Blockchain: How To Join The Revolution

by Kenneth Evans, Guest Contributor

Technological innovation is radically changing the way the world operates and Blockchain is an example of disruptive technology that could have the same impact on the appearance of the Internet at the time.

Blockchain has allowed the implementation of what has been called the Internet of Value through the implementation of a registry book globally distributed in millions of computers. Shared and accessible to everyone, it allows any asset to be exchanged in a secure, immutable, almost immediate way and without the need for intermediaries.
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Ready to use blockchain to your advantage?

The companies that are evaluating their adoption seek their disruptive potential to define new business models, increasing transparency, minimizing the possibilities of fraud and reducing the cost of reconciling transactions, among other benefits.

Everything points to 2018 being the year of Blockchain's takeoff. This is indicated by the volume of companies that have launched technology pilots and by the real business scenarios that they have begun to implement through the development and implementation of blockchain solutions.

Currently, there are three types of Blockchain networks based on different participant association modes:

Public: Anyone in the world can validate, register and consult transactions in the registry book (the best-known case of a public network is Bitcoin).

Private: Write permissions are kept centralized in an organization. Read permissions are granted by the owner of the network and may be public or restricted.

Consortium: The consensus mechanism is controlled by the group of participants (consortium). Blockchain reading permission is restricted to participants - as in the private type - but the consortium can grant reading permissions to external entities. Today there are some 25 consortiums, where 52% of them belong to the financial sector (Examples are R3 in the financial sector, B3i for insurance or Dutch Logistics Group, application in logistics scenarios).

Due to its origins, Blockchain is very much associated with the financial sector. However, its ability to digitize any asset, to be able to register ownership over them and to allow property change transactions, makes it easier to find application scenarios in all industries:

• In public security it allows, for example, to register the identity of people, objects, families of objects. It has been used in refugee registration and monitoring scenarios.
• In the Insurance sector, for process scenarios and claims management or fraud prediction.
• In the Media sector, for the management of digital rights, tracking of fans, monetization of games.
• In the Medical sector, for the sharing of records, personalized medicine, audit of regulatory compliance.
• In the register of ownership over assets is being used, for example, for diamonds or on farms and land.
• In the Public sector, it has an application, for example for voting processes, vehicle registration, copyright registration, etc.
• In the automotive sector, as a reliable record of information on the different sensors of a vehicle, unique identity with insurance entities, workshops, potential buyers, traffic or the government during its life cycle.
• In the Real estate, as a repository for the verification and storage of property records.

Evolution of Blockchain
Since the appearance of Bitcoin, Blockchain has evolved enabling new scenarios that transcend the record of transactions between individuals.

Blockchain 1.0
The first version is linked to the appearance of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency and allows the registration of transactions between peers. The record bookstores the digital signature of the entities (individuals, car), along with complementary information such as property relations, events and changes in those property relationships.

Blockchain 2.0
The second version enables Smart Contract with the Ethereum, which implements the existing logic in the terms and conditions of any physical contract so that they last until it expires. The Smart Contract is self-executing and reacts to specific events and messages. Based on them, it performs actions and transfer of assets between the parties, leaving a record of everything, so it is completely transparent for audit purposes and regulatory compliance.

Blockchain 3.0
The third version allows to satisfy the necessary business requirements in the adoption of a technology as well as, for example, the management of certificates and identities, the management of the encryption, the exploitation of the data that there is in the Blockchain with data services and machine learning, monitoring, management and operation of the platform.

Because of the importance of technology and the opportunities it opens, Microsoft has been betting on it for some time now and has just launched Blockchain as a Service (BaaS), a complete stack of modular logic to build Blockchain-based business consortiums, using Azure as a cloud platform. Among its main advantages it allows the following:

• Selection of any blockchain technology depending on the business scenario to be solved.
• Creation of solutions quickly and cheaply in Dev / Test / Prod environments over Azure to innovate private, public scenarios, based on permits and consortiums.
• Easy sharing of solutions when leaning on Azure.
• Availability of basic services for companies that will allow the integration of solutions with traditional systems in a simple way.

BaaS has a Base Platform that allows using almost any Blockchain implementation of the market (Ethereum, Ripple, Open Chain ... etc.) And with a Middleware that provides basic services to build solutions on that platform.

The basic services in the Middleware consist of:

• Management of Identities and Certificates, for authentication, authorization, generation of keys, certificates, and permits for consortium chains.
• Encryption Services, to allow data in these fields only visible to participants and entities with access (owner, regulators).
• Crypt lets services, to enable a middleware layer that ensures that the architecture supports access to external data from a Smart Contract without compromising security.

Blockchain Gateway Services, to provide transactional integrity to operations between different registry books (e.g.: transfers of financial instruments in a supply chain that transcends Blockchain networks of different suppliers). Coco Framework, recently announced by Microsoft, enables the creation of highly scalable and confidential Blockchain networks, allowing the integration of node networks based on different existing market protocols (Corda, Ethereum ... etc.).

Data services, Big Data, Machine Learning, Advanced Analytics, Business Intelligence for Smart Contracts, Blockchains, Consortia and Regulators.

Management and operations, tools for the deployment, management, and operations of registry books distributed in business consortiums.
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Author Bio:

Kenneth Evans is a Content Marketing Strategist for Top App Development Companies, a research platform for app development companies in USA, UK, India, UAE, Australia and around the world. He has been contributing to various blogging platforms and Forums.

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