Blockchain: The Newest Superpower

Student Article

Blockchain: The Newest Superpower

Let’s get started with some simple examples. Imagine if you are able to track the journey of all the ingredients in your food starting from the farm where it was grown to your table. Imagine if you are assured that your vote was counted. How cool and useful that can be! This all is possible with the help of Blockchain Technology. Blockchain is no more a futuristic technology as its already here and many blockchain networks are already in use and making life easy for many people around the globe. It makes things transparent, democratic, decentralized, efficient and most importantly secure. As it is a network, so it is a teamwork. No single institution is the blockchain. It’s all about a group coming together. So, let’s see how it works and what its uses are and how it is changing our world. What is Blockchain Blockchains are basically a chain of blocks that contains information; it is an open and distributed ledger that can be accessed by anyone. This technology first came into picture in 1991, used to timestamp digital documents to make them impossible to backdate or tamper them. Then it was used by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009 to develop and secure the digital crypto currency Bitcoin. A blockchain consists of blocks that are linked with its previous blocks and in this way the chain is created. A block consists of three elements. First, is the related information on the subject that the blockchain is build upon like in the case of Bitcoin the information can be about the details of a transaction that are the sender’s name, receiver’s name and the amount of coins transferred. Secondly, Hash of the block which is a unique code or called as the finger print of the block and is calculated according to the information added to the block. And thirdly, the Hash of the previous block that helps in creating a chain like structure and also keeps the blockchain secure for example when anyone try to tamper with the existing data of a block, the Hash of that block changes and the link gets broken eventually making all the previous blocks invalid. But still this is not enough for the security as these days computers are so powerful that they can calculate many Hash values and can make the blockchain valid again within seconds by perfectly replacing the new Hash values. So, to make a blockchain more secure there is a mechanism called as 'Proof of Work'. It slows down the creation of a new block. The required time to calculate proof of work in case of Bitcoin is 10 minutes. One more way of keeping it secure is that as it is open to all the members(nodes) of the Blockchain network, each node has a copy of the Blockchain and keeps a check on the it. And in case of a new block is to be added to the chain, its first validated and authenticated by all the nodes according to the consensus created together by them. So, when you try to successfully tamper the data in a block, to make it valid again you will need to calculate all the new Hash values and proof of work for all the following blocks and take control of more than 50% of the network, which is almost impossible to do. Here all the nodes have control but none of them are exclusively in control of the Blockchain. Here a peer-to-peer network is present rather than a centrally managed network system. Changing the World Blockchain can be used in many ways such as for storing Medical records, E-notary, Collecting Taxes, storing patents and discoveries according to their timeline to avoid controversies, to secure your user id and passwords more efficiently and can prevent over-information and the list goes on. So now let’s see how it’s changing our

world, some of the existing Blockchain networks with block heights over a million blocks are IBM Global Finance, Walmart on food safety, Maersk on trade digitisation etc. All the leading companies are accepting this technology as soon as possible as it helps them immensely. For example, earlier it used to take more than a month for the companies to solve a dispute but now it takes less than 10 days. All the CEO’s and CFO’s are impressed with this technology, as its transparent so is very helpful in reaching to a common decision sooner. Some of the industries that are being affected or are going to be affected by this technology are Banking and Payments, Cyber Security, Supply Chain Management, Forecasting, Networking and IoT, Insurance, Private transport and Ride Sharing, Cloud Storage, Charity, Voting, Governments and their Systems and Operations, Healthcare, Energy Management, Online Music, Retailers (small or huge like Amazon), Real estate and Crowd Funding mainly in case of Start-ups that can be your own new company. Blockchain is here to stay The shared ledger technology, which is also referred to as Blockchain technology is regarded as one of the most prominent ideas being developed today with the potential to transform the market. Satoshi Nakamoto is believed to have come up with the first Blockchain database, which is viewed as the most disruptive technology in several years. This technology has had a significant impact on several industries including healthcare, entertainment, data safety, business, and finance. The considerable growth this technology has achieved in recent years informs the belief that it is here to stay. Here are the three main reasons why: Decentralization of Systems: Decentralization represents one of the core attributes of Blockchain technology. This technology targets the elimination of intermediaries in financial transactions. Traditionally, financial transactions were characterized by people putting faith in banking institutions to wire their money to another individual’s account. However, the decentralization attribute of Blockchain technology means that such individuals are not necessary because a single authority charged with the responsibility of approving a transaction does not exist. Increased Transparency: Since this technology will facilitate the decentralization of systems, one of the benefits that come with this development is the enhancement of transparency. Virtually, the decentralization of the ledgers on Blockchain ensures that every party within the network can access the details and information stored on them. This aspect is achieved through a copy of the ledger being created on every system that has been linked on the Blockchain. As a result, users connected to a specific Blockchain system are alerted in case any modification is made to the network. Improved Security: This issue represents blockchain technology's most famous feature because none of the Blockchain Networks have been breached so far. Another core factor that contributes to the security robustness of Blockchain Technology is because it utilizes Cryptocurrency and the blocks are safeguarded using unique private keys. In case an individual wants to make a monetary transaction on the Blockchain, he/she is assigned a key that can be utilized to finalize the transaction between him/ her and the individual they are supposed to transfer the money to or receive it from. Blockchain Superpower is real, unlike DC and Marvel Superheroes with their superpowers, it can’t be avoided or ignored. It’s here to stay and is ready to take on the world and will affect each and every one of us. It is termed as a disruptive technology, especially because businesses are beginning to identify strategies through which they can leverage it in their activities to capitalize on the advantages of this continuously evolving technology. But that does not mean it doesn’t have any challenges which include regulatory and stability issues that need to be resolved. We are still far away from mass adaptation of this technology but the future is going to be exciting, hassle-free and secured with Blockchain. Rajesh Patra PG 1