What Is Not True About Blockchain ?

Being a blockchain enthusiast i am so intrigued by this decentralized technology and extremely fascinated by its power to change the way data used to be stored and authenticated. For the first time any two parties who wants to transact can come to consensus and transact value in the form of a digital asset(digital currency) without, paying any transaction fee and any third party intervention. This No-Trust system is going to be the most trusted and secured mechanism of digital data authentication and data storage in the coming few years, where data will be safe, verified and secure .

The world is talking about Bitcoin and many others digital cryptocurrency and how it is disrupt the currency market in the coming decade or so. But what is more exciting is the technology of Blockchain which is much more valuable than the digital asset it is empowering. Now businesses or individuals can exchange or sign contracts digitally, where these contracts are embedded in digital code and stored in transparent, shared databases, where they are protected from deletion, tampering, and revision. Future world will have contracts, processes, tasks, payment all being digitized with a unique & secure signature which can identified, verified, validated, stored forever & will be tamper proof. Such a massive potential this blockchain wave will have to create a much deeper impact on everything and everyone.

I have already covered a lot about cryptocurrency and blockchain fundamentals in the past. I have discussed with all of you about

1. Blockchain
2. Bitcoin
3. Ethereum
4. Litecoin
5. Ripple
6. Smart Contract
7. NEO Blockchain
8. Wallet

& much more, But today we will try to understand:What Is Not true for the Blockchain?

What Is Not A Blockchain ?

As it is known that the technology at the heart of bitcoin, ripple, litecoin and other virtual currencies is blockchain, which is an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way. But what you don’t know is that

1. Blockchain Is Not A Bitcoin :

Bitcoin is not a Blockchain and Vice-versa. Bitcoin in reality sits at the top of the blockchain like our apps sits on the top of the database. Where apps does all transaction to store & access the data into the database structure, similarly blockchain holds all the bitcoin transactions records which can be verified. Bitcoin is a pure digital currency which uses the blockchain as underlying tech to use it as a database ledger.

Business blockchain manages digital identity with priority and makes and picks up some selective transactions as compared to bitcoins which utilizes intensive Proof of Work, which is quite resource intensive.

2. Blockchain Is Not A Currency:

Again as we discussed earlier blockhchain cannot be a digital currency like bitcoin as it is mainly a database which holds transaction records. It is similar to say that mongoDb the database behind paypal is not a currency.

3. Blockchain Is Not A Product:

Many Decentralized Apps are being built on blockchain where it is acting like fabric but the blockchain itself is not that app or a product. These products use it as a utility and is mainly built on top of it.

4. Blockchain is not a replacement to existing transaction processing mechanism(At least in the current given context)

To be able to replace our currently existing transaction mechanism blockchain has to fulfill some important critieria like :

1. It has a widely accepted business network where transaction can happen seamlessly and assets are transacted securley
2. It Should be have & be able to verify multiple accounts across the distributed network.
3. Should be able to trace & keep a record of who did the transaction and what value has been transacted at which timestamp.
4. Should be able to do secure and trusted transactions
5. Should hold one true record which is to be shared across the network to be verified.

If all the above value and criteria is met than only it can a candidate to replace our conventional transaction system else it will be too early to say that it can replace it fully.

5. Blockchain is not a replacement to our existing distributed database mechanism:

Currently many apps are built over this distributed database technology and this tech works wonderful where there is no need of business network, so Blockchain being a decentralized database can complement it well, but can’t replace it fully, because of its limitation to work on large business network.

6. Blockchian Is Not Yet Matured Enough

Yes it has scaled to fast too quickly as compoared to TCP/IP Inernet Wave but it has yet to go through that gestation period where we can say it has fully matured and is widely accepted just like internet wave. For blockchain to revolutionise this digital arena needs to overcome many challenges , technology, governance, society, businesses all has to come together to make it a phenomenon. Yes it may take another 10–15 years if not more to attain to that level where it will be completely sweeping the digital wave. If it takes less than what i am predicting it is going to be really a game changer for all the stakeholders who will be the beneficiary of this blockchain revolution.

Yes Blockchain revolution has started to pickup and is going to impact one & all across the globe. When it will completely replace the traditional networking system, is not quite clear now but it will happens for sure

Now that you know what not the blockchain is, let me explain

What Is Blockchain?

To help you explain in more simplified manner, i have a Infographics for you which has been sourced from Blockchainhub.

Summary :

HBR Article Says:

In addition to providing a good template for blockchain’s adoption, TCP/IP has most likely smoothed the way for it. TCP/IP has become ubiquitous, and blockchain applications are being built on top of the digital data, communication, and computation infrastructure, which lowers the cost of experimentation and will allow new use cases to emerge rapidly.No matter what the context, there’s a strong possibility that blockchain will affect your business. The very big question is when.

I have a feeling that no businesses can afford, in the coming future to compete in this ever changing market without adopting this blockchain revolution. Yes the early movers advantage will play a major role to decide the winners and the losers. So it is a time that you start now, may not be at larger scale, but with smaller investment within your organization to experiment with data management using blockchain. Also you can involve existing bitcoin payment mechanism in your eCommerce or in a game. You should not risk now on building your own network if that it not what suits your risk appetite but it can be a smart move to use the existing Blockchain As A service(BaaS) or Blockchain enabling platform to develop you own business solution over it.

I Always Say :

There is always less risk to take any risk, but if the decision is not timed well it going to hit you hard for sure.

Thanks For Reading, Keep Loving , Keep Investing…. On what, you can decide !

What Is Not True About Blockchain ? was originally published in codeburst on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.