Blockchain as a technology has taken the world by storm. The global blockchain technology market is projected to be worth USD 20 billion by the end of 2024, according to Transparency Market Research. The hype of blockchain has reached unprecedented levels in the world and that makes it easy to lose sight of the potential benefits and weaknesses. Looked upon as one of the most disruptive technologies across industries, Blockchain most certainly has the potential to reduce costs, increase transparency, enhance security and increase efficiency among others.
ShutterstockThe primary benefit of using blockchain as a technology is the enhancement in data security that it provides. Data is by far one of the most important assets in the world currently. Some of the world’s leading conglomerates like Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, etc. are data-centric companies. Securing data has become the most critical priority for businesses around the world. This is where Blockchain can be used as a strong alternative to Cloud and Server based companies.
Let’s look at how blockchain’s impact when it comes to data security:
Decentralized way of securing data
Since blockchain as a technology is decentralized in nature it does not rely on one central point of control. It is a digital LEDGER of transactions with every computer having a complete copy of the data. A lack of a single authority makes the system fairer and considerably more secure. Instead of depending on a central authority to securely transact with other users, blockchain utilizes innovative consensus protocols across a network of nodes, to validate transactions and record data in a manner that is incorruptible. As blockchain is a ledger of information it is extremely important that the information being stored is honest and accurate. Since the data is saved on multiple computers, it is extremely secured even if one or two computers malfunction.
Encryption and Validation
Blockchain platform ensures that your data is encrypted, which means that alteration in data is a difficult task. You can also save a cryptographic signature of a document or file on a Blockchain. This would give users a way to ensure a file is untampered, without needing to save the entire file on the Blockchain. Because of its decentralized nature, you can always cross check file signatures across all the ledgers on all the nodes in the network and verify that they haven’t been changed. When you look at a file, you can guarantee that it is the same version of the document that existed at another time. If someone does change a record, then the signature is rendered invalid. Nobody can deny that blockchain offers reliable, independent data verification.
Difficult to hack
As the name implies blockchain is a chain of digital “blocks” that contain records of transactions. Because they aren’t contained in a central location, blockchains don’t have a single point of failure and cannot be changed from a single computer. They are decentralized and distributed ledgers across peer-to-peer networks that are continually updated and kept in sync. Each block is connected to all the blocks before and after it. While hackers can break into traditional networks and find all the data in a single repository and exfiltrate it or corrupt it, the blockchain makes this unfeasibly hard.
As a technology, which is growing in popularity across the world, blockchain seems to be the ideal platform for companies to store their data. It is secured, reliable and transparent which makes it even more appealing to companies.
