What is Blockchain, Really?

If this technology is so complex, why call it “blockchain?” At its most basic level, blockchain is literally
just a chain of blocks, but not in the traditional sense of those words. When we say the words “block”
and “chain” in this context, we are actually talking about digital information (the “block”) stored in a
public database (the “chain”).

“Blocks” on the blockchain are made up of digital pieces of information. Specifically, they have three
parts:

1. Blocks store information about transactions, say the date, time, and dollar amount of your most
recent purchase from Amazon. (NOTE: This Amazon example is for illustrative purchases; Amazon
retail does not work on a blockchain principle)

2. Blocks store information about who is participating in transactions. A block for your splurge
purchase from Amazon would record your name along with Amazon.com, Inc. Instead of using your
actual name, your purchase is recorded without any identifying information using a unique “digital
signature,” sort of like a username.

3. Blocks store information that distinguishes them from other blocks. Much like you and I have names
to distinguish us from one another, each block stores a unique code called a “hash” that allows us to
tell it apart from every other block. Let’s say you made your splurge purchase on Amazon, but while
it’s in transit, you decide you just can’t resist and need a second one. Even though the details of your
new transaction would look nearly identical to your earlier purchase, we can still tell the blocks apart
because of their unique codes.

While the block in the example above is being used to store a single purchase from Amazon, the
reality is a little different. A single block on the blockchain can actually store up to 1 MB of data.
Depending on the size of the transactions, that means a single block can house a few thousand
transactions under one roof.
1:08

What Is the Blockchain?

How Does Blockchain Work?

When a block stores new data it is added to the blockchain. Blockchain, as its name suggests, consists
of multiple blocks strung together. In order for a block to be added to the blockchain, however, four
things must happen:

1. A transaction must occur. Let’s continue with the example of your impulsive Amazon purchase. After
hastily clicking through multiple checkout prompts, you go against your better judgment and make a
purchase.

2. That transaction must be verified. After making that purchase, your transaction must be verified.
With other public records of information, like the Securities Exchange Commission, Wikipedia, or your
local library, there’s someone in charge of vetting new data entries. With blockchain, however, that job
is left up to a network of computers. These networks often consist of thousands (or in the case of
Bitcoin, about 5 million) computers spread across the globe. When you make your purchase from
Amazon, that network of computers rushes to check that your transaction happened in the way you
said it did. That is, they confirm the details of the purchase, including the transaction’s time, dollar
amount, and participants. (More on how this happens in a second.)

3. That transaction must be stored in a block. After your transaction has been verified as accurate, it
gets the green light. The transaction’s dollar amount, your digital signature, and Amazon’s digital
signature are all stored in a block. There, the transaction will likely join hundreds, or thousands, of
others like it.

4. That block must be given a hash. Not unlike an angel earning its wings, once all of a block’s
transactions have been verified, it must be given a unique, identifying code called a hash. The block is
also given the hash of the most recent block added to the blockchain. Once hashed, the block can be
added to the blockchain.

When that new block is added to the blockchain, it becomes publicly available for anyone to view —
even you. If you take a look at Bitcoin’s blockchain, you will see that you have access to transaction
data, along with information about when (“Time”), where (“Height”), and by who (“Relayed By”) the
block was added to the blockchain.
Is Blockchain Private?

Anyone can view the contents of the blockchain, but users can also opt to connect their computers to
the blockchain network. In doing so, their computer receives a copy of the blockchain that is updated
automatically whenever a new block is added, sort of like a Facebook News Feed that live updates
whenever a new status is posted.

Each computer in the blockchain network has its own copy of the blockchain, which means that there
are thousands, or in the case of Bitcoin, millions of copies of the same blockchain. Although each copy
of the blockchain is identical, spreading that information across a network of computers makes the
information more difficult to manipulate. With blockchain, there isn’t a single, definitive account of
events that can be manipulated. Instead, a hacker would need to manipulate every copy of the
blockchain on the network.

Looking over the Bitcoin blockchain, however, you will notice that you do not have access to
identifying information about the users making transactions. Although transactions on blockchain are
not completely anonymous, personal information about users is limited to their digital signature, or
username.

This raises an important question: if you cannot know who is adding blocks to the blockchain, how can
you trust blockchain or the network of computers upholding it?

Is Blockchain Secure?

Blockchain technology accounts for the issues of security and trust in several ways. First, new blocks
are always stored linearly and chronologically. That is, they are always added to the “end” of the
blockchain. If you take a look at Bitcoin’s blockchain, you’ll see that each block has a position on the
chain, called a “height.” At the time of writing, the most recent block’s height is 548,015, meaning it is
the 548,015th block to be added to the blockchain.

After a block has been added to the end of the blockchain, it is very difficult to go back and alter the
contents of the block. That’s because each block contains its own hash, along with the hash of the
block before it. Hash codes are created by a math function that turns digital information into a string
of numbers and letters. If that information is edited in any way, the hash code changes as well.

Here’s why that’s important to security. Let’s say a hacker attempts to edit your transaction from
Amazon so that you actually have to pay for your purchase twice. As soon as they edit the dollar
amount of your transaction, the block’s hash will change. The next block in the chain will still contain
the old hash, and the hacker would need to update that block in order to cover their tracks. However,
doing so would change that block’s hash. And the next, and so on.

In order to change a single block, then, a hacker would need to change every single block after it on
the blockchain. Recalculating all those hashes would take an enormous and improbable amount of
computing power. In other words, once a block is added to the blockchain it becomes very difficult to
edit and impossible to delete.

To address the issue of trust, blockchain networks have implemented tests for computers that want to
join and add blocks to the chain. The tests, called “consensus models,” require users to “prove”
themselves before they can participate in a blockchain network. One of the most common examples
employed by Bitcoin is called “proof of work.”

In the proof of work system, computers must “prove” that they have done “work” by solving a
complex computational math problem. If a computer solves one of these problems, they become
eligible to add a block to the blockchain. But the process of adding blocks to the blockchain, what the
cryptocurrency world calls “mining,” is not easy. In fact, according to the blockchain news site
BlockExplorer, the odds of solving one of these problems on the Bitcoin network are about 1 in 7
trillion at the time of writing. To solve complex math problems at those odds, computers must run
programs that cost them significant amounts of power and energy (read: money).

Proof of work does not make attacks by hackers impossible, but it does make them somewhat useless.
If a hacker wanted to coordinate an attack on the blockchain, they would need to solve complex
computational math problems at 1 in 7 trillion odds just like everyone else. The cost of organizing such
an attack would almost certainly outweigh the benefits.

What's the Difference Between Blockchain and Bitcoin?

The goal of blockchain is to allow digital information to be recorded and distributed, but not edited.
That concept can be difficult to wrap our heads around without seeing the technology in action, so
let’s take a look how the earliest application of blockchain technology actually works.

Blockchain technology was first outlined in 1991 by Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta, two
researchers who wanted to implement a system where document timestamps could not be tampered
with. But it wasn’t until almost two decades later, with the launch of Bitcoin in January 2009, that
blockchain had its first real-world application.
The Bitcoin protocol is built on blockchain. In a research paper introducing the digital currency,
Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto referred to it as “a new electronic cash system
that’s fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party.”

Here’s how it works.

You have all these people, all over the world, who have Bitcoin. According to a 2017 study by the
Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, the number may be as many as 5.9 million. Let’s say one of
those 5.9 million people wants to spend their Bitcoin on groceries. This is where the blockchain comes
in.

When it comes to printed money, the use of printed currency is regulated and verified by a central
authority, usually a bank or government — but Bitcoin is not controlled by anyone. Instead,
transactions made in Bitcoin are verified by a network of computers.

When one person pays another for goods using Bitcoin, computers on the Bitcoin network race to
verify the transaction. In order to do so, users run a program on their computers and try to solve a
complex mathematical problem, called a “hash.” When a computer solves the problem by “hashing” a
block, its algorithmic work will have also verified the block’s transactions. The completed transaction
is publicly recorded and stored as a block on the blockchain, at which point it becomes unalterable. In
the case of Bitcoin, and most other blockchains, computers that successfully verify blocks are
rewarded for their labor with cryptocurrency. (For a more detailed explanation of verification, see:
What is Bitcoin Mining?)

Although transactions are publicly recorded on the blockchain, user data is not — or, at least not in
full. In order to conduct transactions on the Bitcoin network, participants must run a program called a
“wallet.” Each wallet consists of two unique and distinct cryptographic keys: a public key and a private
key. The public key is the location where transactions are deposited to and withdrawn from. This is
also the key that appears on the blockchain ledger as the user’s digital signature.

Even if a user receives a payment in Bitcoins to their public key, they will not be able to withdraw
them with the private counterpart. A user’s public key is a shortened version of their private key,
created through a complicated mathematical algorithm. However, due to the complexity of this
equation, it is almost impossible to reverse the process and generate a private key from a public key.
For this reason, blockchain technology is considered confidential.
Public Keys and Private Keys ELI5: Explain it Like I’m 5

Here’s the ELI5 (“Explain it Like I’m 5”) version. You can think of a public key as a school locker and the
private key as the locker combination. Teachers, students, and even your crush can insert letters and
notes through the opening in your locker. However, the only person that can retrieve the contents of
the mailbox is the one that has the unique key. It should be noted, however, that while school locker
combinations are kept in the principal’s office, there is no central database that keeps track of a
blockchain network’s private keys. If a user misplaces their private key, they will lose access to their
Bitcoin wallet, as was the case with this man who made national headlines in December of 2017.

In the Bitcoin network, the blockchain is not only shared and maintained by a public network of users
— it is also agreed upon. When users join the network, their connected computer receives a copy of
the blockchain that is updated whenever a new block of transactions is added. But what if, through
human error or the efforts of a hacker, one user’s copy of the blockchain manipulated to be different
from every other copy of the blockchain?

The blockchain protocol discourages the existence of multiple blockchains through a process called
“consensus.” In the presence of multiple, differing copies of the blockchain, the consensus protocol
will adopt the longest chain available. More users on a blockchain means that blocks can be added to
the end of the chain quicker. By that logic, the blockchain of record will always be the one that the
most users trust. The consensus protocol is one of blockchain technology’s greatest strengths, but also
allows for one of its greatest weaknesses.

Theoretically, it is possible for a hacker to take advantage of the majority rule in what is referred to as
a 51% attack. Here’s how it would happen. Let’s say that there are 5 million computers on the Bitcoin
network, a gross understatement for sure but an easy enough number to divide. In order to achieve a
majority on the network, a hacker would need to control at least 2.5 million and one of those
computers. In doing so, an attacker or group of attackers could interfere with the process of recording
new transactions. They could send a transaction — and then reverse it, making it appear as though
they still had the coin they just spent. This vulnerability, known as double-spending, is the digital
equivalent of a perfect counterfeit and would enable users to spend their Bitcoins twice.

Such an attack is extremely difficult to execute for a blockchain of Bitcoin’s scale, as it would require an
attacker to gain control of millions of computers. When Bitcoin was first founded in 2009 and its users
numbered in the dozens, it would have been easier for an attacker to control a majority of
computational power in the network. This defining characteristic of blockchain has been flagged as
one weakness for fledgling cryptocurrencies.

User fear of 51% attacks can actually limit monopolies from forming on the blockchain. In “Digital
Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money,” New York
Times journalist Nathaniel Popper writes of how a group of users, called “Bitfury,” pooled thousands
of high-powered computers together to gain a competitive edge on the blockchain. Their goal was to
mine as many blocks as possible and earn bitcoin, which at the time were valued at approximately
$700 each.

By March 2014, however, Bitfury was positioned to exceed 50% of the blockchain network’s total
computational power. Instead of continuing to increase its hold over the network, the group elected to
self-regulate itself and vowed never to go above 40%. Bitfury knew that if they chose to continue
increasing their control over the network, bitcoin’s value would fall as users sold off their coins in
preparation for the possibility of a 51% attack. In other words, if users lose their faith in the blockchain
network, the information on that network risks becoming completely worthless. Blockchain users,
then, can only increase their computational power to a point before they begin to lose money.

How Can Blockchain Be Used in the Real World?

Blocks on the blockchain store data about monetary transactions — we’ve got that out of the way. But
it turns out that blockchain is actually a pretty reliable way of storing data about other types of
transactions, as well. In fact, blockchain technology can be used to store data about property
exchanges, stops in a supply chain, and even votes for a candidate.

Professional services network Deloitte recently surveyed 1,000 companies across seven countries
about integrating blockchain into their business operations. Their survey found that 34% already had a
blockchain system in production today, while another 41% expected to deploy a blockchain application
within the next 12 months. In addition, nearly 40% of the surveyed companies reported they would
invest $5 million or more in blockchain in the coming year. Here are some of the most popular
applications of blockchain being explored today.

Banks

Perhaps no industry stands to benefit from integrating blockchain into its business operations more
than banking. Financial institutions only operate during business hours, five days a week. That means
if you try to deposit a check on Friday at 6 p.m., you likely will have to wait until Monday morning to
see that money hit your account. Even if you do make your deposit during business hours, the
transaction can still take 1-3 days to verify due to the sheer volume of transactions that banks need to
settle. Blockchain, on the other hand, never sleeps. By integrating blockchain into banks, consumers
can see their transactions processed in as little as 10 minutes, basically the time it takes to add a block
to the blockchain, regardless of the time or day of the week. With blockchain, banks also have the
opportunity to exchange funds between institutions more quickly and securely. In the stock trading
business, for example, the settlement and clearing process can take up to three days (or longer, if
banks are trading internationally), meaning that the money and shares are frozen for that time.
Given the size of the sums involved, even the few days that the money is in transit can carry significant
costs and risks for banks. Santander, a European bank, put the potential savings at $20 billion a year.
Capgemini, a French consultancy, estimates that consumers could save up to $16 billion in banking and
insurance fees each year through blockchain-based applications.

Cryptocurrency

Blockchain forms the bedrock for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. As we explored earlier, currencies like
the U.S. dollar are regulated and verified by a central authority, usually a bank or government. Under
the central authority system, a user’s data and currency are technically at the whim of their bank or
government. If a user’s bank collapses or they live in a country with an unstable government, the
value of their currency may be at risk. These are the worries out of which Bitcoin was borne. By
spreading its operations across a network of computers, blockchain allows Bitcoin and other
cryptocurrencies to operate without the need for a central authority. This not only reduces risk but
also eliminates many of the processing and transaction fees. It also gives those in countries with
unstable currencies a more stable currency with more applications and a wider network of individuals
and institutions they can do business with, both domestically and internationally (at least, this is the
goal.)

Healthcare

Health care providers can leverage blockchain to securely store their patients’ medical records. When
a medical record is generated and signed, it can be written into the blockchain, which provides
patients with the proof and confidence that the record cannot be changed. These personal health
records could be encoded and stored on the blockchain with a private key, so that they are only
accessible by certain individuals, thereby ensuring privacy

Property Records

If you have ever spent time in your local Recorder’s Office, you will know that the process of recording
property rights is both burdensome and inefficient. Today, a physical deed must be delivered to a
government employee at the local recording office, where is it manually entered into the county’s
central database and public index. In the case of a property dispute, claims to the property must be
reconciled with the public index. This process is not just costly and time-consuming — it is also riddled
with human error, where each inaccuracy makes tracking property ownership less efficient. Blockchain
has the potential to eliminate the need for scanning documents and tracking down physical files in a
local recording offices. If property ownership is stored and verified on the blockchain, owners can trust
that their deed is accurate and permanent.

Smart Contracts
A smart contract is a computer code that can be built into blockchain to facilitate, verify, or negotiate a
contract agreement. Smart contracts operate under a set of conditions that users agree to. When
those conditions are met, the terms of the agreement are automatically carried out. Say, for example,
I’m renting you my apartment using a smart contract. I agree to give you the door code to the
apartment as soon as you pay me your security deposit. Both of us would send our portion of the deal
to the smart contract, which would hold onto and automatically exchange my door code for your
security deposit on the date of the rental. If I don’t supply the door code by the rental date, the smart
contract refunds your security deposit. This eliminates the fees that typically accompany using a
notary or third-party mediator.

Supply Chains

Suppliers can use blockchain to record the origins of materials that they have purchased. This would
allow companies to verify the authenticity of their products, along with health and ethics labels like
“Organic,” “Local,” and “Fair Trade.”

Voting

Voting with blockchain carries the potential to eliminate election fraud and boost voter turnout, as
was tested in the November 2018 midterm elections in West Virginia. Each vote would be stored as a
block on the blockchain, making them nearly impossible to tamper with. The blockchain protocol
would also maintain transparency in the electoral process, reducing the personnel needed to conduct
an election, and provide officials with instant results.

What Are the Advantages of Blockchain?

For all its complexity, blockchain’s potential as a decentralized form of record-keeping is almost
without limit. From greater user privacy and heightened security, to lower processing fees and fewer
errors, blockchain technology may very well see applications beyond those outlined above. Here are
the selling points of blockchain for businesses on the market today.

Accuracy

Transactions on the blockchain network are approved by a network of thousands or millions of

computers. This removes almost all human involvement in the verification process, resulting in less
human error and a more accurate record of information. Even if a computer on the network were to
make a computational mistake, the error would only be made to one copy of the blockchain. In order
for that error to spread to the rest of the blockchain, it would need to be made by at least 51% of the
network’s computers — a near impossibility.
Cost

Typically, consumers pay a bank to verify a transaction, a notary to sign a document, or a minister to
perform a marriage. Blockchain eliminates the need for third-party verification and, with it, their
associated costs. Business owners incur a small fee whenever they accept payments using credit cards,
for example, because banks have to process those transactions. Bitcoin, on the other hand, does not
have a central authority and has virtually no transaction fees.

Decentralization

Blockchain does not store any of its information in a central location. Instead, the blockchain is copied
and spread across a network of computers. Whenever a new block is added to the blockchain, every
computer on the network updates its blockchain to reflect the change. By spreading that information
across a network, rather than storing it in one central database, blockchain becomes more difficult to
tamper with. If a copy of the blockchain fell into the hands of a hacker, only a single copy of
information, rather than the entire network, would be compromised.

Efficiency

Transactions placed through a central authority can take up to a few days to settle. If you attempt to
deposit a check on Friday evening, for example, you may not actually see funds in your account until
Monday morning. Whereas financial institutions operate during business hours, five days a week,
blockchain is working 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Transactions can be completed in about ten
minutes and can be considered secure after just a few hours. This is particularly useful for cross-border
trades, which usually take much longer because of time-zone issues and the fact that all parties must
confirm payment processing.

Privacy

Many blockchain networks operate as public databases, meaning that anyone with an internet
connection can view a list of the network’s transaction history. Although users can access details about
transactions, they cannot access identifying information about the users making those transactions. It
is a common misperception that blockchain networks like bitcoin are anonymous, when in fact they
are only confidential. That is, when a user makes public transactions, their unique code called a public
key, is recorded on the blockchain, rather than their personal information. Although a person’s identity
is still linked to their blockchain address, this prevents hackers from obtaining a user’s personal
information, as can occur when a bank is hacked.

Security

Once a transaction is recorded, its authenticity must be verified by the blockchain network. Thousands
or even millions of computers on the blockchain rush to confirm that the details of the purchase are
correct. After a computer has validated the transaction, it is added to the blockchain in the form of a
block. Each block on the blockchain contains its own unique hash, along with the unique hash of the
block before it. When the information on a block is edited in any way, that block’s hash code changes
— however, the hash code on the block after it would not. This discrepancy makes it extremely
difficult for information on the blockchain to be changed without notice.

Transparency: even though personal information on blockchain is kept private, the technology itself is
almost always open source. That means that users on the blockchain network can modify the code as
they see fit, so long as they have a majority of the network’s computational power backing them.
Keeping data on the blockchain open source also makes tampering with data that much more difficult.
With millions of computers on the blockchain network at any given time, for example, it is unlikely
that anyone could make a change without being noticed.

What Are the Disadvantages of Blockchain?

While there are significant upsides to the blockchain, there are also significant challenges to its
adoption. The roadblocks to the application of blockchain technology today are not just technical. The
real challenges are political and regulatory, for the most part, to say nothing of the thousands of hours
(read: money) of custom software design and back-end programming required to integrate blockchain
to current business networks. Here are some of the challenges standing in the way of widespread
blockchain adoption.

Cost

Although blockchain can save users money on transaction fees, the technology is far from free. The
“proof of work” system that bitcoin uses to validate transactions, for example, consumes vast amounts
of computational power. In the real world, the power from the millions of computers on the bitcoin
network is close to what Denmark consumes annually. All of that energy costs money and according to
a recent study from research company Elite Fixtures, the cost of mining a single bitcoin varies
drastically by location, from just $531 to a staggering $26,170. Based on average utility costs in the
United States, that figure is closer to $4,758. Despite the costs of mining bitcoin, users continue to
drive up their electricity bills in order to validate transactions on the blockchain. That’s because when
miners add a block to the bitcoin blockchain, they are rewarded with enough bitcoin to make their
time and energy worthwhile. When it comes to blockchains that do not use cryptocurrency, however,
miners will need to be paid or otherwise incentivized to validate transactions.

Inefficiency

Bitcoin is a perfect case study for the possible inefficiencies of blockchain. Bitcoin’s “proof of work”
system takes about ten minutes to add a new block to the blockchain. At that rate, it’s estimated that
the blockchain network can only manage seven transactions per second (TPS). Although other
cryptocurrencies like Ethereum (20 TPS) and Bitcoin Cash (60 TPS) perform better than bitcoin, they
are still limited by blockchain. Legacy brand Visa, for context, can process 24,000 TPS.

Privacy

While confidentiality on the blockchain network protects users from hacks and preserves privacy, it
also allows for illegal trading and activity on the blockchain network. The most cited example of
blockchain being used for illicit transactions is probably Silk Road, an online “dark web” marketplace
operating from February 2011 until October 2013 when it was shut down by the FBI. The website
allowed users to browse the website without being tracked and make illegal purchases in bitcoins.
Current U.S. regulation prevents users of online exchanges, like those built on blockchain, from full
anonymity. In the United States, online exchanges must obtain information about their customers
when they open an account, verify the identity of each customer, and confirm that customers do not
appear on any list of known or suspected terrorist organizations.

Security

Several central banks, including the Federal Reserve, the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England,
have launched investigations into digital currencies. According to a February 2015 Bank of England
research report, “Further research would also be required to devise a system which could utilize
distributed ledger technology without compromising a central bank’s ability to control its currency and
secure the system against systemic attack.”

Susceptibility

Newer cryptocurrencies and blockchain networks are susceptible to 51% attacks. These attacks are
extremely difficult to execute due to the computational power required to gain majority control of a
blockchain network, but NYU computer science researcher Joseph Bonneau said that might change.
Bonneau released a report last year estimating that 51% attacks were likely to increase, as hackers can
now simply rent computational power, rather than buying all of the equipment.

What's Next for Blockchain?

First proposed as a research project in 1991, blockchain is comfortably settling into its late twenties.
Like most millennials its age, blockchain has seen its fair share of public scrutiny over the last two
decades, with businesses around the world speculating about what the technology is capable of and
where it’s headed in the years to come.

With many practical applications for the technology already being implemented and explored,
blockchain is finally making a name for itself at age twenty-seven, in no small part because of bitcoin
and cryptocurrency. As a buzzword on the tongue of every investor in the nation, blockchain stands to
make business and government operations more accurate, efficient, and secure.

As we prepare to head into the third decade of blockchain, it’s no longer a question of "if" legacy
companies will catch on to the technology — it's a question of "when."

Related Terms

Bitcoin Mining, Explained

Breaking down everything you need to know about Bitcoin Mining, from Blockchain and Block
Rewards to Proof-of-Work and Mining Pools. more

51% Attack

51% attack refers to an attack on a blockchain by a group of miners controlling more than 50% of the
network's mining hashrate, or computing power. more

Cryptocurrency

A cruptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that uses cryptography. A cryptocurrency is difficult to

counterfeit because of this security feature. more

Proof of Work

Proof of work describes the process that allows the bitcoin network to remain robust by making the
process of mining, or recording transactions, difficult. more

Proof of Stake (PoS)

Proof of Stake (PoS) concept states that a person can mine or validate block transactions according to
how many coins he or she holds. more

Public Key

A public key is a cryptographic code that allows a user to receive cryptocurrencies into his or her
account.

a system in which a record of transactions made in bitcoin or another cryptocurrency are maintained
across several computers that are linked in a peer-to-peer network.

peer topeer network-Stands for "Peer to Peer." In a P2P network, the "peers" are computer systems
which are connected to each other via the Internet. Files can be shared directly between systems on
the network without the need of a central server. In other words, each computer on a P2P network
becomes a file server as well as a client.
The only requirements for a computer to join a peer-to-peer network are an Internet connection and
P2P software. Common P2P software programs include Kazaa, Limewire, BearShare, Morpheus, and
Acquisition. These programs connect to a P2P network, such as "Gnutella," which allows the computer
to access thousands of other systems on the network.

Key Challenges of using Blockchain Technology

The lack of awareness and understanding of the Blockchain concept and how it works are the key
challenges of using Blockchains in industries other than financial services sector. The challenges
associated with existing legacy infrastructure in organizations and lack of proper technical
understanding are major hurdles to the adoption of Blockchain in the mainstream. Adopting
Blockchain also require a cultural shift from the traditional ways of doing things, as it involves a major
shift by decentralizing the whole process. Complying with the existing regulations and ensuring the
required data privacy and security for the shared data bases also adds to the major roadblocks in
adopting Blockchain.

The global business world is yet to explore the intricacies of the Blockchain concept to its fullest.
However, we believe that with the ongoing researches and explorations happening in this space, the
business world will soon realize the massive potential of this technology and it will drive a new wave
of decentralized applications.

the practice of creating and understanding codes that keep information secret-cryptography

1. Distributed Cloud Storage

Blockchain data storage will become a massive disruptor shortly. (3-5 years)

Current cloud storage services are centralized — thus you the users must place trust in a single storage
provider. “They” control all of your online assets.

On the other hand with the Blockchain, this can become decentralized. For instance, Storj is beta-testing
cloud storage using a Blockchain-powered network to improve security and decrease dependency.
Additionally, users (you) can rent out their excess storage capacity, Airbnb-style, creating new
marketplaces.

Anyone on the internet can store your data at a pre-agreed price. Hashing and having the data in
multiple locations are the keys to securing it.

Storj - Decentralized Cloud Storage and factom are two start-ups exploring this idea. After encrypting
your data, it is sent out to a network with easy to track basic metadata.

2. Digital Identity

Imagine never having to worry about your digital security every again. It’s a massive problem in the
world. Which is now estimated to cost the industry about $18.5 billion annually, according to a report
released Thursday by Distil Networks.
That means for every $3 spent, $1 is going to ad fraud. Blockchain technologies make tracking and
managing digital identities both secure and efficient, resulting in seamless sign-on and reduced fraud.

Be it banking, healthcare, national security, citizenship documentation or online retailing, identity

authentication and authorization is a process intricately woven into commerce and culture worldwide.

Remember what happened with Target?

The data breach at Target was significantly broader than originally reported: The company said that 70
million customers had information such as their name, address, phone number and e-mail address
hacked in the breach.

Events such as hacked databases and breached accounts are shining the light on the growing problems
of a technologically advanced society, without outpaced identity-based security innovations.

Blockchain Identity Use Cases

Blockchain technology can be applied to identity applications in the following areas:

Digital Identities

Passports

E-Residency

Birth Certificates

Wedding Certificates

IDs

3. Smart Contracts

What if you could cut your mortgage rate, make it easier to update your will?

The world of smart contracts is fast approaching, but what are they?

These are legally binding programmable digitized contracts entered on the blockchain. What developers
do is to implement legal contracts as variables and statements that can release of funds using the bitcoin
network as a ‘3rd party executor’, rather than trusting a single central authority.

For example, if two people want to exchange $100 at a specific time in future when a set of
preconditions are met, the conditions, payout, and parties’ details would be programmed into a smart
contract. Once the defined conditions are met, funds would be released and sent to the appropriate
party as per terms.

By giving computers control over contracts, we can make business more efficient and make the legal
system more equitable.

4. Digital Voting

The greatest barrier to getting electoral processes online, according to its detractors, is security. Using
the blockchain, a voter could check that her or his vote was successfully transmitted while remaining
anonymous to the rest of the world. In 2014, Liberal Alliance, a political party in Denmark, became the
first organization to use blockchain to vote. With American voter turnout still shockingly low, distributed
digital voting may represent a way to enfranchise non-participants.

Can you imagine what would happen to our governmental structures?

5. Decentralized Notary

One special feature of Blockchain is its timestamp feature. The whole network essentially validates the
state of wrapped piece of data (called a hash) at a certain particular time. As a trustless decentralized
network, it essentially confirms the existence of [something] at a stated time that is further provable in a
court of law. Until now, only centralized notary services could serve this purpose.

Note : The future potential of the blockchain applications is still unraveling. The next couples of years will
be all about experimenting and applying to all aspects of society. Regardless of which application comes
first on a global scale.

Thanks A2A.
6.5k Views · View 20 Upvoters

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Related QuestionsMore Answers Below

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Ask New Question

Patricia Bryan

Patricia Bryan, Senior Javascript/Front End Developer at Adyen (2012-present)

Answered Nov 4, 2018

Cryptocurrency: this is the most well-known use of Blockchain. By implementing Blockchain, parties are
able to transact with each other without the involvement of any bank. For instance, a person sitting in
the United States can transfer bitcoins to one based out of India without intervention from any bank.
This lead to the creation of a lot of cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin being the most popular one.

Advertising & Real Estate: Currently, companies like Google and Facebook control almost all of the digital
advertising traffic of the world. However, Blockchain can potentially eliminate that. Here, Google and
Facebook are essentially middlemen that control the advertising ecosystem. Using Blockchain the
producers and the consumers can be connected directly through a decentralized system. Just like in
advertising, in the Real Estate industry, there are middlemen in the form of brokers who often charge
exorbitant fees for pairing the buyer with the sellers. Using Blockchain, such middlemen can be
eliminated to save the cost. Basically, instead of relying on centralized advertising/listing portals, a
Blockchain can be used where the producers (advertisers or real-estate sellers) can provide their
ads/listings and consumers can see them directly without any middlemen.

Supply Chain: This is an interesting use-case. An international courier has to go through a lot of steps. For
instance, it goes through the courier service provider (like DHL), then goes through customs of the
sending country, then through customs of the receiving country and finally through the local courier
service provider at the receiving country. The biggest issue in this supply chain is to track the status of
the shipment. Companies are planning to implement Blockchain across these parties so that all the
parties involved can put status in real-time in the Blockchain which customers can easily track. Using
Blockchain eliminates the management onus on one party and helps in decentralizing the load across all
the parties.

Insurance: Insurance companies are partnering together to create a Blockchain that will contain data of
people who have filed fraudulent insurance claims. This will help companies in verifying the genuineness
of the applicant while issuing insurance. As an example, if an applicant A applies for an insurance at a
company B, B can easily use the Blockchain to check if A has in the past filed fraudulent claims at some
company C. In case that has happened, B can decide not to issue insurance to A since A may again file a
fraudulent claim at B. The best part about this system is that no single insurance company has to take
the responsibility of maintaining this data. The data is decentralized across the companies which
establishes a lot of trust across the companies. Just like the insurance sector, the same logic can also be
applied to banking where the banks are working on creating a data of defaulters. Currently, this is done
by credit rating agencies. Banks are trying to eliminate these credit rating agencies by using Blockchain
where they will all share the data of defaulters in a secure manner.

Healthcare: The health records of patients can be securely stored in a Blockchain so that when the
patient visits another doctor, he/she can directly share those records with the new doctor. The best part
about using Blockchain here is that there is no need for a centralized portal where these records are
stored. Therefore, the cost can be lowered significantly. Health records could include a lot of things like:

Diagnostic by doctor

Medical History

Lab reports

Distributed cloud storageBlockchain data storage will become a massive disruptor in the near future. (3-5
years)Why you might ask?Current cloud storage services are centralized — thus you the users must place
trust in a single storage provider. “They” control all of your online assets.On the other hand with the
Blockchain, this can become decentralized. For instance, Storj is beta-testing cloud storage using a
Blockchain-powered network to improve security and decrease dependency. Additionally users (you) can
rent out their excess storage capacity, Airbnb-style, creating new marketplaces.Sidenote: Look out for
small niche business popping up using Slock.it technology and Storj together. If I were Airbnb or Uber, I
would be paying close attention to this.Anyone on the internet can store your data at a pre-agreed price.
Hashing and having the data in multiple locations are the keys to securing it.Storj.io and factom are two
start-ups exploring this idea. After encrypting your data, it is sent out to a network with easy to track
basic metadata.

Content courtesy :What Are the Applications and Use Cases of Blockchains?

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Henry Berg

Henry Berg, Engineer

Answered Nov 1, 2016 · Author has 419 answers and 1.2m answer views

Bitcoin and its blockchain could provide a standard way of conducting international transactions with far
less friction and much lower costs than what we use today. What other international currency can be
easily exchanged world-wide in seconds at very low costs, with no central point of failure or attack, and
outside of the control of any government or organization? As it stands the test of time and people start
to trust it, Bitcoin is almost perfectly designed to serve as a universal international means of payment or
remittance.

A personal example: I placed an order for computer equipment from Israel, and paid by wire transfer.
This required a fax to my bank, a USD $45.00 fee, a phone call, a wait of several days, my bank filing a
suspicious activity report with FinCEN which I accidentally found out about, and a letter back from my
bank documenting the transaction. The whole thing was a total mess even though I like my bank. Later I
placed another order from the same company and paid with bitcoin: went through in seconds, fee USD
$0.02, and we're done. Difference could not have been starker.

From an Internet of Things point of view, bitcoin is a form of cash that can be easily transferred between
things in an automated fashion. Right now, everything is all clogged up by requiring any transfer of value
to be funneled through existing bank accounts and credit cards. As bitcoin is (ever so slowly) increasingly
accepted worldwide, we may see a digital cash economy emerge. For example, you might deposit some
cash in your music system, and it could use that cash to purchase songs you request. Right now all such
services are centralized, and you open an account with a centralized provider and connect it to your
credit card or bank account. Bitcoin has the potential to change all of that and disintermediate all of the
middlemen.

Bitcoin represents not just a better way of making international payments, it's a paradigm shift. Bitcoin
could easily become the predominant form of international payment for amounts less than USD $10k or
so. Forget all of the hand-wringing about Bitcoin threatening the banks and replacing government issued
currencies. While all of that is theoretically possible, the slam-dunk superiority of bitcoin for
international transactions alone is enough to propel Bitcoin to success. I think this could lead to an
explosion of small company access to an increasingly global supply chain, with wonderfully positive
economic effects.

5.5k Views · View 7 Upvoters · Answer requested by William Dobbin

Alok Nanda

Alok Nanda, Associate Manager at Standard Chartered Global Business Services (2017-present)

Answered Sep 1, 2017

The future potential based on Blockchain is huge and impalpable. Any form of digitized value e.g. stocks,
bonds, intellectual property, art or music can be sent between peer-to-peer directly and safely without
the intervention of third parties. The entire internet world is based on third party business now. E-
commerce like Amazon, Flipkart, e-Bay; Music platforms like Gaana, Saavn; Aggregators like Uber, Ola,
OYO,Airbnb, Nestaway, Youtube etc. and many more. Blockchain will change the entire eco-system of
current businesses. The third party segment will vanish entirely. The beneficiary will get the desired
product at a less price and the owner will get a better price. Imagine a musician puts his song online
based on blockchain internet of values. He/She’ll be getting an equivalent amount directly each time
someone listens/downloads/re-uses the song.

This digital ledger can be programmed to record anything of value to mankind: birth and death
certificates, marriage licenses, titles of ownership, educational degrees, medical history, insurance
claims, citizenship or voting privileges, performance rating or employment contracts.

In financial services also, the scope of Blockchain is tremendous and a lot of new ways are getting figured
out each passing day. Blockchain can be an excellent platform for maintaining KYC across different banks.
SWIFT recently established its KYC network with 1125 out of its 7000 banks sharing KYC documentation.
For the bitcoin blockchain network, the process of clearing and settling transactions takes about 10
minutes, which is far faster end to end than most payment mechanisms today. Litecoin is a popular
altcoin with a block time of 2.5 minutes, and Ripple and Ethereum are entirely re-engineered blockchain
platforms that have latency of seconds, not minutes. A blockchain based registry will reduce compliance
errors(AML, KYC etc.) and will remove duplication. The ledger can provide a historical record with all the
details embedded. Smart Contracts can be another excellent product based on Blockchain. Smart
contracts are pieces of software, that extend blockchains' utility from simply keeping a record of financial
transaction entries to automatically implementing terms of multi-party agreements. The advantages
brought by Blockchain technology can be broadly classified into cost savings(Fraud prevention, reduced
forex volatility, quick and easy settlements), efficiency(collaborative effort on the distributed network,
reduced breakdown time, reduced processing time by eliminating maker-checker process, faster
settlements) and transparency(immutable transactions, auditability, tracking of movement of money).

The IT industry can leverage this by creating Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) and major players like
Microsoft, Amazon and IBM has started investing on it. BaaS combined with cloud service will open a
vast number of business opportunities. Addition of information sources like IoT(Internet of Things) and
AI(Artificial Intelligence) to the system will make it more powerful and secure. A lot of Blockchain based
applications are under development: ‘Webjet’ in transport and hospitality segment; ‘ASX’ to reduce
reconciliation related expense and ‘ANZ’ as part of Hyperledger to replace the dated international money
transfer system in financial services segment; ‘Enome’ for creating personal health records etc. Citibank
has an equivalent technology to Bitcoin up and running and it is called Citicoin, though it’s not open for
public use yet. Societe Generale posted a job listing for an “IT developer on bitcoin, blockchains and
cryptocurrencies.” UBS has opened a blockchain technology research lab in one of London’s major
financial districts. Barclays and Spanish bank BBVA have already started investing on blockchain based
start-ups.

For full article, Click here

References:

“Realizing the Potential of Blockchain”; Tapscott, Don and Tapscott, Alex; World Economic Forum White
paper, 2017,June

“Applications of Blockchain technology to banking and financial sector in India”, IDRBT Whitepaper,
2017,Jan

“Blockchain applications in banking” Deloitte, 2016

979 Views · View 2 Upvoters

Tibeau Schodts

Tibeau Schodts, B.S. Computer Science & Management, Hogeschool PXL

Answered May 29, 2017 · Author has 69 answers and 732.6k answer views

Blockchain and decentralized technology can be used in many ways and I’ll think we will see a surge in
Dapps. A good example of this is the healthcare sector. At the moment, the software and cybersecurity
at health institutions is very outdated and inefficient. They simply can’t handle generating, sharing and
storing required data.

Patientory

There is a growing demand for healthcare cybersecurity solutions and computing power from the health
and scientific community to run large applications and process huge volumes of data. Large volumes of
patient health information can be supported which can further be utilized by Artificial Intelligence for
accurate patient treatment.

This project will revolutionize the healthcare sector. Imagine everyone could install an app to keep track
of their health history. Every patient could easily view their doctor visits, medical bills, medications,
insurance and own personal medical information.

Data exchange would be easier, faster and more secure. And most important of all: All information is
protected and stored by the Blockchain. The information will be decentralized and safe from hackers or
fraudsters. Patientory will build their project on the Ethereum Blockchain.

Patientory will launch their ICO (Initial Coin Offering) in two days. At an ICO you can invest in the
company before they launch on the exchanges. The ICO price of 1 Ether (ETH) was $0.30, and the price
of 1 Golem (GNT) was $0.01 at the start. This is a perfect chance to invest, even if it is only $10.

Feel free to message me here on Quora if you would like to talk. You can also read my Quora blog to
learn more about cryptocurrency investing. If you would like to know more about the Patientory project,
you can read their whitepaper here.

2.8k Views · View 4 Upvoters

Anish M

Anish M, lived in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Answered Feb 1, 2018

We are here to say that we are hosting an individual track on ‘Blockchain in IoT’ at our prestigious event
EFY Conferences 2018.

Click here for the website: Conferences 2018: Keynotes, Lightning Talks & Tech Sessions - EFY
CONFERENCES

Below are the details of it:

PANEL DISCUSSION ON THE DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGIES: THE NEW NORMAL – 7th Feb, 8:30- 10:10, Hall:
Aryabhatta

Moderated by Narang N Kishor, Founder, Narnix Technolabs Pvt. Ltd; Chairman of LITD 28 on Smart
Infrastructure, Bureau of India Standards. (Speaker Profile)

Panelists:

Rahul Tongia, Scholar, Researcher and a Fellow at Brookings India (Speaker Profile)

Satish Jamadagni, Vice president, NPE, Reliance Jio. (Speaker Profile)

Neelesh Mantri, General Manager – Innovations, SB Energy (SoftBank Group) (Speaker Profile)

Shivkumar Kalyanaraman, Program Director, Special Initiatives, IBM Research (Speaker Profile)

Snigdha Singh, Executive Director – Technology Division, Morgan Stanley (Speaker Profile)

Martin Woolley, Technical Programme Manager for the EMEA region, Bluetooth SIG (Speaker Profile)

Disruptive technology is the bearer of tremendous opportunity and equally, a harbinger of obsolescence.

Technology’s impact on society and business is substantial, if not underestimated. Though product cycle
times are accelerating, the underlying technologies unfold over many years. Within each trend, there are
multiple enabling technologies, all at various stages of maturity and adoption.

“PeaceMaker”, the ironically named advanced nuclear missile that emerged from the US’ arsenal during
the cold war, with the ability to carry 10 independent payloads each of which was 20 times more
powerful than the first nuke dropped on Hiroshima, changed the future of warfare forever. This incident
indeed created the worst carnage known to mankind and made every weapon used until then obsolete.
It changed the fundamental principles of warfare and is to date deterring humanity plunging headfast
into another World War.

Today management of large organizations face the same challenge that Roosevelt did during the Cold
War, will your organization today approve a radical idea, allocate funds and be the early adopter amidst a
crisis? Or stay stuck in the labyrinth of your legacy n perish?

As Prof.Clayton M. Christensen the scholar who introduced the Disruptive Innovation theory says:
“Disruption is a process, NOT an event. And Innovation can only be disruptive relative to something
else.”

Are you going to be an Innovator, Early Adopter or a Laggard?

The Panelists from diverse Disruptive Technology domains would be discussing how in the present – day
context every organization needs to innovate – disrupt & evolve to stay in business.

BLOCKCHAIN AND AI IN FINANCE SERVICES – 7th Feb, 11:10 – 11:40, Hall: Kalam

By Snigdha Singh (Speaker Profile) and Shamit Verma, Executive Directors – Technology Division, Morgan
Stanley (Speaker Profile)

AI and Blockchain are transforming Financial Services by dramatically reducing operational costs and
introducing new revenue opportunities. This talk provides an overview of AI ( “Natural Language
Processing” and Anomaly Detection) and Blockchain. These technologies are discussed in the context of
applicability in Financial Services. Examples include how NLP can be used to understand the content of a
document/email and take certain actions and how Blockchain can be used to manage the lifecycle of
financial instruments.

Subtopics:

1. AI / “Natural Language Processing Overview”.

a. Information Extraction with AI.

b. Process Automation with AI.

2. Blockchain Overview.

a. Fixed Income Bond issuance on Blockchain.

b. KYC (Know Your Customer) compliance with Blockchain.

Key takeaways:
How to use AI for Text Processing.

Learn how Blockchain is transforming Financial services

Learn the Business use cases in Financial Services

Resources to learn more about these technologies.

HOW TO IMPLEMENT A TYPICAL BLOCKCHAIN SOLUTION – 7th Feb, 11:40 – 12:10, Hall: Kalam

By Rahul Golash, VP, and Head – Blockchain, Blockchain Consulting (Speaker Profile)

Rahul Golash, VP and Head of Blockchain Practice, Blockchain Consulting

This talk would walk you through how to evaluate various use cases and help to find out which of them
can be a good fit for blockchain implementation. The speaker will also talk about how a user will
consume the application and steps to design DApp. Major questions like do we need private blockchain
or connect with existing ones and what is a smart contract and how to design a smart contract will be
answered. The talk will teach you the steps to write an upgradable smart contract. The speaker would
also cover the technology stack and the development, testing and deployment process.

Key takeaways

How to design a smart contract?

What are the steps to be considered to build a typical blockchain solution?

What is the technology stack and how to go about in the development, testing, and deployment process
for a blockchain solution?

THE CONVERGENCE OF BLOCKCHAIN AND IoT PARADIGMS: THE INDUSTRY USE CASES – 7th Feb, 12:10 –
12:40, Hall: Kalam

Pethuru Raj, Chief Architect and Vice-President SE- COE, Reliance Jio Cloud

By Pethuru Raj, Chief Architect and Vice-President SE- COE, Reliance Jio Cloud(Speaker Profile)
The recent phenomenon of Blockchain paradigm is definitely on the fast track. The adoption and
adaption levels are consistently climbing across the globe. The unique contributions of the worldwide IT
product vendors, system integrators, research organizations, national governments, and academic
institutions towards making the Blockchain technology penetrative and participative are decisively
noteworthy. Business houses are consciously spending their time, talents and treasures to be adequately
and adroitly Blockchain-enabled. The various industry verticals are strategizing to embrace this new
phenomenon to surmount some of their everyday concerns and challenges. There is a number of
promising and potential use cases being unearthed in order to passionately and

perfectly articulate and accelerate the tactical as well as strategical leverage of the Blockchain paradigm.
This talk is for presenting how the emerging blockchain technology is to impact various application
domains and industry verticals.

Key Takeaway

The various industry use cases and applications at the intersection of the hugely popular IoT paradigm
with the emerging blockchain technology will be clearly spelled out during

the talk.

HERE’S HOW BLOCKCHAIN CAN TRANSFORM INDIAN HEALTHCARE – 7th Feb, 12:40 – 13:10, Hall: Kalam

By Dr. Vikram Venkateswaran is the Founder and Chief Editor of Healthcare India.(Speaker Profile)

Dr. Vikram Venkateswaran is the Founder and Chief Editor of Healthcare India.

India is in a unique position to create a healthcare model that can cater to a billion plus people.
Emerging technologies have now given us an opportunity to shape this healthcare model. Among them,
Blockchain has the potential to transform care outcomes in the country. Learn more about this in this
session. This talk would be by Dr. Vikram Venkateswaran, who is the founder and chief editor of
Healthcare India. Healthcare India is a social movement for better health in the country. We believe that
revolutionary health care outcomes are possible only when patients, care providers, local communities,
businesses and the government are all deeply involved in the cause for better health.

Key Takeaways
Why should we consider Blockchain for healthcare in India?

How would that new model work?

What are the low hanging fruits?

A few examples of other initiatives globally?

THE DISRUPTIVE POTENTIAL OF BLOCKCHAIN IN MANUFACTURING AND TELCO – 7th Feb, 13:10 – 13:40,
Hall: Kalam

By Damodar Sahu, Head – Blockchain, Manufacturing and Communications, Wipro. (Speaker Profile)

Damodar Sahu, Consulting Partner & Head – Blockchain

Manufacturing & Technology and Communications SBUs, Wipro

The blockchain is currently one of the most widely-discussed and hyped technologies. With use cases,
proof-of-concepts, and full-fledged businesses based on blockchain technology emerging at an increasing
pace. The speaker would talk about the Manufacturing Industries – 1. Anti-Counterfeiting and Supply
Chain tracking 2. Managed 3D Printing, 3. IP management in product development, 4. Smart Diagnostics
and machine maintenance, 5.Managing Trade Restrictions, 6. Cross-Border Trade for Global Commerce,
7. Smart Maintenance for Connected Car / Connected Asset, 8. B2B Dynamic Procurement / Procure2Pay
etc. Telco / Communications – 1. Fraud Prevention on Roaming, 2. IoT Connectivity, 3. Identity as-a-
service and data management, 3.5G Enablement, 4. Smart Cities etc.

Key takeaways

What are the full-fledged businesses based on blockchain technology?

How to take care of Anti-counterfeiting and IP management

How to prevent Fraud while roaming.

MACHINE-BASED ALGORITHMS AND CONSENSUS BUILDING IN A POST BITCOIN UNIVERSE – 7th Feb,
14:50 – 15:20, Hall: Kalam

By Sunil Aggarwal, Author of the book “Bitcoin Magnet“; Director, Trustmachines.(Speaker Profile)
Sunil Aggarwal, Author of the book “Bitcoin Magnet”; Director, Trustmachines.

Blockchain Technology is a paradigm shift that will change the fundamental definition of money, ledger,
law, and labor. This reorientation will change banks, taxation, corporation and political governance in a
drastic fashion. The interface between the man and machine will be determining factor behind all these
changes. This talk focus on various machine-based algorithms involved in this technology. The speaker is
Mr. Sunil Aggarwal who holds eighteen years of experience in teaching, research, and startup ecosystem.
He is first in India to teach a credit-based course on Bitcoin & Blockchain Technology Applications in a
university. His core areas of professional interest are emerging Blockchain Technology startups, online
learning solutions, and digital business models.

Key takeaways

Understand how blockchain is reorienting the banking, taxation and political governance.

What is the role of Man-machine interface in Blockchain?

THE FUTURE OF ENERGY AND UTILITIES WITH BLOCKCHAIN AND IoT – 7th Feb, 15:20 – 15:50, Hall: Kalam

By Prashant K Singh, Sr. Consultant, Blockchain CoE, Wipro (Speaker Profile)

Prashant K Singh, Sr. Consultant, Blockchain CoE, Wipro

Blockchain or DLT, has been gaining enormous attention across domains. There have been many
initiatives and implementations. Blockchain combined with IoT can be leveraged to re-imagine multiple
processes & services in Energy & utility space. Applications are being explored like – P2P energy sharing,
Energy commodity trading & supply chain, EV charge & share and Smart electricity network
management etc. It is also interesting to look how companies or stakeholders are collaborating and
jointly testing the waters, by forming Consortium. They could individually or in consortia will soon move
towards adoption.

Key takeaways

What is the impact and scope of Blockchain in Energy, Natural Resources, and Utilities?
What are various blockchain+IoT applications in Energy and utility space?

What is Blockchain consortia & future of Blockchain?

HOW TO SCALE AND SECURE THE BLOCKCHAIN APPS – 7th Feb, 16:20 – 16:50, Hall: Kalam

By Akash Gaurav, CEO, Auxesis Group. (Speaker Profile)

Akash Gaurav, CEO, Auxesis Group

With the increase in demand for Blockchain powered distributed applications among enterprises a lot of
concerns are being raised regarding the scalability and security of these applications. This talk would be
about how Akash and his team built Auxledger infrastructure which is scaled today to securely store over
53 million Indian identities. The talk would also cover the alternatives to Auxledger and how to build a
secure and scalable product. It will also cover the innovation curve of Blockchain and how to overcome
the technical and business challenges faced during the adoption.

Key Takeaways

Where are we on Blockchain innovation curve.

Challenges industries are facing for mainstream adoption.

Overcoming Technical and Business challenges.

Join us on 7th of Feb 2018 till 9th Feb 2018

630 Views · View 1 Upvoter

Sana Afreen

Sana Afreen, Blockchain Expert

Answered Dec 17, 2018 · Author has 67 answers and 21.1k answer views

I recently found that Blockchain could be useful in may real-life use case.

I went through some of the articles and videos and got to know a youtube video which has answered
this question in a great manner.
Have a look!

Supply chain management

Blockchain technology can facilitate traceability across the entire process of a supply chain.

In supply chain management, blockchain provides permanent transparency and validation of

transactions shared by multiple supply chain partners

Also, Blockchain technology can be used for seafood verification, where it can track seafood from ocean
to market

Consider an example of Pacific Tuna project:

Where the blockchain supply chain management provides step by step verification process to track tuna
fish.

Note: The process results in preventing illegal fishing

Banking

For example, Blockchain technology can be used in Banking.

Blockchain technology provides fast, cheap and borderless payments across the world

Cryptocurrencies (like bitcoin) eliminates the need for a third party to make transactions

Blockchain records all the transactions in a decentralized ledger which is publicly accessible by bitcoin
users
Cybersecurity

Blockchain is a decentralized system, which makes it suitable for environments where high security is
required

All the information stored on the bitcoin networks are verified and encrypted using a cryptographic
algorithm

With blockchain, it’s easy to identify malicious attack due to the peer-to-peer connections where data
cannot be altered or tampered

For example, a software company called Guardtime secures its data using blockchain technology.

Instead of following the traditional (centralized) system, the company utilizes blockchain technology and
distributes data to the nodes across the system.

Healthcare:

Blockchain eliminates a central authority which results in a rapid access to data

Here, each block is connected to another block and distributed across the nodes. This makes difficult for
a hacker to corrupt the data

Another major problem in healthcare is counterfeit medication

Hope this helps.

Watch the below video to know more:

124 Views · View 5 Upvoters

Alex Osh

Alex Osh
Answered Oct 30, 2016 · Author has 301 answers and 146.2k answer views

It has been quite some time since anonymity, one-layer p2p, or even immutability were considered the
most important attributes of an innovative payment system. For example, most blockchainers have
already given-up any feelings of remorse regarding abandoning what Satoshi said in his white paper’s
first 19 words. We now have plenty of blockchains and second layer protocols on top of Bitcoin offering
various payment models to chose from. They differ in creativity but not a single one exploits the natural
attractiveness of the basic must-have attributes of a payment, namely:

1) Reasonable Respect

To large extent, most payments are given to someone you know or someone you’re interacting with in
some way. A plumber fixes your toilet, you pay him; the grocery owner sells you food, you pay her.
There’s no strict anonymity here but you do know names and a payment to them should not require
knowing anything else. It is not “natural” to know someone’s wire transfer details or even PayPal-
connected E-mail address. It is not natural or necessary to know where your receiver has any accounts at
all. That’s none of your business. Knowing their name, as they tell you, should be enough to pay them for
services rendered.

2) Reasonable Decentralization

When you pay someone, there shouldn’t be any obvious or hidden demands or incentives “to join the
network”. To receive a payment from you, your receiver should not depend on whether he opens an
account somewhere or takes a risk of owning — even temporarily — a strange asset like crypto coin.
You’re going to pay someone some of your wealth for the job done or goods traded, so share that
wealth. Don’t make a person invest some additional efforts into anything else beyond the terms of the
deal. “This for that” are the terms but often there is a hidden asterisk which mentions, “Just join this site
with your full name, birthday, location, and email. Then, enter your KYC to receive payment”. This is
ludicrous.

3) Reasonable Prices

So far, we have described some basic but forgotten requirements. The once astounding but now
forgotten paper cheques have those properties. In a world where people truly respect those with whom
they do business a payment sum and the recipient’s name should suffice for transacting. A true
innovation should reduce the cost of transacting without compromising the basic requirements of
respect and decentralization.
The cost doesn’t have to be zero, but it should be inoffensive and reasonable. Since Blockchain idea has
failed to provide a truly p2p model free of intermediaries, it’s difficult to claim here that payments
shouldn’t remain a paid service. The problem is that — in most parts of the world — its price remains too
high. Credit cards in the US, for example, consume up to 3% in GDP in the friction they create. That is not
acceptable, the price has to be drastically reduced. We can’t spend on something that we can’t even see
more than we spend on police.

So, this is where a blockchain payment model can step in and remove the oligopolies such as VISA or
PayPal that cause such high prices. But it should preserve the good things that we had before these
oligarchs have emerged. They sold us “the technical improvements” and removed the decentralization
and respect we used to have with cheques. Everyone used their local banks and based transacting on a
reasonable amount of trust between each other. The nation-wide, global networks have spoiled the
essence of the payment model. They took the feeling of respect off it, imposed censorship, and raised
prices. We do not need these oligarchs and we do not need their baggage either.

4.7k Views · View 7 Upvoters · Answer requested by William Dobbin

Spencer Montgomery

Spencer Montgomery, Created www.theblockchainexperts.com

Answered May 17, 2017

One of the most important applications for blockchain technology is supply chain management.
Blockchain allows a group of peers to keep record of transactions amongst each others. These
transactions can be anything of value, like money, commodities, clothes, electronics, etc.

Anything that is found in the store has some type of supply chain behind it. And every supply chain
involves several entities. You have multiple suppliers, vendors, and transporters. Many times a supply
chain can be seen as a blackbox because you don’t have visibility where your product is at any given
moment. That’s where blockchain comes in.

The blockchain allows you to create a digital version of something of value and then track it via the
transactions. A transaction is when one time gets transferred from one party to another.

A blockchain solution for supply chain provides data that has never been accessible before. Think about
how much people will pay for that data.
1.2k Views · View 6 Upvoters

Yulia Zorkina

Yulia Zorkina

Answered Jul 20, 2018 · Author has 156 answers and 174.6k answer views

Let’s start from the way you can buy things with blockchain!

An ordinary situation: you want to buy some specific item, but it’s not available in your local shops. You
go to online stores and find what you wanted most. But the online store that has it is unknown and has
no feedbacks. Would you send your money in advance not knowing whether the item will be sent?
Moreover, you don’t even know whether the item is of the desired quality. Sounds familiar? Certain issue
of trust occurs. Lots of fraudsters use this situation to rob trustful buyers. Trust falls, fear grows.

What if there was another way to get what you want from any place in the world?

Imagine, you find the desired item, strike up an agreement with a seller and just get the item from the
post office. Of course, smart contract is valid only when both parties comply with its conditions. So first
you need to bring in the crypto currency into the smart contract. But it’s not as usual, when money goes
straight to the seller’s wallet and you just wonder whether you’ll receive the product or it will turn out to
be a scam. Smart contract manages this money according to the rules described in advance. Of course,
you need to be prepared before you sign such contract. The seller, the buyer and even the smart
contract have their own digital wallet. Crypto currency is used directly between wallets.

So buyer has to take care of the wallet contents in advance. For example, cryptocurrency can be mined
or bought on the online currency exchange platform.

You say it’s some kind of ghastly future. Well, future is now. Similar contracts are already in action.

What’s in charge of such transactions? Blockchain is the technology that smart contracts are based on.

Potential blockchain uses are limitless and the new ones are being discovered on a regular basis.
Imagine that blockchain is already integrated into our everyday lives. No more corporate greed. No more
monopoly with all those consequences. No more restrictions. How empowering would that be? Let’s see
how blockchain can revolutionize different areas of our life, in the most beautiful and exciting of ways!

Getting rid of intermediaries

Are you annoyed about being poor? Or maybe you have a middle-sized company and think that the
world is under your feet? Well, it’s not! There are people ruling all your actions, because you’re in the
system where everything works through the middlemen like banks, insurance companies and all those
re-sellers who does nothing but make you pay more, much more. Are you fed up with that? Here is when
blockchain can stand up for us and let us get rid of all those parasites. What if instead of some miracle
circumstance, you could begin pushing your life forward right now, with the tools you have, and the
knowledge in your noggin. Will that encourage you to continue reading?

Instant reward for value

With blockchain technology, your contribution will be rewarded instantly, right now. It’s not like at work
you get a raise only when some guy after a long consideration and lots of “if”s will award you with so
much desired few bucks and you should treat it like you hit the jackpot.

Your ideas matter

Your ideas can be voted on and implemented based on their practicality, instead of your societal
position. Actually, it’s like in a social network. You can expand and share your knowledge instead of
consuming some pop star’s obscene photos or hateful posts on social media. Isn’t this awesome!

True democracy

How about your political system? Does that bother you? Would you like to know for sure if your vote is
being counted? Or if someone was mis-elected? With blockchain, a truly representative democracy can
be created. No records will be changed. Once and for all, your voice matters. Who will lead your country
in this case? Well, guess by yourself.
New internet

You are about to make an important video conference with your potential and so desired business
partner, but… The internet connection has gone or what’s even cooler—you were hacked and all the
important documents were stolen. Your security is at risk. Imagine the doors of possibility that would
open up with blockchain. Instant, direct, uninterrupted connectivity, to anyone, anywhere. No need to
say about security, as it’s very hard to hack.

There are much more in our article: How to Change the World for the Better or Our Utopian Future with
Blockchain

These ideas are not some far-fetched utopia. The path to this future is being paved right now!

As exciting as this all is, there is still a long way to go before this gets fully implemented. The good thing?
The more people understand the potential of this technology, the faster it can get implemented! So let’s
all hop on board and boost these new systems into fruition!

You’ll find more: How Smart Contracts Will Improve Your Life?

For those who wants to get the most: 7 Steps to Your Blockchain Startup

452 Views · View 1 Upvoter

Michael David Cobb Bowen

Michael David Cobb Bowen, Reference Data Application Dev

Answered Oct 29, 2016 · Author has 3.2k answers and 3m answer views

Blockchain tech will not affect the way most consumers do retail business in the financial sector.
Blockchain developers will insure that the change will be invisible. The areas in which most people will
recognize the difference that blockchain makes will be in matters of settlements and escrow. Blockchains
will essentially put Notaries out of business. So anything that you use a notary for today will be nearly
instantaneous in the blockchain future.

When banks use blockchains, they will be instantly able to validate payments. This has profound
implications, but there are no guarantees that these advantages will be passed on to consumers. So new
financial organizations may arise that do ‘utility banking’. What this means is that there will be the
equivalent of Federal Express in banking. No float. Instant credit for all deposits. Instant rejection for all
accounts short of funds. In other words, checks could be as fast as debit cards and cash.

I think what is very likely is that more institutions with access to blockchain technology will be able to
speed up their operations as well. The biggest place this will make a difference is in medical records.
Smart people are working out the ultimate systems that will validate and guarantee transparency in this
arena, which is now hugely complicated. Speaking personally as an IT guy, medical records are a
nightmare. You should be able to take an xray at your dentist and have your doctor look at it. Today that
doesn’t happen.

Most Americans already know what to expect when it comes to the application of blockchain tech. That
is, we already are familiar with movie plots where computers do things that are impossible. It will simply
make all of it possible for us.

80 Views · View 7 Upvoters

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When talking about blockchains, we commonly think of its applications in the future. “Blockchain will
solve this, blockchain will achieve that”. It’s easy to forget that blockchains are already deployed in the
wild.

Pick an industry, from automobiles to artificial intelligence, and odds are you’ll find examples of
blockchains in action. In all quarters and all circles, blockchains are making their mark. Even the US
Treasury is in on the act, advocating for more pilot projects and test programs.

The ‘World Economic Forum’ anticipates that 10% of global GDP will be stored on the blockchain by
2025. That means the global executives out there are preparing for this seismic shift, and are ready to
completely back its implementation. The impact of distributed ledger technology could be as grand as
the internet revolution itself.

The use cases differ, but the benefits derived from using the technology remain unchanged:
transparency, immutability, redundancy and security. In 2018, new blockchain initiatives are launched
every day. Here are 50 examples of blockchains in use around the globe.
Government

A number of governments have expressed an interest in blockchain technology to store public records on
a decentralized data management framework. Essentia is developing an e-government pilot with
Finland’s Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners. Blockchain will enable urban and
rural citizens throughout Finland to access records.Other use cases include government applications such
as education, public records and voting.

Waste Management

Waltonchain’s RFID technology is being used by a Smart Waste Management System in China. Using
Walton’s blockchain, the project will enable supervision of waste levels to improve operational
efficiencies and optimize resources.

Identification

Zug in Switzerland, known as “Crypto Valley” has developed a blockchain project in partnership with
Uport to register residents’ IDs, enabling them to participate in online voting and prove their residency.

Border Control

Essentia has been meeting with the Dutch government to create a new system for vetting passengers
traveling between Amsterdam and London. At present, passengers on the Eurostar train between the
two countries undergo border control checks at multiple points. Essentia is studying a blockchain-based
solution that would securely store passenger data, enabling the metrics recorded in the Netherlands to
be audited by agencies in the UK. Blockchain would provide a means of ensuring that the data has not
been tampered with and is verifiably accurate.

Healthcare

Medical records are notoriously scattered and erroneous, with inconsistent data handling processes
meaning hospitals and clinics are often forced to work with incorrect or incomplete patient records.
Healthcare projects such as MedRec are using the blockchain as a means of facilitating data sharing
while providing authentication and maintaining confidentiality.

Enterprise

Clients of Microsoft Azure Enterprise can access the Ethereum Blockchain as a Service. This provides
businesses with access to smart contracts and blockchain applications in a secure hosted environment.

Google is also reported to be working on a proprietary blockchain to support its cloud-based business.
Parent company Alphabet is developing a distributed ledger that third parties will be able to use to store
data, believed to be in regards to Google’s cloud services for enterprises, with a white label version for
companies also in the works.

Medical

Medical centers that have digitized their patient records don’t distribute their data across multiple
facilities, instead keeping them on-site on centralized servers. These are a prime target for hackers, as
evidenced by the ransomware attacks that struck NHS hospitals in the UK. Even if security risks are
overlooked, there is still the problem of fragmentation. There are currently more than 50 different
electronic healthcare record (eHR) software systems that operate in different hospitals, often with
dozens of different packages within the same city. These centralized systems do not interoperate with
one other and patient data ends up scattered between disparate centers.

In life-and-death settings, the lack of reliable data and sluggish interfaces may prove devastating. The
Essentia framework addresses all these issues by using a blockchain-powered system that will store
clinically relevant patient data and which can be immediately accessed, regardless of geographical
borders. Patient privacy is maintained on a secure decentralized network where access is granted to only
those who are medically authorized and only for the duration needed.

Music

One of the main benefits of blockchain technology is the way it removes intermediaries or middlemen.
The music business is a prime example of an industry whose inefficiencies have seen artists poorly
remunerated for their efforts. A number of blockchain-based projects have sprung up seeking a fairer
deal for music creators, including Artbit, overseen by former Guns N Roses drummer Matt Sorum.
Carbon Offsets

As a heavily industrialised nation, China’s environmental footprint is substantial. In March 2017, IBM
launched the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain in conjunction with Energy-Blockchain Labs, as a means of
tracking carbon assets in China. This creates a measurable and auditable system for tracking emissions,
and facilitates a tradable market for companies seeking to offset their energy consumption whilst
incentivizing greener industrial practises.

Supply Chains

Supply chain management is seen as one of the most beneficial use cases for blockchain, as it’s ideal for
industries where goods are passed through various pairs of hands, from beginning to end, or
manufacturer to the store . IBM and Walmart have teamed up to launch Blockchain Food Safety Alliance
in China. The project, run in conjunction with Fortune 500 company JD.com, is designed to improve food
tracking and safety, making it easier to verify that food is safe to consume.

China is proving to be a ripe test bed for blockchain projects, for it’s also home to the world’s first
agricultural commodity blockchain. Louis Dreyfus Co, a major food trader, has set up a project with
Dutch and French banks which are used for selling soybeans to China, with transactions settled quicker
than traditional methods thanks to the use of blockchain technology.

Diamonds

The De Beers Group, the world’s most famous diamond company, now has its own blockchain up and
running, designed to establish a “digital record for every diamond registered on the platform”. Given
concerns about the source of diamonds, and the ethics concerning their country of origin, coupled with
the risk of stones swapped for less value ones along the line, blockchain is a natural fit. Because each
record is indelible, it will ensure that data for each stone lasts as long as the diamonds themselves.

Real Estate

Ukraine holds the honor of becoming the first nation to use blockchain to facilitate a property deal. A
property in Kiev was sold by prominent cryptocurrency advocate and TechCrunch founder Michael
Arrington. The deal was enabled with the aid of smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain, and is
intended to be the first of many completed by Propy, a startup specializing in blockchain-based real
estate deals.

Fishing Industry

Blockchain is now being used to support sustainable fishing. Illegally caught fish is an endemic problem
within the industry, and distributed ledger technology provides a means of proving where fish were
caught, processed and sold. This ‘net-to-plate’ chain allows inspectors to determine whether fish had
come from regions notorious for human rights abuses or from countries that are affected by economic
sanctions.

Fine Art

Similar to the diamond trade, the art industry is dependant on the provenance and authenticity of
artworks. While blockchain cannot authenticate a painting to determine whether it is an original or
forgery, it can be used to prove the piece’s previous owners. In addition, blockchain is now used as a
means of acquiring art. It’s another example of how blockchain technology can be used to make tangible
objects easily tradable and exchangeable from anywhere in the world, without the need to physically
transfer them from secure storage.

Public Utilities

In the Australian city of Fremantle, an ambitious project focused on distributed energy and water
systems is using blockchain technology. Solar panels are being used in the sun-blessed region to capture
electricity, which is then used to heat water and provide power, and the data recorded on the
blockchain.

Chile’s National Energy Commission has begun using blockchain technology as a means of certifying data
pertaining to the country’s energy usage. Sensitive data will be stored on a blockchain as part of an
initiative to help modernize and secure the South American nation’s electrical infrastructure.

LGBT Rights
Blockchain can be helpful in building the “pink economy”, as well as helping the LGBT community to fight
for their rights without revealing people’s identities. The latter is an extremely important issue since hate
crimes are a recurring problem within the gay community, especially in countries notorious for human
rights abuses and where homosexuality is outlawed or at least frowned upon.

Cat Bonds

Cat bonds can be the only hope for people who have been victims of earthquakes, tsunamis and other
natural disasters. Blockchain allows for quick and transparent settlements between parties, and creates
certainty that the system will remain operational even without human operation. Blockchain has now
successfully been used as a cat bond settlement mechanism.

Tourism

Blockchain is being researched as a means of improving Hawaii’s economy by giving tourists an

opportunity to pay for local goods and services with bitcoin and other currencies. This way the state’s
government hopes to attract tourists, especially from Asia, to spend more money and eventually help
Hawaii to develop economically.

National Security

In 2016, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a project that would use blockchain
as a means of securely storing and transmitting the data it captures. Using the Factom blockchain, data
retrieved from security cameras and other sensors are encrypted and stored, using blockchain as a
means of mitigating the risk of data breaches. The project is still ongoing.

Shipping

Blockchain’s suitability to recording shiping data is self-evident. A number of projects have distributed
ledger technology to work in this domain, using it within the maritime logistics industry to bring
transparency to the unavoidable bureaucracy in international trade. Maersk, one of the largest global
shippers, was the pioneer to make use of blockchain and now ZIM have picked up the torch.
Taxation

As one of the world’s most technologically advanced countries, it’s no surprise China has become one of
the first and most prominent adopters of blockchain and everything it offers. It has decided to use the
technology to facilitate taxation and electronic invoice issuance in a project headed by Miaocai Network
in conjunction with the State Administration of Taxation.

Mobile Payments

Cryptocurrencies with its underlying blockchain technology is being used to facilitate mobile payments in
a wide range of projects. One of the latest initiatives announced, scheduled to launch in the fall of 2018,
will involve a consortium of Japanese banks. They’ll be using Ripple’s technology to enable instant
mobile payments.

Land Registry

Blockchain once again proves that it’s not just applicable in the crypto space and by small companies.
The government of Georgia uses it to register land titles. They have created a custom-designed
blockchain system and integrated it into the digital records system of the National Agency of Public
Registry (NAPR). Georgia is now taking advantage of the transparency and fraud reduction offered by
blockchain technology.

Computation

Amazon Web Services have collaborated with Digital Currency Group (DCG) to improve their database
security with the help of blockchain. They will provide a platform for DCG’s startups to work, as well as
technical support for their projects.

Insurance

Blockchain in the insurance industry is often talked about, but many don’t know the technology has
already been implemented. For instance, Insurer American International Group Inc, in partnership with
International Business Machines Corp, has completed a pilot of a so-called “smart contract” multi-
national policy for Standard Chartered Bank PLC and plans to manage complex international coverage
through blockchain.

Endangered Species Protection

A man is a wolf to another man, and an even bigger wolf to animals. ‘Care for the Uncared’ is an NGO
that is working with leading developers to find a way to preserve and protect endangered species using
blockchain technologies.

Advertising

New York Interactive Advertising Exchange in partnership with Nasdaq is using blockchain to create a
marketplace where brands, publishers and agencies can buy ads. The process is simple, though as secure
as it can potentially be, using an open protocol on the Ethereum blockchain.

Journalism

Permanence is now a hot topic in the journalism trade. One wrong move and years of hard work and
research could go down the drain. Blockchain is one smart solution to the problem. Civil, a decentralized
journalism marketplace, apart from obvious blockchain benefits, offers an economic incentive model for
quality news content, coupled with the ability to permanently archive content, which will remain
accessible at any time in perpetuity.

Smart Cities

Smart cities are not the stuff of science-fiction anymore. Taipei is attempting to position itself as a city of
the future with the help of Distributed Ledger Technology. It has announced a partnership with IOTA and
they are already working on creating cards with light, temperature, humidity and pollution detection.

Oil Industry

One of the leading players in the commodity market, S&P Global Platts, is trialling a blockchain solution
that’s being used to record oil storage data. Weekly inventories will be stored on the blockchain,
reducing the need for manual data management and minimizing the chance of human error.

Railways

In Russia, rail operator Novotrans is using blockchain technology with a goal to improve the speed of its
operations. The company, which is one of the largest rolling stock operators in the country, will be using
blockchain to record data pertaining to repair requests, inventory and other matters pertaining to their
operations. The idea is that blockchain records will be more resistant to tampering and data corruption..

Gaming

One of the most influential companies in the gaming industry, Ubisoft, is researching on how to
implement blockchain into its video games. Specifically, it’s focusing on the ownership and transfer of in-
game items such as rewards and digital collectibles. These have already been successfully demonstrated
in action using the Ethereum blockchain.

Car Leasing

Blockchain’s distributed ledger technology is ideally suited to registering records of any kind in a secure
and unalterable manner. One such use case being developed by Essentia is the vehicle rental industry.
Major rental companies will be able to utilize Essentia’s blockchain protocol to store customer data, fully
encrypted and shareable on a permissioned basis with relevant parties.

Energy Distribution

One of the biggest challenges facing the energy industry, companies in the habit of trading surplus
supply need infallible record keeping. Tracking energy allocations in real time, and ensuring efficient
distribution through the supply chain requires multiple data points, and also mandates close cooperation
between all entities. Essentia is developing a test project with a number of major energy suppliers that
will help them track the distribution of resources in real time, whilst maintaining data confidentiality at
all times.
Every day, the number of blockchains used in real world scenarios grows. From logistics to fine art, it’s
hard to find a sector that hasn’t been touched by this transformative technology. We have reached a
point where the technology has proven itself to be superior than the current modus operandi.

The ‘WEF’ predicts that by 2025 the world will see mainstream blockchain adoption. But after examining
the use cases already in the implementation stages we have to ask, we have to ask, will it really take that
long?

There’s only one small kink in the chain holding everything back. That kink is known as interoperability.

Think of a river that has peacefully flowed along for the past 15 years, then all of a sudden a storm
appears and it rains for weeks on end, turning the river into a raging torrent, sweeping away everything
in its path. That river is the Web 2.0 and the storm of blockchains have already changed the internet
landscape. So what remains? When the rain stops and the floods subside, with the old foliage swept
away, a vast swathe of fertile land awaits to be farmed.

The river, which facilitated the flow and interoperation within the natural ecosystem is gone. And the
same goes for the Web 3.0, we can see growth in various sectors but they are still largely incompatible
with each other. But ‘hey presto’ there’s already a solution in the works for that.

It’s called Essentia, and it’s like a farmers tool for building new decentralized ecosystems on this fertile
land. It’s job is to create connections and facilitate interoperations to create a cohesive blockchain
environment. This could mean health-care blockchains are compatible with insurance chains, or
international rail working with with cross-border customs chains.