Blockchain is one of the most talked technologies of today. As a matter of fact, Blockchain is one of the top five technologies of year 2018 that presents a promise to change the way we store data the Web. Blockchain also represents a huge opportunity for software developers as 6 out of 10 corporations are looking to add blockchain to their product roadmaps.
Several industries including financial institutes, banking, healthcare, supply chain, and payments are actively involved in the development of blockchains.
The blockchain concept is not new. It was first introduced by Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta in 1991 as “a cryptographically secured chain of blocks,” which means a chain or blocks that are linked and cryptographically secured. Each block is a combination of three items; a hash pointer to the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data. By design, blockchains are secure and difficult to modify.
There are three key reasons why blockchain is becoming mainstream today:
- Internet connectivity on devices and Increased digital processing power
- Rapid growth in cybercrimes
- Rise of bitcoin and cryptocurrency
Blockchain, by design, requires higher processing power than normal data computing. It is all because of redundancy of data, distributed storage, and cryptography. Data encryption and decryption is a costly affair by nature. Today, computers have more processing power thanks to modern processors developed by NIVIDIA.
Cybercrime has grown multifold in the past few years. The hacking of a billion-plus Yahoo accounts, the Equifax data breach, and increased ransomware damages are just a few incidents. As a matter of fact, over one million cyber threats are released every day and by 2020, over 200 billion IOT devices will need security. Today, Cyber Security is one of the biggest challenges for CEOs.
Bitcoin and cryptocurrency are one of the biggest reasons for the increasing popularity of blockchain. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency created by an anonymous person named Satoshi Nakamoto, who used blockchain technology to create and distribute secure digital currency.
Today, blockchain is “the blockchain” because of Bitcoin. And if you look at the reason why Bitcoin was created, there is one word that can describe it better than anything else, i.e., TRUST. Bitcoin was created to overcome the mistrust and non-transparency of financial institutions.
