Blockchain Technology and its implications in the Industry

The shift in the industrial operations with the advancement of technology

Over the next decade, there will be disruption as significant as the Internet was for publishing, where blockchain is going to disrupt dozens of industries. So how exactly this disruption will take place. More importantly, what is this Blockchain technology, which presently, is being widely tipped off as the next big revolution after internet in the planet’s history.

Blockchain technology may sound a bit complex but it is simply a distributed ledger where the data is stored. A group of researchers first designed the blockchain technology in 1991 to timestamp digital documents to eliminate tampering. But it came into spotlight with the invention of digital cryptocurrency, Bitcoin as it unravelled the problem of double spending for digital currency. Blockchain is a series of blocks that carries particulars. A block consists of data, hash of a block and hash of a previous block. Hash ensures the security as it is always unique and any disruption in block will result in difference in hash and ultimately block will no longer be valid. Previous hash is the one responsible for forming the chain of blocks. Along with hash, proof of work mechanism and use of peer to peer network avails to prevent further tampering.

Currently, the technology is primarily used to verify transactions, within digital currencies though it is possible to digitize, code and insert practically any document into the blockchain. Doing so creates an everlasting record that cannot be changed; furthermore, the record’s authenticity can be verified by the entire community using the blockchain instead of any centralised authority.

This digitalized and decentralised public ledger enables not only the secure financial transactions but its potential can be seen expanding to supply chain management, foreign exchange, travel management, healthcare sector, tax department, digital notary, intellectual property rights for media, manufacturing industry and many more.

Walmart, multinational retail cooperation tested blockchain technology for facilitating product labels, acting as an alternative for traditional paperwork with the addition of zero fraud in supply chains. The renowned companies, APM Moller-Maersk and IBM collaborated to use the distributed ledger technology in global trading, as to build an unalterable document of transactions along the supply chain so that the information can be distributed in real time to the desired companies.  

The wing of blockchain reaches out to the education sector as well. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Learning Machine Company corporate to build a digital badge for learning based on blockchain technology and the further credential of students was to be stored in a blockchain network. Blockchain technology seeks to contribute in the medical sector also, as it can be used to timestamp and verify transfers and updates of the medical record.

Despite operating without the central authority, blockchain seems to be upfront in grabbing the popularity. With the advent of this technology, it will usher in an environment of transparency and accountability across global trade. Having said, politics will be the way of policy measures to implement the backend infrastructure and adaptability of corporates for wider industry use will not be easy.