Whenever the term “Blockchain” comes across, many relate it with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Yes, this technology has truly transformed the world of virtual currencies by speeding up transactions, providing privacy and transparency, and many more.
However, Blockchain is not just limited to cryptocurrencies, it is a technology and can have a multitude of other applications as well into different industries.
Both Big Data and Blockchain are emerging technologies in the present-day business world. These technologies have the potential to radically transform the manner organizations would run in the future.
Developing separately from quite a long time, these technologies might seem mutually exclusive to you at first. However, when the power of both technologies is to combine, it could help businesses like never before!
As per reports, the number of users for Blockchain wallet exceeded about 42 million by 2019, and global Blockchain expenditure is expected to reach about $11.7 billion by 2022. Big data, on the other hand, is expected to reach about $103 billion by the year 2023, another report says.
So, is there any possibility where Blockchain can really improve Big Data? Let’s discuss! But first, understand both these technologies in brief.
Blockchain Technology
Blockchain is a ledger, in other words, a kind of database where data exists in sequential blocks. These blocks are chained together in the ledger, and thus, termed as “Blockchain”. The characteristics of Blockchain are:
- Decentralisation where there is not a single server or computer to control the database.
- Data transactions happen directly between peer-to-peer as there is no central authority.
- Greater privacy as data transfer takes place showing only the address on the ledger.
- Immutable transaction records that are unchangeable and irreversible, ordered chronologically, and, in fact, visible to everyone in the chain.
Big Data
Big Data is an attempt so as to analyse data systematically to extract data or information from the given data sets that are enormous and highly complex.
Traditional methods of data processing are not effective in extracting such large data and thus Big data is used to ease the processes. Big Data utilizes data storage, sharing, analysis, visualisation, and its transfer.
How Blockchain and Big Data Are Related?
Businesses need to synchronise data in a single format so that they can store it at a place. This data then can be used to analyse. As the amount of data increases, data quality management becomes crucial. They need data that is secure, clean, authentic, synchronised, and accessible. And this is where the concept of Blockchain comes into the picture!
Blockchain provides an efficient way to store data online. And with a decentralised network, data access becomes easier. Businesses can store their transactional information in Blockchain hash graphs and get access to it and analyse it as well.
They can also see the overall transaction history right from its origins. In this way, the overall process becomes faster and a lot easier and can meet the challenges as explained above.
How Can Blockchain Help Big Data?
The combination of these two efficient and effective technologies, Blockchain and Big Data could set the grounds for new and exciting opportunities. Blockchain might help Big Data in several ways, for instance, data analytics.
Blockchain has great potential in data quality. As a result, when a big business captures and validates data on Blockchain, it becomes more valuable to them.
Blockchain, in fact, has the capability of turning questions and insights into assets while providing you with greater confidence in data integrity. It is impossible through immutable data entries, the certainty of data origin, audit trails, and so on. Consequently, you can see improvements in the business aspects of your business with Blockchain technology.
Check out the ways in which Blockchain can combine with Big Data and help companies!
1. Data Integrity to Ensure Trust
Maintaining the integrity of data is always challenging for businesses and if not done well, it can affect businesses to a great extent. This is one of the areas where Blockchain can help data analytics.
It is because this technology provides a smooth way to perform data integrity as well as audit trails as Blockchain ascertains data origin with linked chains.
The technology of Blockchain maintains a decentralized ledger, as you may know. It helps to ensure trust regarding the data because all the data goes through verification processes. Subsequently, it also provides transparency as all the transactions and activities happen on the network of Blockchain that is traceable.
2. Data Sharing Management
A Big Data system powered by Blockchain could allow companies to share data records with others securely with no exponential risk factors involved. The data extracted from data analysis can be stored in the network of Blockchain.
In this way, your project team can avoid data analysis repetition that other teams had already done. In addition, Blockchain technology also can help your data scientists in the monetisation of their work through the outcomes of trading analysis that is stored on the Blockchain network.
3. Preventing Cyber Attacks
Blockchain uses algorithms for verification of transactions. Therefore, it becomes impossible for cybercriminals to cause any harm to the network. As it is a distributed ledger network, they cannot generate adequate computational power for changing the validation criteria or insert unwanted data into the system.
Hence, cybercriminals cannot manipulate or access data on a great scale, preventing cyber-attacks.
4. Predictive Analysis
In order to thrive in this technology-savvy world, business needs predictive analysis to get insights into market trends and behaviours. Through a good accuracy of future outcomes, a business can understand customer preferences, lifetime value, along with dynamic prices.
To this, Blockchain helps to analyse data to reveal the above-mentioned insights and many more such outcomes. Industries like banking, finance, and so on require real-time data analysis on a large scale. So, they can observe essential changes in terms of real-time data, and thus, it helps them make effective and quick decisions.
Adding fuel to the fire, Blockchain technology provides you with structured data that is gathered from devices or individuals. And as this technology uses distributed ledger with an enormous computational power vested in it, your data scientists can conduct efficient predictive analysis.
Moving on, let's understand the benefits Blockchain can bring to an organisation on associating with Big Data.
Benefits of Associating Blockchain with Big Data
- Improved data quality by structuring them and eliminating weak points to provide accuracy
- Boosting data security through the decentralised network
- Provides more privacy and transparency
- Prevents fraudulent activities with effective validation through its algorithms
- Processing data more efficiently and quickly
- Streamlining data access
- Reliable and achievable real-time insights
Examples for platforms using Blockchain and Big Data
- Streamr
- ReBloc
- Endor Protocol
- StorJ
Now, you have some idea about how the integration of Big Data and Blockchain could benefit organisations to be more productive, competent, and efficient.
By the looks of current advancement in Blockchain and Big Data, it is fairly possible that we might see further developments in this space. With the maturity of the technology, many organisations are likely to leverage their benefits in a more concrete way.
That said, it would be fascinating to see how this technology of Blockchain continues to revolutionise various sectors to bring better business results.