There are significant advantages to incorporating Blockchain technology into the digital landscape of many day-to-day operations. Whether an individual with personal information to protect, a business in need of smart contracts, or a sensor in an IoT (Internet of Things) system that transmits privileged information to a database – Blockchain offers everything a framework of security and stability.
In our first blog about Blockchain, we covered the basic terminology and processes that underlie Blockchain. In today’s blog, we want to tackle the specific benefits of blockchain technology in detail. In this blog we will:
- Review sample uses of Blockchain technology, as detailed in our last post, to develop a context for the technology’s advantages
- Explain how Blockchain technology:
- Improves Security and Anonymity
- Guarantees Immutability
- Is Energy Efficient
- Is Economically Progressive
Reviewing Common Uses of Blockchain
The decentralized technology of a Blockchain network has already proven advantageous in a whole variety of sectors and systems. Being able to rely on a “trustless network” (a network that requires no trust, because it’s unimpeachably secure) unsurprisingly helps a whole range of people and products.
Blockchain first developed as a legitimizing system for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. It should come as no surprise that it has become the foundational infrastructure for state-of-the-art money transfer services, securing both cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies. Financial services will never be the same again.
Blockchain has enormous use for transactions and contracts of all kinds, thanks to the immutable ledger at its core. Never before has it been so easy and effective to guarantee a payout or legal transfer of property. And it makes deliveries up and down the supply chain more efficient and effective.
Whether you’re a musician in contract with a streaming service, the owner of real estate, or an NFT artist, Blockchain technology enables you to legitimize the ownership and value of your property.
And a government or database entrusted with sensitive information doesn’t have to worry about data leaks or hackers any longer. Each new block in the chain, each transferred piece of information is immutable, secured in a decentralized manner, and thus impregnable.
If you’re one of our Emritans, you’re no doubt familiar with another common use of Blockchain technology. The Emrit CoolSpot provides proof of coverage to the Helium smart home technology network, thereby securing that particular IoT network, and earning our miners passive income.
To put it simply: there are limitless uses for Blockchain technology. It has already begun to shape a whole variety of digital interactions. And that’s only the beginning, thanks to companies like ours, specializing in distributing blockchain infrastructure and building the web of the future.
But what unites all of these disparate examples? What are the actual advantages of Blockchain technology over traditional digital interactions? Let’s delve into all of those advantages, from the ones you almost certainly know about, to the ones that might seem more elusive – but are equally impactful.
The Advantages of Blockchain Technology
Security and Anonymity
The most obvious and plain-spoken advantage of Blockchain networks is their enhanced security vis-à-vis traditional networks. Whereas the majority of the current internet operates from centralized servers, Blockchain is completely decentralized, providing anonymous, randomized security to each information exchange.
The technology relies on the computing power of access notes at the edge of the network to confirm and substantiate information. Those nodes can be owned and automatically operated by individual consumers like yourself. Gone are the days of some grey eminence storing your personal information in a central server fort, only for it to appear in a data leak.
Guaranteed Immutability
Immutability is a term that’s thrown around a lot in conversations about Blockchain. An immutable ledger is actually one of the more general definitions of what Blockchain is. It sounds complex, but is actually rather simple, in the right context.
In the pre-digital age, a well-run business might’ve kept a record of its transactions in a hand-written ledger book. If someone wanted to steal from that business, they might sneak into the store at night to change some numbers in the ledger, so that their theft would go unnoticed.
Fast forward to the digital age. The same thing can happen to businesses that keep a ledger online. While there’s no physical lockpicking and erasing, if the ledger is stored in a central server and that server is hacked, the only copy of the ledger will be altered. And even if you notice something is missing or wrong, your only record has been altered.
While that feels a little less approachable than a physical ledger book and sneaky thief, it really is exactly the same thing. And Blockchain technology makes that kind of theft or fraud virtually impossible.
Each block in the Blockchain is a record of a confirmed transaction – and a copy of that Blockchain is kept at every single decentralized access node. If someone were to try and alter information on a transaction at one node, it would be identified as fraudulent by the rest of the network. That’s how Blockchain guarantees the permanence and immutability of transactions and information.
Energy Efficiency
Blockchain can be extremely energy-efficient compared to centralized server systems. Whereas each action in a centralized network has to pass through the central server, Blockchain can randomly select a group of access nodes to perform a consensus mechanism on a transaction, keeping huge parts of the network uninvolved.
That dramatically reduces the computing power needed for common interactions. In a world where energy is at the core of so many conversations – from environmental to political ones, that’s a significant upgrade. It’s kind of like investing in fuel-efficient buses for a city’s transportation system.
Economically Progressive
The last key advantage of Blockchain technology we want to dial in on might be less readily apparent than the other ones. But it’s nevertheless a huge part of the ethos underlying the digital revolution – and our company.
Because Blockchain technology operates on a decentralized network, it requires everyday people all over the world to provide it with computing power in order to function. Because contributions of power to Blockchain transactions are rewarded in cryptocurrency (crypto mining), blockchain offers an unprecedented amount of economic potential to normal people – provided they have access to the infrastructure.
A distributed Blockchain infrastructure company like Emrit aims to provide subsidized technology to people like you and share the financial opportunities of Blockchain in a mutually beneficial way. Blockchain benefits us all and offers a vision of a shared future – it’s about much more than information security.
Summary: Improving Individual Lives – and the World
Blockchain technology has the raw capacity to secure information, prove and guarantee ownership, and reduce the amount of energy wasted on antiquated computing processes every day. And at the same time, it’s designed with the progressive needs and rights of the 21st century digital consumer. In today’s blog we covered:
- A brief review of all the various sectors in which Blockchain technology is already having an impact
- An explanation of all the ways in which Blockchain technology is advantageous to our present moment, from its security and immutability to its energy efficiency and decentralized economic model
That last point bears repeating. When a technology can be harnessed to not only secure individuals in the digital world, but to share the automatic wealth of that new era with all kinds of people, it’s truly a technology for a new digital era.
With the purposeful replacement of central digital authority with a decentralized network come new possibilities for individual consumers.
And those possibilities are not some far off fantasy. In fact, by becoming part of our Emrit community, you can begin participating right away. For more on our business, our critical role in Helium mining, and our projects in development, browse our website, join our project, and subscribe to this blog.
