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Blockchain changing lives of people

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The advent of Bitcoin has brought about a lot of development in the digital technology space. These developments has affected the way people interact applications in the digital space. What makes these developments takes place at a rapid pace is because of the technology that Bitcoin runs on–Blockchain.

At the time of creation, blockchain was supposed to be used as the infrastructure which allows transfer of 'digital money', however, as time went on it became apparent that it can also be used for other purposes. Because of this, it has affected the way people communicate and interact with current facilities, as they are becoming obsolete.

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A lot of blockchain companies have popped up, and are using their platforms to impact people positively. They are entering into different industries like retail, housing, government, etc.

For instance, blockchain technology is helping to reduce and somewhat eliminate voters fraud during elections. A relatively known company followmyvote is helping to make this happen.

With smart contract that is embedded onto a blockchain, the collection of tax from citizens can be streamlined.

We can also see how blockchain is behaving in the retail segment of people's lives. Blockchain technology is being used to get the behavior of consumers after which they are connected to the right retailer. This helps the customers and retailers to quickly do business without going through the hassles of searching for the right one.

We can also see how it is being used to increase loyalty. There is a loyalty platform that is blockchain based called Loyyal. It's blockchain is created as a loyalty blockchain where customers get loyalty points that can be traded for their personal benefits.

Finally, we can see blockchain in the real estate. The popular blockchain Ethereum is being employed by ShelterZoom to help the processes related to payment and management of properties become seamless. It is also a platform where different entities such buyers, sellers, agents, etc come together to interact with each other.

Users are can now invest in a real estate. A company InRento uses blockchain as a crowd funding platform where users can get monthly payments by investing in rental properties.

There's so much more to show that blockchain technology has been used to change lives of people. The above mentioned are just a part of them.

Main advantages and disadvantages in adopting the use of blockchain in everyday life?

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Blockchain technology has shown it's potential as to what it can achieve and the pace at which it is moving at is alarming. We have seen a lot of changes in how we deal with record of data digitally. This is very important as it protects the originality and integrity of a generated data which can be useful in the future.

Even though it is a welcoming technology, there are still some downsides to it. Here we shall be looking at the advantages and disadvantages of the adoption of blockchain in our lives.

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Advantages

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1. Has a robust data management

It has a very safe and secure management of data. Since it is decentralized in nature, data is not stored centrally, but is distributed among different servers in the network. This way data is kept intact and can be retrieved at anytime.

Also, with this setup it becomes very difficult for anyone to gain access to and alter the recorded data.

2. Has higher level of security

The digital space brought about the ease of doing things. It also brought about frauds, cheats, and cyber crimes in high folds. Therefore you need to be security conscious when operating digitally.

Since blockchain operates on the digital space, making use of it will reduce these frauds, cheats, and cyber crimes drastically. Because it's architecture was designed to do so.

3. Increased efficiency In operations

The markets are very competitive and to gain traction, businesses need to improve their productive and operational processes in order to achieve more in less time.

Making use of blockchain can perform such desire. It can help to automate different operations of a business like verification of data, record of payment, and data management, etc. Through this means, different operations of a business self validate it's database, thus helping the business to save resources if they had to perform the tasks manually.

4. Optimization of associated costs

Two major things a business looks at is profitability and the quality of their service. In order to get and retain customers they need to balance those two things stated above. For this to happen it has to optimize the costs of running the business.

By employing the use of blockchain a business can save costs as they eliminate third party involvement, which can incur unnecessary costs.

5. Lack of censorship of any operation

Due to the decentralized nature of blockchain, it doesn't need a central authority to decide how it behaves. This makes it such that nothing can be censored in the system. Whether it is a transaction that was done or a statement that was made by a user on the platform.

Another thing to consider is that because of the use of hashing principles in a blockchain, it is very difficult to go back and change or reverse transactions or operations that have been carried out previously and then confirmed, validated, and stored.

6. A peer-to-peer system

Blockchain uses a type of architecture which make it a peer-to-peer system. This means that the tasks and workload are distributed among members (peers) of the network. Therefore all members (peers) have an equal privilege in administrating tasks and this leads to an equal potent participation in the network.

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This helps to reduce the dependencies on needed resources like processing power, disk storage, or network bandwidth that is usually found in centralized systems as it is readily available by participating members.

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Disadvantages

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1. It lacks reasonable scalability

When compared with traditional centralized systems, blockchain is less scalable. A typical transaction is successful depending on the congestion of the network. This is because as more nodes join the network it becomes increasingly slow.

For instance Bitcoin blockchain can process only 4.6 transactions per second, while the popular entity, Visa, can process up to 1700 transactions per second. Looking at it we can say that at the moment blockchain isn't 'ready' for real world applications. There's a lot of improvements needed before it can be ready for the real adoption.

2. It is not a distributed computing system

Even though blockchain is a distributed ledger, it depends on nodes to function properly. This then go on to mean that that the quality of the blockchain comes from the quality of the nodes. Therefore, it is not a distributed computing system where nodes are not required to run the network.

In addition, a distributed computing system follows a set of rules to verify, record, and create a transactional history for every transaction. Though it is similar to what a blockchain does, however, a blockchain lacks the synergy, mutual assistance, and paralleling found in distributed computing systems.

3. Some blockchain has a negative impact on the environment

Blockchains that make use of Proof-of-Work (PoW) system of operation make use of a lot of energy which negatively impacts the environment.

The popular blockchain, Bitcoin, uses the PoW system where miners are incentivized to perform complex mathematical equations. During this process a lot of energy and resources are consumed. This happens every time the network updates new transactions.

4. They are sometimes inefficient

Sometimes the storage mechanism is not efficient as it can lead to storage problems when more nodes gets into the network. This is a very serious matter because whenever data is updated, nodes has to replicate it quickly.

To add to this as more transactions takes place and as more nodes join the network, the network grows. However, this growth also causes the network to experience slowed operations, which makes it not ideal for commercial use where a fast and secure blockchain is required.

5. Once data is stored it cannot be reversed

This has a way of affecting users privacy. When data is recorded it cannot be reversed. Also, once it is written it cannot be removed. This makes it difficult for a user to remove a trace from the system at a time it is no longer needed, which means privacy rights have been hindered.

6. It is not a completely secure system

Even though blockchain is more secure than other systems, it still has it's inherent risks that can be capitalized on even though it's difficult. Some of the risks associated with blockchain includes 51% attack, double-spending, DDoS's attacks, and cryptographic cracking.

Because of the way blockchain has been designed and created, those are the risks associated with blockchain. Though the likely hood that they occur are slim, the fact remains they can still happen.

The future of blockchain

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Since the inception of cryptocurrecy a lot of things has happened. One of them is the total market capitalization of the cryptocurrecy market reaching an all time high of $3 trillion. This wouldn't have been possible without the system underpinning it–Blockchain.

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The blockchain system continues to gain relevance beyond cryptocurrecy. It is increasingly being adopted in business operations dramatically.

It has become apparent that blockchain isn't limited to cryptocurrecy alone as it has use cases in other areas like healthcare, gambling, insurance, real estate, etc. With this in mind we can expect a sort of 'blockchain revolution' on the future in the global economy. As I write, eight out of 10 largest companies of the world are developing new products which is driven by blockchain.

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How it is impacting the world

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Blockchain is impacting the world in so many ways and in different aspects.

One of them is cross-border payments. IBM created a Blockchain World Wire which allows banks to settle and clear cross-border payments at a quick rate. The technology was created in conjunction with Stellar Consensus Protocol. It is integrated into a banks payment system and helps to convert digital assets into traditional currencies.

Another instance is a San Francisco based based blockchain, Ripple, which recently partnered with a company that is based in Dubai known as PyyPl. Together they operate a blockchain based platform that provides financial services that are not related to banks.

We can still see so much businesses adopting blockchain with the implications like lower costs, higher revenue, and efficient use of time being the driver.

A company Consensys Quorum provides services that are mainly for enterprises which helps companies to manage large scale blockchain networks as the grow. It was originally developed by JP Morgan.

Spotify also acquired a database that is blockchain based called MediaChain to help it solve it's copyrights and royalty issues, and to help resolve the rights of holders.

Smart contracts which are digital contract that is created on a blockchain is being employed in the law profession. In Arizona State, smart contracts are employed in certain legal situation where different parties can create legal agreements that are enforceable through the smart contracts. In California State, blockchain is used to issue marriage licenses.

The logistics sector has a lot of complexities associated with it. From threading multiple continents to huge number of invoices and payment that involves a large number of entities, which can extend into months of delays. But blockchain is a viable option that can help transform these processes involved in this sector.

One company providing blockchain services is TradeLens. It uses blockchain to provide a holistic view of shipment data and documents which brings transparency and an improved efficiency. It is developed by IBM. In 2020 alone it has already processed up to 1 billion shipments as more than half of the world's container ship are registered on the platform.

So much has been ongoing with blockchain being the core of the processes involved.

My opinion about the implementation of blockchains in the health sector

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So far the use of blockchain technology has revolutionalized the health sector. Rather than depending on a centralized way of storing data of medical patients, a decentralized method through blockchain has been seen to be a preferred alternative.

Due to the nature of blockchain patients medical records can be transferred within a medical organization easily and swiftly without any delay and in a transparent way. Also, as it is immutable, the medical records are difficult to change or alter, thereby making it original and authentic as at the time of recording. In the case of keeping medical records private, it could be encrypted using blockchain and transferred to it's destination.

It has a wide variety of use so much that even something as minute as managing the temperature for storing drugs and other related things can be done using blockchain. It can also be used for the purposes of tracking and tracing new drug orders all the way from the suppliers down to the medical center.

Is it positive or negative? Explain a use case

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From the opinions I have given above concerning the implementation of blockchain in the health sector, it has a positive impact. As we can see it is changing the way medical records are being stored, transferred, and retrieved.

Use case: MedicalChain

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MedicalChain is a blockchain that is created for the purpose of the health sector. It is used to manage medical records for different healthcare organizations.

They aim to let medical patients have control over their medical records as they can have access to it at any time and can transfer it to any health care when needed.

They also want to remove the inefficiencies and inaccuracies that is associated with fragmented and siloed medical records of patients from bottom to top in the health sector.

With MedicalChain, no one needs to visit any hospital or clinic for medical records or information. Anyone can simply gain access to the database of patients who have allowed it. And the information stored are up to date, as accurate as can be, and made to fulfill your enquiry.

Patients have the liberty to grant access to their medical records and to revoke the access through setting up a limited time frame. This way they have control of their records and can guarantee the security of their records. This helps to improve the experiences that users get on the platform.

The medical record is also known as electronic health record (EHR).

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MedicalChain has a native token, MTN. At the time of writing, it's price is $0.001554 and is ranked at 1673.