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Blockchain technology has had a powerful effect on digital data storage and the future of financial transactions. This is true on both online and on private devices, such computers company networks.
Now, you might be tempted to think the changes blockchain ushered into the digital world hit a ceiling. You would be wrong. And It’s not a question of
who or
what firms are driving the future of blockchain; it’s blockchain itself. The nature of blockchain technology will only further catapult it into higher relevance.
Enjoy your privacy: It’s uncopyable
The Internet and pre-blockchain tech was based on the near zero-cost ability to copy data in any quantity. Indeed, the web itself is an expression of that power in much the
same way digital currency is an expression of the power of the blockchain.
Blockchain offers a way to make certain data
impossible to copy. Blockchain servers accomplish this through encryption, and it is this uncopyable nature of the data records that makes expressions of the technology, like cryptocurrency, possible. Eventually, Michael Mainelli of Harvard Business Review thinks blockchain will be used to protect our personal data and even
prove our identities.
Imagine tamper-free elections
When you turn the basic nature of data on its head, it inevitably opens up a wide array of possibilities. Some of which have yet to even be imagined much less contemplated as future advances.
Consider one of the great goals of digital society: an Internet-enabled election. If digital coins became votes, it would be a simple matter of arithmetic to build a system through which any group of people could participate in a single transaction at regular intervals to determine the winner of an election. Since the data involved is keyed to individuals and cannot be copied or tampered with, a blockchain-enabled election would be unassailable, from a technological standpoint.
This is a problem the Internet has been
unable to solve for decades. Blockchain technology could solve it in minutes.
Secure data streaming
Encrypted data streaming and accounting will find its way into numerous storage systems: scientific measurements, legal transactions,
banking and
investing transactions, and medical systems. It’s pretty close to being solved.
Applying the capabilities of blockchain technology to the various kinds of data storage problems already solved by older mechanisms will be the
ultimate engine of innovation. These innovations make the underlying digital currency model secure and faster, and may lead to other breakthroughs in the future.
While the foundations of blockchain technology provide a platform for further innovation, blockchain technology does have its limits. Network speed and processor power limit applications of this technology. Over time, these two hardware problems will fade.
