Before knowing something about Blockchain, let’s go to flashbacks and activate your brain cells about the Industrial Revolution, imagine about the last 100 years, observe the present day, and assume the future. What is going to happen? Blockchain is an Ocean, in this article, we’ll try to input a small idea in your brain about Blockchain.
The First Industrial Revolution occurred between 1760-1840 in Britain, Europe, and the United States. One of the major Inventions was the steam engine by the wheel. The Second Industrial Revolution, also known as the Technological Revolution, happened between 1870 and 1914. Major Inventions were mass production by machines, telegraphs, telephones, lightbulbs, automobiles etc. The Third Industrial Revolution, or Digital Revolution, began in the late 1900s and is characterized by the spread of automation and digitization using electronics and computers, the invention of the Internet, and the discovery of nuclear energy.
It’s time for the fourth Industrial Revolution………………………………………………….!
Blockchain is the main weapon of the 4th Industrial Revolution. People are working on the Internet of Things (IOT), Augmented reality, and Artificial Intelligence Robotics with blockchain globally. Massive changes are coming in Financial Industry, Agricultural Industry, Health Industry as well as Judiciary through the advanced technology. From the Dark and Deep web, a large community is trying to execute a token-based economy by Web 3. Web 3 is developed by a Blockchain algorithm.
Cryptography:
Cryptography is the method in which communications can be made in a secure, secretive way. It refers to converting plaintext into unreadable coded text. In the blockchain, cryptographic techniques are a part of security protocols. It secures a transaction taking place between two nodes in a blockchain network. Blockchain technology is based on three main pillars; Distributed ledger, Peer-to-peer network, and Cryptographic security.
Thousands of years back the concept of cryptography was invented and researchers are developing it day by day. We’ll write details about cryptography with algorithms and mathematical terms.
Characterization of Blockchain:
Blockchain is a distributed database or ledger that is shared among the nodes of a computer network. As a database, a blockchain stores information electronically in a digital format. One key difference between a typical database and a blockchain is how the data is structured. A blockchain collects information together in groups, known as blocks, that hold sets of information, it stores data in blocks that are then linked together via cryptography.
How does Blockchain work:
The goal of blockchain is to allow digital information to be recorded and distributed, but not edited. In this way, a blockchain is the foundation for immutable ledgers, or records of transactions that cannot be altered, deleted, or destroyed.
Blockchain is a combination of three leading technologies:
- Cryptographic keys
- A peer-to-peer network containing a shared ledger
- A means of computing, to store the transactions and records of the network
Cryptography keys consist of two keys – Private key and Public key. These keys help in performing successful transactions between two parties. Each individual has these two keys, which they use to produce a secure digital identity reference. This secured identity is the most important aspect of Blockchain technology.
Decentralization:
In a centralized network, there is a central network authority that takes the decisions. In a decentralized system, there are multiple owners. Distributed systems are a further extension of decentralization. Here there is no concept of owners. All users are owners and all have equal rights. In general, decentralization is about moving the power and authority away from one central entity and making the power available to the respective members of the community. Blockchain is a decentralized peer-to-peer network. It provides an efficient way to work with unknown parties without trusting each other. When technology is centralized, it typically means that it is controlled and run by a single company, government, or individual. Decentralized technology, on the other hand, is run by a network of participants that no one actor can control or shut down. The blockchain network is decentralized.
Blockchain in The Finance industry:
The digitization of financial instruments – comprising digital assets, smart contracts and programmable money – takes the benefits of blockchain further by forging unprecedented levels of connectivity and programmability between products, services, assets and holdings. These digitized instruments will redefine the processes of commercial and financial markets, creating a new paradigm where value is brought at every touch point.
With blockchain in finance, peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions are possible. It implies the elimination of intermediaries as smart contracts will be able to manage transactions successfully. As the “layers” of the system will be reduced, instant settlements of payments will be facilitated. Blockchain payment systems can also be implemented so that cross-border payments can also occur instantaneously.
Transaction Process:
A transaction is a transfer of value on the blockchain. In very simple terms, a transaction is when one person gives a designated amount of cryptocurrency they own to another person.
To perform transactions on the blockchain, you need a wallet, a program linked with the blockchain to which only you have access, that keeps track of the crypto you own and allows you to transact with it. Each wallet is protected by a special cryptographic method that uses a unique pair of distinct but connected keys: a private and a public key.
A public key, also known as the address, is a series of letters and numbers that a user must share in order to receive funds. In contrast, a private key must be kept secret, much like your bank card pin number, as it authorizes the spending of any funds received by the associated public key.
With their wallet, a user (whoever has the private key) can authorize or sign transactions and thereby transfer value to a new owner. The transaction is then broadcast to the network to be included in the blockchain.
Smart Agriculture Via Blockchain:
Some areas of the agriculture industry in blockchain include the following.
- Crop and Food Production
- Food Supply Chain
- Controlling Weather Crisis
- Managing Agricultural Finance
The globalization of farming invention and delivery has carried converted importance on the safety, superiority, and authentication of a series of main farming and nutrition stream restraint values.
The use of data and information becomes increasingly crucial for the agriculture sector to improve productivity and sustainability.
Information and Communication Technology substantially increases the effectiveness and efficiency of collecting, storing, analyzing and using data in agriculture. Blockchain technology offers a reliable approach to tracing transactions between anonymous participants.
IOT in agriculture uses robots, drones, remote sensors, and computer imaging combined with continuously progressing machine learning and analytical tools for monitoring crops, surveying, and mapping the fields, and providing data to farmers for rational farm management plans to save both time and money.
Blockchains play a vital role in farming to track and trace the origin of food products in the food supply chain. Supply Chain Management is an essential business process in all spheres of the economy. Supply chain management uses specific processes to connect producer to consumer requirements through a chain.
Blockchain in the Healthcare industry:
Blockchain technology has the potential to transform health care, placing the patient at the centre of the healthcare ecosystem and increasing the security, privacy, and interoperability of health data. This technology could provide a new model for health information exchanges (HIE) by making electronic medical records more efficient, disintermediated, and secure. In the long term, a nationwide blockchain network for electronic medical records may improve efficiencies and support better health outcomes for patients.
Bringing a decentralized platform into the global healthcare system will bring different benefits to the patient. For one, it will allow for medical records to be owned by the patient, rather than the healthcare provider. Decentralization will also allow for healthcare to become more accessible to all, as it will remove the shackles and allow patients to provide their medical records to any practitioner, anywhere in the world. The tokenization of personal information means patients will be able to provide and receive information quickly and efficiently as they interact with different global healthcare professionals and providers along their healthcare journey. Essential information, such as medical history, insurance details and personal information, will be provided through a platform to ensure information is accessed quickly and stored for every use.
With blockchain-based medical records, prescription data can be updated in real-time by any provider, streamlining the information flow and reducing the risk of errors and contraindications between drugs. Patients can even add information about their over-the-counter medication or homoeopathic remedies, ensuring that care providers and pharmacies have all the information they need to give the right treatment and advice. From a user perspective, this means there is a central, single-access repository of information that is safely stored and housed across a decentralized blockchain.
Smart Contract and Judiciary:
One of the major concerns around the globe is access to justice and with the advancement of technology, there is tremendous scope to make these judicial systems much more efficient and swift. There have been various cases in which a courthouse reopened a case after several years, and it was found that some evidence was either missing or had been tampered with. This is a big issue in countries like India where there is very minimal digitization of such documents, and it has been a great obstruction in strengthening our judicial systems. We thereby propose a system where court proceedings and case-related documents can be stored digitally on decentralized storage with every record stored on the Ethereum blockchain.
Moreover, using blockchain in the legal system will serve as a completely tamper-proof solution with easy accessibility and storage for all its users. The evidence files will be stored encrypted in the decentralized storage, so even if the storage is compromised an attacker can never know the content. The private key of the case is also encrypted with an authorized user’s public key and stored on the smart contract, so an authenticated user can view the case files.
Hence, the objective of this paper is to propose a tamper-proof solution for the digitization of court proceedings in secure storage leveraged by blockchain technology and to also provide accessibility in a secure manner.
Blockchain does not exist in one place, it offers two distinct advantages over a central server. both broader access and greater security. It is impossible to predict all the impacts Blockchain will have on the justice system, except to acknowledge that courts will not be insulated from the effects of this disruptive technology. The authors offer two additional, “crystal-ball” topics for judicial leaders to contemplate: digital evidence standards and court technology architecture. Blockchain’s use as evidence in specific cases, what standards should courts adopt for rendering the data in a human-readable format?
Blockchain and Ai (Artificial Intelligence):
Blockchain is considered a shared and permanent ledger that will be used for the encryption of data in the future. AI engines, on the other hand, enable an individual to analyze and make decisions from the collected data. It is worth mentioning that each technology has its multiple complexions, but artificial intelligence and blockchain together will provide many benefits.
It is clear that blockchain will make AI more consistent, understandable, and logical. When you want to understand and trace back why decisions are made through machine learning, then you have to check its ledger. The ledger holds all the records of the data which will help you with your decision-making process.
Conclusion:
As I mentioned in this article, blockchain is like the ocean. This is just basic stuff. Every content will be an individual article. We’ll try to describe more in the next article with individual content. My company, Frontier Tech BD Limited, will publish more journals about blockchain and implementation.