Will 2019 finally be the year of Blockchain?

2018 was the year of blockchain hype, with the hype now settling down, its time to get down to work. Blockchain technology is a big buzzword that aims to revolutionise many industries from healthcare, banking, food and speed up supply chains dramatically. 2019 may be the year that we get to see blockchain see in action thanks to technologies like EOS & Hyperledger.

What is Blockchain Anyway ?

Blockchain is a system to store and share that offers immutability, transparency and eliminates trust between various parties without the need for multiple auditing layers. Blockchain works in very ingenious ways to achieve this lofty goal.

A block of data is combined to each other by taking a hash of the entire data , think of it as simple notepad with bunch of text in it along with a time stamp, a hash of which ( like a finger print of the file) becomes a identifier for this. This hash in now included in the second block or file , a hash of this file is now used to be included in the next block. This way entire chunks of data are linked to each other which makes tampering very costly as it requires changing entire sequence of files.

This blocks of data or blockchain are stored on multiple servers ( controlled by different parties ) so that a single entity doesn't get the control to change or rewrite history.

The ability to have tamper proof and disturbed structure for storing data has tremendous applications where data has inherent value like - Money records, Health care records, Driving records, shipment records and many more.

Public vs Private blockchains

while the concept of blockchain started with Bitcoin way back in 2008, now there many different versions to structure blockchains. Some blockchains like bitcoin are public blockchains meaning anyone can access the information of the bitcoin blockchain and can even interact with it. However this open access is not acceptable in cases which need confidentiality like that of business transactions, where having data out in open could lead to competitive disadvantages or that of medical records where patient privacy can be compromised.

The Dawn of private blockchains and permissioned ledgers

Private blockchains unlike public blockchains have restrictions on access so only those with access will be able to access them which ensures the confidentiality is maintained.

Examples of private blockchain include Hyperledger , Corda , Quorom etc which are used for enterprise type applications.

Private blockchain typically have many advantages like confidentiality, zero txn fees and very high throughput ( 100k Tps) however private blockchains lack the transparency that public blockchains bring.

Unlike what many crypto enthusiasts think, Public and private blockchain compliment each other instead of competing

Blockchain doesn't fix everything ,Although it comes very close :)

Blockchain is the most hyped up technology of 2018 with POCs being built on various industries and many different use cases.

2019 will be the year we will taste the real success of these different POCs both on public blockchains ( decentralised gambling and sports betting on EOS is set to explode soon ) and private blockchains like hyperledger ( IBM Walmart are running a massive pilot to track food supply from Farm to fork and will offer unprecedented transparency both for regulators and consumers mitigating losses when outbreaks occur)

Nevertheless blockchain certainly has few limitations and not usable every where.

Here's a wonderful flow chat explaining whether blockchain is a solution to any given problem involving data.

i hope this gave a good understanding of what blockchain is , in my next few articles i will focus more on hyperledger and its use cases

Comments are highly appreciated