Blockchain

Imagine a world of computers which would have no single point of failure and would be resilient to all cyberattacks that are making headlines. This is where blockchain technology has given a ray of hope and become the buzz word in the tech scenario. Blockchain is a distributed ledger which challenges the traditional server/client paradigm.

Originally blockchain was advertised as a simple digital ledger that could record transactions in sequence. But later it had become a blockchain ecosystem which had a wider application in the real world other than just the banking transaction. Thus, it has evolved from its first application of Bitcoins to now Smart contracts in Blockchain 2.0.

Blockchain 1.0 which came into existence in 2009 with its primary use as bitcoin blockchain. But, with Blockchain 2.0 we have a plethora of applications including Ethereum, Corda, Hyper ledger, and many more. Blockchain 2.0 also goes beyond from simple transactions to multiple transactions. Secondly, it solves many regulatory and privacy needs thus it can handle more complex needs and is not locked into one vendor. Apart from these, Blockchain 2.0 overcomes some of the existing blockchain issues such as speed and computational cost.

Blockchain won’t be a silver bullet to fix everything that’s wrong with the Internet, but it will be a powerful tool experts and engineers can leverage to harden their systems against the multitude of threats that surround us, especially where centralized weaknesses and single points of failure are concerned. But we should not take the cloud computing analogy literally. The blockchain infrastructure doesn’t replace cloud computing. It unbundles it, and makes it more user-friendly. Thus adoption of Blockchain technology by SBI and Hitachi has made a lot of sense as the new age of internet is moving towards a Cloud based framework which can now be completely protected by Blockchain technology. The Blockchain cloud is a thin cloud if compared to a traditional cloud computing infrastructure, therefore it is more ideally suited for running a new breed of thin programs, specifically known as “smart contracts”, and they are business logic that executes on the blockchain’s Virtual Machinery (VM). Thus in this era of cloud computing Blockchain can actually make things simpler and more secure than the traditional form of cloud computing.

    Cyber security companies like Trend Micro can implement Blockchain Framework and give there users a very secure and easy to use platform which can redefine how secure cloud computing can be in the future especially with the implementation of Blockchain 2.0.  As State Bank Of India recently took lead in bringing lenders and companies together for using Blockchain technology to share information among banks. This will eventually help tackle bad loans which are almost one-fifth of bank’s loan book. SBI also hopes to control banking cyber attacks by including the Blockchain framework into their mainframe. According to The Economic Times, SBI, along with IBM, Microsoft, Skylark, KPMG and 10 commercial banks, may soon be rolling out a technology called Bankchain, to share information amongst banks which would eventually help tackle frauds and streamline the lending process.