Computer technology is developing at a swift rate — more and more sophisticated equipment is produced every year which enables to perform more multitasking computations. Due to IT rapid development, more and more unique specialists who invent and implement amazing innovations appear every day.
Blockchain technology is considered to be one of the useful innovations of the last decade. This is a real breakthrough in the Internet industry, P2P networking, cybersecurity and cloud computing. Cryptocurrencies — the special payment systems with digital payment units operating on the cryptography principles — have become the main product.
Although the popularity of cryptocurrencies significantly decreased in 2019, blockchain managed to gain acceptance due to hype created around cryptocurrencies. It continues attracting the attention of both large investors who are willing to sponsor developments in this field and specialists who are able to enthusiastically develop this new technology.
Blockchain benefits still remain unclear to a lot of people. Despite its wide spreading in all areas, this technology remains a mystery for the majority of people. What is blockchain and how is it useful to modern society?
Blockchain is a special information processing and storage structure in which data is distributed on a variety of independent computers. It is created on the cryptography basis; there is no single computer centre in the network, and all the work is supported by numerous nodes.
This technology enables to safely perform any operations whose history can’t be forged. This excludes interference from third parties such as hackers or scammers and eliminates intermediaries and regulators.
Currently, blockchain is most often used in cryptocurrency projects. In addition to this obvious function, there are dozens of other applications where it is able to solve various problems of people, business and even states.
Blockchain can be effectively used in data centres that collect and process huge volumes of information. A distributed network enables you to securely store data, and cryptography protects it and speeds up processing. This enables sociological organisations to solve their core tasks and provides companies with the opportunity to qualitatively create customer databases taking into account their preferences.
Another way to implement blockchain was its application in science. With this technology, you can significantly reduce the load on servers that are used for scientific purposes. This will increase the efficiency of calculations and experiments made.
It should also be noted that blockchain technology has long been of interest to many banks and financial companies. This might have been expected since it all started with cryptocurrencies and fintech. Many investment funds have also shown interest when they saw the potential of using blockchain to manage investments.
However, not only commercial entities started to implement innovation. Some states are planning soon to transfer land cadastres to the blockchain. Others started using distributed ledgers to register and identify certain categories of citizens. For example, Finland has established a special ledger that keeps records of refugees entering the country. Estonia has introduced a blockchain-based e-Residency system.
Despite such a wide range of opportunities, it is worth noting that blockchain is still at the initial stage of its development and has not yet fully revealed its full potential. Specialists working with this technology and developing blockchain solutions will have to implement a lot of ideas that will be widely applied.