When we think of why we need blockchain, only one person comes to mind –a guy called Dev, who we had hired to build a few crucial parts of our projects with us. A few years ago, he had been operating his own servers and one of them happened to crash. He was telling us this literally with tears in his eyes as the database, a massive mess full of customer data, point-of-sale info, and inventory information had been lost due to it, along with the backups. And there was no way to retrieve it back.

He’d spent about a whole day in an air-conditioned server room, with a monitor attached to the rack and a keyboard on his lap, trying his best to resurrect his lost data. He was partially successful, but there was no way of knowing if the resurrected data was accurate, whether the transactions were accurate, whether the chances of him keeping his job in the morning were likely.

Everything turned out fine, moreover, since then, it’s got a whole lot easier to do his job. Clouds were cheaper and more reliable and soon replaced servers. But the fear of losing the data again still keeps lingering in his mind and he still cannot be 100% definite about it not happening again. Although, he believes that there’s a more reliable technology available now than we’ve ever had before, and yes, it’s Blockchain.

Blockchain provides benefits like data recovery, security, availability, and automation all in one. The serverless technology of public blockchain makes them assuring proofs of how they can deliver on enterprise-grade reliability of business databases. It is also cost-effective, and its ability to quickly replicate even allows one to safely get away with the same dismissal compared to traditional databases. The biggest advantage would be how blockchain protects you from changes that could compromise data and stability.

In simple words, a blockchain is a server that doesn’t make you worry about it crashing (because it is highly unlikely) and the database cannot be corrupted –which makes it a whole package. 

Also, read – What does the future of Blockchain look like in 10 years?

To be clear though, blockchain isn’t perfectly suited to solve certain particular data problems, the same way emails are not equivalent to instant messaging. Big data analytics are immensely expensive to duplicate, and unless one is monetizing the data, it is not worth it to convert blockchain into an analytical workload.

Blockchains are best suited for core business transactions. They are very mission-centric when it comes to account data and records of ownership, the loss of which could be a massive threat to a company. It would probably be okay for a company like Walmart to survive the loss of all website data, but it would be very critical if it lost its data about the inventory ledger. 

The biggest concern for enterprise players as the customers demand availability is business continuity. The problems of migrating databases and updating systems can create major fumbles as businesses grow. 60% of companies that happen to lose their data somehow tend to shut down within six months of the loss, as reported by Boston Computing Network’s research. Here, blockchain provides big opportunities for business industries to accelerate while keeping their data and operations secure.

In current times, it’s about securing transactions and much as it is about the speed of these transactions. This is what has always been absent in system management and is something that everyone from our Dev to professional teams that run databases for big social media sites are learning.

Blockchain technology is the new era of databases as here, they are back up and verified constantly. All of the details are calculated and looked through before its deployment, and embedded rules provide compliance at all times. In fact, it seems a lot like the next era of what APIs look like.

One plans processes put them together with requests for data and expect results. As of now, the business database is processed on some of the other servers. The fact that you can take that data, and run it as your own is what is innovative about Blockchain technology. After all, it still complies with the rules set by the people who came up with it, and it interacts as expected.  

Now, picture in mind databases on the blockchain using these same rules, robust databases that you cannot kill. One wouldn’t have to worry about the main server being lost. Replication of the data would be built in. If one is on a public blockchain, they wouldn’t have to pay for any servers, and their data would be stored cryptographically by the Blockchain’s miners all around the globe. Whereas, if one is on a private blockchain, they may run several replicated systems, or own all the nodes. They can also use Blockchain on cloud platforms. 

Blockchain is made to be replicated over and over again, while traditional databases must be transferred in certain, expensive ways under specific conditions to avoid loss of data. Basically, blockchain comes to the rescue here, combining all the better elements of security, replication, business logic, and robustness. Smart contracts are distributed, secure and safe. The database is safe too, which is exactly why Dev trusts blockchain to be the next era of the database.