BC-1: Blockchain does matter to everyone, but why?
How blockchain will change the businesses and everything around us!
Technology is integral and central for any organization today. Honestly, your speed of adaptability to the technology could define your victory and you must have ability to smell the change as quickly as possible that is absolute necessity for the organizations. Identification of right technology and timely reflection will plot the business success in this era of digital transformation!
Knowledge economy has changed the ways of doing business, and the organizations want to onboard those how knows how to stay competitive in 4th industrial revolution!
Blockchain is a new buzzword and everyone is talking about it. There is a lot of hype and confusion about blockchain technology and it’s hard to know what it means and what is real. Well, the wave is there and pressure is humongous to give the best shot, however, the question is, are we ready for this wave?
You know what, for many of us, blockchain is only a cryptocurrency, more precisely the bitcoin! right? This is not true:) A massive public campaign is required to make people aware of general aspects of this technology and the benefits it will bring to the whole system.
Most of the organizations have no idea what blockchain can bring to them. Many don’t know how this can be useful to define new success stories. If they don’t foresee, they can be next Kodak, Nokia and like many other companies who could not understand the upcoming threats during their time!
I said, pressure is on, yes it is!
Remember, internet changed the ways of thinking and doing. However, internet has created huge imbalance of trust, right?
Just look at the Figure 1, and think about centralization (Web 1 & Web 2) vs decentralization (Web 3) — trust (on server) vs trust-less (no server) but more trusted data.
Well, what if you are a YouTuber (under Web 2 in the Figure 1) with 2 million following and they YouTube management decide to delete your account, how will you feel if this is your bread and butter……! We have put lots of trust on these technology giants that has created a huge imbalance! We need a technology shift!
Blockchain technology could be a saviour for us as it has potential to change this imbalance as the data will not be centralized. On blockchain, the data is immutable, no change, delete or update is permitted. Data can only be added which is again not simple, the transection to add data must be approved with consensus by the network nodes, and once approved, the new data is appended. Any change is publicly trackable to build a trust for the user. Once, a block is at its capacity, it is closed permanently!
Every new block have a hash pointer (a kind of key which is algorithmically computed) of the previous block, making a chain of blocks and every block contain data permanently — Immutable, decentralized, distributed digital ledger as shown in Figure 2!
Soon, blockchain technology is going to reshape how the business is done. Today, business must understand and explore what change blockchain can bring in their domain. What is possible and what is the ultimate need to sustain in this technology shift!
Its a myth today, everyone talk about blockchain however many of us hardly know what it is. Well, in this series of lectures, I will try my best to unlock the myth while leaving the confusion behind and help everyone to understand the possibilities and tools that this amazing blockchains technology can offer to the business. We will discuss how blockchain will be impacting the global market and literally everything around us over the time.
Wait, did I talk about data, privacy and trust for sharing?
Take a pause and think about the level of trust we have on Google, Microsoft, FaceBook, LinkedIn today? What if they decide to delete your account?
You know what, we want trust-less system with more trusted data and authority on what belong to us!
It is the need of the day for all of us to understand how the doing of business and the culture is changing because of disruptive technology. Billions of employees needs to be up-skilled and companies are struggling to catch up with the pace of technology. The impact of technology is clearly visible on our lives, and we must explore and learn about the limitless possibilities that these technologies are going to bring to our lives and the world.
In the next article in this series, we will talk about “BC-2: Why the web is built to fail without blockchain technology” — Stay Tuned, I hope to get sometime soon to tell you the story ;)
**************************************************************************************************************************************
Dr. Junaid Qazi is a subject matter specialist, data science, machine learning and blockchain consultant. He is also a professional development coach, mentor, author, technical writer, and invited speaker.
For more than two decades, Dr. Qazi has worked with leading organizations, academic institutions and governments across the globe to help them learning and adopting disruptive innovation in their digital transformation journey.
Dr. Qazi can be reached for consulting projects, technical writing and/or professional development trainings via LinkedIn.
**************************************************************************************************************************************
