Comprehending different disciplines which incorporates Blockchain Technology
Opening statements
People had familiarized themselves with the amazing Blockchain Technology only after the crypto spike in December last year. It is also observed that people have a vague notion that cryptocurrencies are the only field in which the blockchain technology can be applied. But I am here to confront with a statement that it has a vast horizon of applications in innumerable sectors of the industry. One must have some self-discipline an not get swept away by the hike and blur themselves to see things through their objective vision.
Wrapping one’s mind around Blockchain
Blockchain Technology is just a Distributed Ledger Technology where information is stored in the form of a ledger and the same is distributed to everyone on the network. This feature provides for an increased security by avoiding tampering of the data due to the cryptographic connections between each and every block of information. It’s distributed ledger must not be confused with its weakness because of sharing the master copy with everyone, but the Blockchain Technology intelligently converts the same weakness into its strength by the proof of work consensus. It originally was introduced with a firm belief to eradicate the Trust Gap which this particular generation is obsessed with.
A consensus is nothing but an agreement by the members of the network so as to deem a particular record to be valid or invalid. According to the Blockchain network applied in the cryptocurrencies, 51% of the consensus is required in order to validate a particular record otherwise it is automatically inferred that the information has been tampered with.
Some of the most prominent industrial sectors which the Blockchain Technology finds its applications are:
1. Health care industry
The Medical and the Healthcare industry can be radicalized with the Blockchain Technology by storing all the patient’s past information (such as ongoing prescriptions, ailments, injuries and all the other medical facts relating to the individual) in an immutable ledger known as Blockchain. This ledger is immutable and shared among various key organizations. This would prove to be beneficial to the doctor while treating a particular patient as he would have all the authentic record of his patient from the beginning of time. One must also observe that a lot of cumbersome paperwork can be avoided by storing the information on the blockchain.
2. HR industry
On similar lines, the blockchain technology can also be applied in HR industry for the Identity verification where the whole resume of a particular application can be verified instantly rather than undergoing intense verification procedures by the HR managers. A distributed ledger of information can be shared among all the educational institutions, previous workplaces, along with individuals where all the Institutions verify and confirm his tenure at that particular institution. Hence the data is authentic in itself as it is distributed in nature the HR managers need not explicitly verify the details mentioned on a resume saving the organization and him ample of time and energy. The Blockchain Technology here can be observed, creates a form of trust between the individuals as each one of them trusts the other person’s Blockchain without any doubts.
3. Identity Verification
Blockchain technology in identity verification is very similar to the previous one. Here all the government organizations which issue identity cards for a particular citizen, can store the whole ledger on Blockchain and distribute them among the people so as to verify the same. The Identity verification storage servers are usually vested with a centralized organization which in turn makes it highly vulnerable to data leaks as well as attacks. Imagine that the identities of the citizens of a whole country are vested with only a single authority and that’s too much power for one single authority to behold. But due to the Blockchain implementation, the authority can be distributed and can be far more secure.
4. Elections
An election is one of the most controversial events that occur in the politics. The whole event is corrupted with manipulations being done on the voters by providing them short-term incentives in order to gain votes. Tampering of the Electronic Voting Machines isn’t rare, but frequent. Now imagine if the whole electoral process was Blockchain based. Each and every vote which is to be counted is stored on a Distributed Ledger, visible to each and every individual of the nation. The Technology leaves absolutely no room for any kind of discrepancies that can occur during the elections in order to manipulate the results. Virginia and Switzerland are some of the only places in the world which have already tried blockchain-based elections.
Conclusive remarks
Apart from the above-mentioned sectors, the Blockchain Technology has spurred something called Smart Contract which is worth mentioning. The contracts are enforced in almost all the fields where trust is a major issue. For a real-life example, when one visits a car showroom in order to buy a motor vehicle, there is absolutely no assurance that the dealer would handover the vehicle to the buyer once the payment is done, at this point of time trust is a key factor which comes into the picture. The Blockchain Technology as inherently was designed to impart trust among the parties, the smart contract effectively undertakes the transaction a Smart Contract and make sure the transaction is undertaken without any hitch.
