Steemit Crypto Academy Contest / S2W3 - Blockchain in our lives. by @ojerindejoel.
INTRODUCTION: Good day Steemians, I bid every one of us welcome to the 3rd week of season 2 and I wish us best of luck in the contest.
Let's get started
When I first started out with cryptocurrency, anytime I hear the word blockchain, I termed it as cryptocurrency, not knowing the formal is more like a parent to the latter. To be candid, I didn’t know until I started taking some lectures in this academy. There is so much more other than cryptocurrencies even though that is the major use case for blockchain and today again, I would be looking or writing on the technology in another dimension as requested of me.
Blockchain technology is getting more prevalent even though many people are only familiar with blockchain currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc. The technology has become so much more than that. Blockchain which is a distributed ledger system that eradicates the need for an intermediary has become part of our lives and the future greatly lies in it.
Various industry like agriculture, gaming, healthcare, real estate, transportation, supply chain, and many more are getting transformed with this technology in numerous ways. We see how the adoption of the technology is already transforming our financial system. The technology has made financial activities safesecurered atransparentent
In the gaming sector, the technology is been used by gamers to trade and make transactions on their collectibles. Before the invention of blockchain, there has not been any safe place for gamers to trade other than some shady forums which have done more bad to the gamers as they are open to scams and cyberattacks.
Looking at everything that is going on around, in my opinion, I believe the technology has impacted and is changing positively the lives of a lot of people that have adopted it.
In this section, I am going to discuss both the advantages and disadvantages of adopting the use of blockchain technology in our everyday life.
There are so many advantages of blockchain technology in our everyday life from which I am going to mention some.
It is open:
One main advantage is that blockchain technology is open, open in the sense that it can be accessed by anyone around the globe or the world. No permission is needed by anyone to join the distributed network. I see this as a tool to tackle **racism** in this modern world. One bad side of racism is that a lot of people missed out on major opportunities as they needed to get some people's permission in other to acquire some things. Blockchain technology is a tool I believe can eradicate this issue if we fully leverage its openness feature.
It is verifiable:
Information stored on the blockchain technology is stored in a decentralized manner i.e., The information can be verified by everyone by using the zero-knowledge proof whereby one person verifies the correctness of a data to another person without revealing anything about the data. This is also a major advantage as this will enhance the integrity of the data and no one at any time will be able to modify the data.
It is permanent:
Information stored on the blockchain network is stored permanently, and how is this done? Do not forget that blockchain technology is a decentralized network that is characterized by several of trustworthy nodes and on these nodes are duplicates or copies of the data stored. This means that adopting this technology will consequently erase one’s worry of losing his or her data or information.
It is free from censorship:
The fact that the technology is free from censorship is even enough for me even though there are still many more benefits. Looking at everything that is going on around us, we can see the effect of censorship, we can see how and what having a single party controls everything brings about. There are a lot of laid down processes before one can have things done and without finishing them, there is nothing one can be done. This is where blockchain technology comes in, a tool that has no single party at the center of it, no one.
It is very secure:
Blockchain technology makes use of a technique known as hashing techniques to store each transaction on a block that is connected to each other. There is so much more to this but I will just stop it here, for now, we just need to know that the technology is very secure and our digital data are pretty much safe on it.
It is immutable:
Data stored on the technology cannot be tampered with and this is because of its decentralized nature. An attempt to modify or change anything will be reflected in all nodes and so, no fraud can be done. This will ensure the originality of the data.
It is efficient:
A lot of time in our traditional systems, mistakes are being made often time by the intermediaries or third party but with the use of Blockchain technology, transactions will be pretty much faster, less stressful, efficient, and without any third-party mistakes as there is no third-party. Everything will go smoothly.
It is transparent:
Transactions made on the technology is available to everyone at any time and this is because all the nodes in the network have a copy of all the transaction that occurred on the network. With this, everyone can verify the credibility of anyone’s claim of the transactions he or she has made and this will consequently reduce scamming rates.
Just like I had said earlier, there is still more to these advantages but I think this is enough for one post. Now let us get over to the disadvantages.
📌 One major disadvantage of the use of blockchain technology is that it consumes much energy. According to a survey as of 2018, up 0.3 percent of the world’s electricity had been used for the verification of transactions in the technology.
Well, there are been some major improvements like the invention of the PoS and other consensus mechanisms which are more energy-efficient than that of the first generation own but which are still not that efficient. Right now, if the whole world should adopt the technology, I am not sure the electricity available will last us for long.
📌 Another issue or disadvantage is how less scalable will the technology be when it is globally adopted. The issue I believe is one of the major drawbacks to the adoption of technology. Global adoption means more users which will also bring about more transactions, and just as we know that only a couple of transactions can be held on a single block, transactions won’t get executed as fast as they should be and are not as efficient as it should.
Increasing the block size is the solution to that but then, there is what we call, the blockchain trilemma: making that tough decision among, decentralization, scalability, and security. I believe there is still much work to be done for the global adoption of this technology to have a great impact.
Here, I am going to share some of the sectors or industries that I believe blockchain technology will disrupt in the future. Well, permit me to use the word ‘disrupt’. Vividly, the future lies with blockchain technology.
Have you ever imagined a future where blockchain technology is used in voting systems? Well, I had. Anytime I remember or see things that occur during election time in my country, I use to get heartbroken and always wish for a technology like this to be implemented in the voting systems. In the current voting systems, we see issues like, rigging of votes, election manipulation, sometimes, hacking of the voting machine (EVM- Electronic voting machine), and capturing of the polling booth, this occurred recently in the state in my country, it was caught on camera but still, nothing was done.
Well, I am not sure if this will be implemented in the voting systems as those powerful politicians that don’t believe in democracy will fight against it will their resources. However, there is a future in it and this is because I believe anything is possible.
With this technology, people can votes online easily and anonymously unlike in the current system where one will have to line up for a long period of time and also, get exposed to a lot of things and even attack. One’s votes might not even be counted due to the third party that is involved in collating the results.
With the technology, votes can be counted with 100% accuracy, elections will be very transparent, secured, and many more.
One use case of blockchain technology in the voting systems is MiVote which is a blockchain voting platform and a token-based platform like a digital ballot box. On the platform, voters vote through their smartphone and their votes are registered into a blockchain ledger. we can see how impactful the technology is already in the sector.
Some other areas in the government bodies where the technology will be useful are
The digital assets registries: For the fast and secure registry of an asset or property.
Taxes: Audits will be made easier, no fraud will be allowed, and this will even ensure low tax rates.
Notary services: The technology will help verify the authenticity of seals.
There are a lot of problems with conventional banks, let me give us an example, take for instance you want to send $500 to a friend, there will be a bank charge let us say 50$, meaning that you are only sending $450. There is even a tendency for her to receive less than that due to some unseen charges or how do I put it😒. In a nutshell, the process will take a lot of time, it is expensive and mistakes can still be made.
All these problems get eradicated with blockchain technology as it provides a peer-to-peer payment system that is fast, safe, secured, and with low fees. So why pay high transaction fees and still be worrying when there is a tool that can do that without worrying.
One use case of blockchain technology in the banking sector is Abra It is an application that provides peer-to-peer money transfers. On it, users can store, transfer, and also receive digital money on their digital device and which can be withdrawn via an Abra teller.
One major issue in this our digital world is cyberattacks. This attack has caused a lot of damage all around and just as we all know that the world is getting more digitalized, we have to find a way of curbing this issue. Blockchain technology can be the way, it can protect our data from authorized access and any tampering.
The technology is ideal for any environment in which adequate security is needed as it is a decentralized system and all information stored on it is encrypted using what we call a cryptographic algorithm. Due to its peer-to-peer connections, any malicious attack can be easily identified.
The fact that the technology eliminates central authority also helps in providing a secure and transparent way of recording transactions without even disclosing one private information.
One use case of blockchain technology in the bank sector is Guardtime which has experienced a lot of success and with this, I believe a lot of companies are going to follow through.
To be honest, there are so many issues such as data breaches, theft, loss of data, counterfeit medicine, and many more with the current health system. This has caused so much harm. In the current system, anyone can have access to people's private information because people‘s health data are centrally located. Sometimes, locating the right file which might be urgently needed might takes so much time all these are not so good.
These issues can be solved thoroughly with the use of blockchain technology as there is no such thing as a central authority. Also, it is difficult for any hacker to modify or corrupt data stored on the technology as each block is connected to another block and distributed across the blockchain network.
I will be talking more about this in the next section so let us move on. Oh! Before I do so I should mention one good use case which is United Healthcare which has improved the privacy, security, and interoperability of medical records since adopting the technology.
The technology is able to trace every step of a supply chain. For instance, let us say I order a gadget and when it got delivered, I found out that it wasn’t what I was expecting. The seller can trace where in the supply chain the order went wrong as every move on the technology is permanently transparent and verifiable.
A good use case of this is The Pacific Tuna Project which makes use of blockchain technology to manage fishing information like the exporting and importing details and purchasing details to track tuna fishing. This outrightly curbs illegal fishing.
Some other industries I believe the technology will further disrupt in the future are the *Insurance sector, Cloud Storage sector, Real Estate sector, Transportation,, etc.
Well regarding my opinions on implementing blockchain technology, just as I was saying earlier, there are many loopholes and security issues in the current healthcare systems. Issues such as storage of medical data, clinical trials, drug supply chain, patient details, and many more are even now overwhelming for big health companies to deal with. Let us look over these issues one by one.
Counterfeit Drugs
This has been the major issue or problem facing the current health system. As of today majority of healthcare companies lack the technology to track drugs from the manufacturing stage to where it is delivered to the patients and as a result of this, a lot of ddrugs get counterfeited. These counterfeited drugs which are very difficult to detect sometimes are at some time life-threatening to patients and even the company can lose a lot of money for buying counterfeit products.
Poor Data Management
This is also another huge aspect in which the current health system fails terribly. Many times we get that some data are lost or could not be found and sometimes, it could take several hours to locate some files. In reality, this could lead to delays in receiving some treatments or some vital information that can cause serious to patients.
No patient Privacy
Coupled with other issues that have been mentioned with the current healthcare system is that the system doesn’t have privacy for its patients as patients don’t have control over who can have access to their personal information or who cannot. This also has some bad side effect that is not good for both the patient and the health sector.
Inadequate data storage and Poor Cybersecurity
Storing patient data is inevitable as this information is necessary for different reasons. The current system data storage system has become obsolete and is not even enough for the growing amount of patient information, coupled with this issue is that the data are easily targeted by cybercriminals.
Increasing cost
The manufacturing cost of drugs and equipment is high and coupled with this, due to the inefficiencies of the supply sector, the shipping fees increase too, making it very hard for many people to access proper healthcare facilities.
In my opinion, I believe with the implementation of blockchain technology, all these issues can be tackled and there will be a great improvement in the sector and this is because of the following.
With the technology, drugs can be tracked from the point where it was produced to the end consumers just as I had explained while I was explaining supply chain management earlier. Also, medical test reports cso be tracked and so, patients will know just when he or she is expected to get the delivery of various medical tests.
Furthermore, using this technology will at every point in time ensure data accuracy. Just as we know that the technology is immutable so also is the data stored on it. No criminal can alter or modify information that has been stored and encrypted.
Moreover, Implementing the technology will bring about adequate security that is needed to protect patients' personal information and some private credentials from cyberattacks. We need to know that the handling cost of this technology is also less as compared with that of the current system and so the technology can greatly disrupt the health sector.
Apart from all this, implementing this technology in the health sector will also bring about interoperability where various parties in the industries will be connected. This will also make life easier for both the company and the patients as a lot of legal documents can be verified in a shorter time.
Just as we can see in some of the company that has implemented the technology, the implementation has brought a lot of positive improvements to the company.
A use case is Medicalchain’s blockchain which is a platform that maintains the integrity of health records. Doctors or hospitals can request a patient's information that has a record of the origin and protects the patient's identity from unauthorized access or sources.
Built on the blockchain is MyClinic.com where patients can consult with their doctors via video and then pay with the platform tokens known as MedTokens. The blockchain has experienced a lot of great success since its invention.
I hope many companies will follow through.
Thanks for reading through.
I am using this medium to invites @bolaji001, @kennydavebobo, @talktofaith, @simonnwigwe, @sd974201, and @ngoenyi to review my post.
This is an interesting fact that you mentioned here. Alot of people know very little about Blockchain, they know only about the currency. That's why they don't fully understand crypto currency.
You have done a gone post my friend. You are the second person to talk about medicalchain and it is a good Platform for healthcare sector.
Good luck in the contest.
Exactly, not knowing what brings about cryptocurrency or where cryptocurrency is built on made it hard fot people to fully understand what it is.
Thanks for reading and reviewing.
Thanks a lot for the invite. I will try to make my entry as soon as possible.
Even the blind can witness the change that Blockchain has had on man. It is open and as such there will be no coverup as we usually witness in the centralized system where souce documents can go missing and the innocent staff will be blamed for such and even purnished. Thanks for all the details you have included, they are all through. I wish you success
You are welcome ma, even the deaf can see.
Thanks for reviewing.
Yes this is because you become popular after you have gained success. Ethereum at 200 dollars was not know by many people. It only gained much popularity after its price surge into the 1000s.
Yes, this has made gaming life so easy and everyone wants to be a gamer now because it pays a lot. Previously people have little or no interest in being gamers but now the interest in high.
Apart from it being able to tackle racism , it is also very good as no one can decide who can use the blockchain. Whether you are rich or poor you all have the same opportunities on the blockchain.
Yes this is true. Once information is on the blockchain the level of trust for that information is high as the user is aware that the information that has been put there has gone through series of verification.
Wow this is great to hear. I think this is a very good innovation and I will definitely be learning more about it to use in the future. The part I love about it is the patients being able to pay with their token on the platform.
Wow! This is a huge review.. Thanks for reading and reviewing.
This is very true. One can easily verify information on blockchain. This is one feature of blockchain that makes it very unique.
Thanks for sharing this beautiful piece.
Thanks for reviewing too, I really appreciate your effort.
Yes you're right just like you've have said people are not concerned about what Blockchain technology entails they don't care to know about the impact of understanding the tech behind currencies will give them. I believe if almost everyone can get to know at least basis of Blockchain tech it will be easier to flow with more advance trend of the tech, because Blockchain is evolving faster as we're still going to witness more suffocating concepts and mechanism in Blockchain technology just like Web5 still finding its way to be established.
You did well in analysing the implementation of blockchains in the health sector as well as your well arranged discussion of future of blockchain, and how this technology is impacting the world.
Dear friend you always blow my mind with your well detailed and structured content I am honored to read this wonderful post.
I wish you luck in the contest
Best Regards
@kennydavebobo
Yes, yes.. Thanks for the review.
The goal was not to blow but to burst😊
I agree with you becuse blockchain technology is very secure and private and I have never seen a Secure technology like this in my entire life. It is really good. This is indeed revolutions and people should embrace this technology as much as possible because this is the solution to many of our problems. My dear friend i want to ask from you that blockchain is really helpful for you.
Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge with us and I invite you to visit on my post. Come and engage.
Greetings 🇵🇰
Thanks for reviewing, I appreciate your effort.
Hello friend,
Greetings..
You have mentioned two major disadvantages of Blockchain, with one being the issue of scalability. Well, we will all agree that the advantages of Blockchain outweighs the disadvantages, hence the impact in our day to day lives. Good post generally.
Yes, you are right.
Thanks for reviewing.
Thank you for publishing an article in the Crypto Academy community today. We have accessed your article and we present the result of the assessment below
Comments/Recommendation
Excellent performance. I commend your writing skills and presentation. Thank you for participating in this contest.
Total|9/10
Thanks for the review.