To thrive amidst your opponents in this digital age, you have to work on having an active communication network, and blockchain technology is transforming how businesses operate due to its spectrum of advantages. Industries, including finance, manufacturing, healthcare, education, and telecommunications, have made its adoption a critical priority.

According to a Deloitte survey, 53% of fintech companies consider blockchain has become essential for their organization. PwC’s 2018 global blockchain survey also validated that 84% of companies, including Amazon and Facebook, are already tinkering in it. And expectations are high that blockchain will become even more comprehensive over the next numerous years.

For the uninformed, blockchain is a distributed ledger technology that was launched in 2009. These ledger records transactions designed in “blocks” and “chained” together. As such, blockchain provides traceability of records. The technology also supports cryptocurrencies and is used to verify the transfer and receipt of these assets.

Apart from providing traceable open-source storage, blockchain allows advantages like decentralization, immutability, and security. As a result, this modern technology has exceeded its application for only cryptocurrencies, allowing businesses to transact and interact seamlessly over the internet. Here is how blockchain is virtually reconstructing business-communication networks.

Decentralization

A single node cannot control the blockchain. Consequently, it is a decentralized ledger where blocks of data are stored over a network. Even if a single node goes down, other nodes can catch transactions that were dropped. And the fact that every node processes transactions take away the opportunity for a single node to bring down the entire system.

Moreover, there is no central control of the blockchain, and, as such, neither the government nor a central bank or higher authority can control its use. 

Data Security

Data security is everything for businesses, as it assures that their records are not susceptive to an attack. Nevertheless, companies have been hacked time and again for depending on conventional methods of storage. In 2013, there was a data breach on Yahoo’s database, and three billion records were affected. Furthermore, data about Capital One credit cardholders were hacked in 2019.

Blockchain, on the other hand, is a reliable platform for collecting data. It utilizes cryptographic techniques, Merkle trees, hash functions, and public and private keys to make it challenging for a hacker to modify its content. The immutable nature of this technology assures that stored content cannot be replaced. Also, its high-level security makes it less sensitive to cyberattacks. Interestingly, many blockchain projects are working on improving how businesses would securely communicate data.

Data Privacy

While blockchain’s content is free and accessible to anyone, there are permissioned and permissionless blockchains. The latter guarantees that sensitive data is kept away from the public’s eye. In this case, the information is encrypted and can only be obtained after permission has been granted. Moreover, a private or permission blockchain needs the owner or management’s approval before participants are attached to the network.

Transparency

Blockchain has fostered singular trust amongst network participants as transfers are confirmed to be secure and safe. Much more, everyone on the network can view such transfers in real-time recognition to the transparency granted by blockchain. This assists in improving accountability and trust between business associates.

The immutable nature of blockchain also contributes data integrity, since its content cannot be substituted easily. This indicates that business allies cannot challenge the legitimacy of such transfers since they can monitor it. A real-life use case of this is evident in the healthcare industry, where the technology is utilized for revenue-cycle management and fraud prevention.

Traceability

Blockchain’s content can be tracked in real-time, which has provided tremendous advantages to businesses. Its content is correct at all times, and various participants of the network will view the same data irrespective of where they access it and when. It, consequently, allows large enterprises to interact and coordinate supply chain and logistics information.

It is worth remarking that this traceability has assisted in verifying the authenticity of valuable and rare products. In this phase, consumers can quickly scan a barcode to ascertain if the raw materials utilized for the products were rightly sourced. It also assures customers that they have purchased authentic products.

Blockchain has transformed the business-communication network in more ways than one. The distributed ledger’s features, including decentralization, privacy, security, immutability, and traceability, has enhanced the way businesses interact and relate. It also decreases costs significantly, all of which is why any company seeing to boost its growth in the long run, requires embracing the blockchain system.