following you
Well, with social media, it's already happening, but I see it mostly in the banking, healthcare, and as mentioned before, cloud storage. But then again, not everything being decentralized has to be blockchain based. Fantastic examples of that are NextCloud, Mastodon, and many others. It's just a matter of time, and figuring out whether federation or blockchain is the right tool. I think that at least outside of the banking industry and the healthcare industry, federation's gonna give blockchain a run for it's money.
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Yes I have come across Mastodon, seems pretty cool no doubt. I think banking will be the last adopters, there is still a lot of old money there that does not want to let go, having said that certain banks like JPM Chase are releasing their own tokens and blockchain products, but by enlarge most banks are still crypto averse.
even worse, I heard that some used to block the steps of purchases just because of what they were. Thankfully that's not the case anymore, but then again. Even though our country is clear of that misconception, who knows about people outside of the United States. I've heard it's much harder for them.
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Yeah there is a lot of censorship going on in Korea and China, I believe Steemit.com was blocked in China even.
That's nuts. How do they even find out about that?
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They have spies looking at everything I guess. Steemit is 4500 Alexa rated, I'm sure it comes up on people's radars.
The word BlockChain resonates increasingly more in people's mind.
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