#Blockchain #Technology
(BCT) as the name suggests is a chain of #blocks of #digits (1s, 0s)
representing a #financial #value, for #secure and #speedy
business #transactions among registered parties. # BCT is
an #innovative, #Distributed #Ledger #Technology (DLT)
which was first introduced in 2009 by a Japanese
scientist Mr Satoshi Nakamoto. However, up to 2015, BCT
was mainly used for the development of #Bitcoin #Crypto-currency, BCT
got its real impetus only in 2017 when many organizations got convinced about
the real potential of BCT. BCT follows #peer-to-peer #networking
with #collective #authentication (Fig 15.1). In this scheme,
all #nodes would be involved in #validating the transactions, rather
than any central entity BCT uses a #shared #ledger in carrying out
business transactions between registered parties. This way, BCT provides #distributed #trust
and #fast #approval for executing financial payments. The unique data
structure of Blockchain helps to maintain a fully secured record of transactions.
Indeed, BCT improves #transparency, #integrity, #speed of
transaction and reduces #operational #cost
Since 2018, BCT is booming
very rapidly, as it offers fully secured and faster finance transactions among
registered users across the world. Indeed, Bitcoin Technology (BT) has
facilitated the rapid growth of BCT since BT is based on the Blockchain concept
of chaining digital data blocks. BCT has many applications in various
domains/ sectors like Banking, Stock Exchanges, Digitizing Land Records,
Healthcare, Insurance, Legal documents of Judiciary, Manufacturing, Real
estate, Supply Chain Management (SCM), Cyber Security(CS),
e-Governance, Media management, Hospitality, Education, Legal system, Energy,
Smart Cities and more. From 2020 onwards, many organizations, which
do global financial transactions, are adopting BCT in their business processes.
Consequently, there is a big demand for Blockchain professionals. However,
there is an acute shortage of qualified and experienced BCT
professionals. To make up for this shortage, we need a radical change in
the curricula in our colleges and universities for imparting BCT education at
the Diploma / UG/PG level. There is also an urgent need to train our
teaching faculty to acquire BCT skills needed to equip their students with
BCT skills.
A brief
introduction to BT, Cryptography, Crypto-currencies, Digital Signature, Digital
Wallets and some other terminologies related to BCT, will be helpful for a
better understanding of this exciting technology.
·
Bitcoin Technology
(BT). Today, BT is the most
popular virtual currency, which is based on the BCT concept of distributed
e-Ledger. Bitcoin as a crypto-asset based on a new concept for finical
transactions, evolved in 2008 by a Japanese expert, Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin
is a digital token (A block of 0s and 1s) that can be speedily sent
electronically from one registered user to another registered user, in a speedy
and secured manner across the world. Initially, Bitcoin had difficulty for
its acceptance as a legal tender by many countries. However, from 2019 onwards
Bitcoin has made big strides and by Mar 2021 it is already a three Trillion
Dollar economy. As of mid-Aug 2021, the stock market price of one Bitcoin
was $45,271.64. The current trends show that every day, thousands of new users
are joining the Bitcoin wave.
o
Consensus It is a common agreement by all or by the majority of
registered members. A suitable consensus algorithm is used as per
business requirements and it is a crucial part of Blockchain. One such example
is “proof of work” used by Bitcoin and Ethereum.
o
Cryptography. In simple terms, cryptography relates to the encryption and
decryption of data. It ensures that only the registered sender and the
registered recipient could see the real data. This process uses keys as
follows:
·
Sender Action. plaintext + encryption key =
ciphertext
·
Recipient Ation. ciphertext + decryption key =
plaintext
o Crypto-currencies. When
Bitcoin is encrypted, it is termed a Crypto-currencies. Due to some
hesitations, Crypto Currencies have not yet gotten clearance from the
regulatory bodies in many countries. However, since 2019, many emerging digital
economies are now keen to adopt crypto-currencies for their banking and
financial sector. Consequently, several Bitcoin exchanges and wallets like
Zebpay, Unocoin, Coinsecure, and Wazirx have come up. By 2020. there were
over 30 active crypto-currencies already in circulation and more will get
added soon. The top four crypto-currencies with Token names and prices in
Indian Rupees in Aug 2021 were Bitcoin - BTC (₹ 36,24,636), Ethereum - ETH (₹ 2,52,481 ), Binance – BNB (₹30061.86), Cardano- ADA (₹ 164.55). Bitcoin started first and stays the most
popular.
o Digital Signature.
It is a digital block issued to each registered user to establish his/her identity.
Digital signatures are considered adequate to validate and approve the identity
of users for carrying out business transactions. A typical digital signature
follows – Elliptical Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) which is given
by the mathematical equation- y2 = x3 +7.
o Digital Token. Bitcoin
is a digital token (A block of 0s and 1s) that can be speedily sent
electronically from one registered user to another registered user, in a speedy
and secured manner across the world. This digital token indicates the value of
the transaction.
o Digital Wallets: Post
demonetization in India, there has been the rise of many small to medium
Digital payment companies. In India, digital payments have also increased VAT/
Sale Tax (GST) collection. It is expected that by 2023, Credit
settlement, Medical Claims, Insurance claim settlement, Loan disbursal,
Microfinancing and many other business transactions will use Digital Wallets.
The market survey carried out during 2019- 2020 by leading consulting agencies
has revealed that Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), not only facilitate
quicker claim settlement but also eliminates financial frauds. As of 2021, two
popular Digital wallets in India are the Bitcoin wallet and the WazirX wallet. These are the safest and most popular
cryptocurrency wallets for buying and selling Bitcoins. You can deposit/receive
Crypto-currency to your WazirX wallet account. However, when you need to
move your crypto-currency from your WazirX wallet to
another wallet/exchange, you need to go through the process
of Depositing crypto-currency to your WazirX account. There is no fee
for Crypto-currency deposits to the WazirX account but there is a limit to the
minimum amount and fee for trading and withdrawal. WazirX takes a commission of
0.2 % on every transaction.
o Distributed Information.
The transaction information is not held centrally at one node/place, but the
information is distributed among all nodes of the Blockchain network.
o Hash. It is a function
that converts an input of letters and numbers into an encrypted output of fixed
length.
o Merkle Tree. It is a data
structure that ensures easy verifiability.
o Block. It is a record of
transactions represented in terms of binary digits 1,s and 0,s. The block is encrypted
into a Hash and encoded into a Merkle Tree.
o SWIFT. Society
for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication ( SWIFT) came into
being 1970s,
o Trust. It is mutual
understanding among registered users and an index of the reliability of the BCT
process.
Need for BCT. We had an Internet facility in the 1980s, which fully
supported the Client-Server environment. It gave rise to many Websites, Search
Engines and e-Commerce platforms. It also triggered faster growth of
online transactions, video-calls, using Peer to Peer (P2P) networks. However,
with the rapid growth of smart computing and communication devices, the
security and safety of transactions became a serious concern for all.
This paved the way for Bitcoin in 2008 and Blockchain followed suit in 2017.
Blockchain Concept The BCT is an ‘Open e-ledger that records and manages
digital transactions among registered transacting parties. Each record is a
group of bits (0s and 1s) and called a ‘Block’. Each
block says 1 MB and it contains say 4,000 transactions. Digital As per the
survey of 2019, many blocks are added to the Blockchain, on a 24x7 basis. The
transaction rate is approximately 7 Transactions Per Second (TPS). Each
block contains details of the transaction and timestamp, along with a link to
the previous block. The very first block is registered as Genesis Block, while
all other blocks have “Hash Link” to the respective previous block. The block
also contains details about transactions. Thus all the blocks form a chain and
its details are copied on every node of the Blockchain network. All
blocks in the chain are encrypted and hence are temper proof. This
process is based on decentralized trust. Anything of value says real
estate, can be traced and tracked on a Blockchain network. This reduces hacking
risk and also cuts costs for all participating parties. In a BCT
environment, the financial Contracts can also be automated through Smart
Contracts. Since each transaction is recorded over a distributed e-ledger and
in an encrypted manner; the financial data is fully secured and free from
hacking. This assures integrity, safety and security of data for all the
registered users.
Need for BCT
Environment. Despite peer to peer
computer networks in place and cryptography having made good progress, there
were still issues related to the speed and security of financial transactions,
among global business partners. Some of the issues of the earlier system
necessitating the early arrival of BCT are listed below:
•
Delay in handing security
and clearance by a central agency.
•
E-commerce platform may
alter the information flowing through the network
•
Expensive Supply Chain and
the likelihood of wrong routing and delays.
•
Credit card companies deducted
payment in advance, while there could be delays in executing dispatch.
Blockchain Advantages. Some common advantages of BCT are listed below:
•
Full Transparency and
credibility of data related to the transactions
•
Fast validation of
user identity and easy settlement of transactions,
•
BCT is independent of any
centralized authority for authenticating business transactions. BCT is based on mutual and distributed trust,
among participating users.
•
It follows a network of
consensus for making business /rules and easy acceptance by all participants.
•
The distributed e-ledger
system reduces operational costs.
•
Protection against data
tampering due to rear-ward block linking and encryption
•
Most secure due to
end-to-end encryption of sensitive data.
•
Very reliable and
trustworthy system for Health records, Insurance data, Land records and
other real estate business transactions
•
Smart business contracts can
be mutually developed, easily accepted and speedily executed through
automation.
Blockchain Types. . Depending upon the business requirement, the
users could use either Public Blockchain, having a general listing of products/
services or have Private Blockchain, to privately handle some of the
transactions of some sensitive data like what was purchased, by whom, when and
at what price. In some cases, they could also have Hybrid Blockchains.
Blockchain Application Areas.
After initial apprehensions
about BCT, most organizations are now convinced that the adoption of BCT will
ensure safe, secure, and speedy financial transitions at lower operational
costs, both within and outside the country. Definitely, BCT is going to revolutionize the functionality of B2B and B2C
services. BCT application is not limited to Bitcoin or
Crypto-currency. On the contrary, BCT is suited in many
areas as listed below:
·
Agriculture and Land
records,
·
Banking Systems,
·
Digital ID validation
·
Digital Certificates
Management (Education, Death, Birth, agreements, sale Deeds like ),
·
e-Notary Service.
·
Financial
Transactions.
·
Healthcare and Electronic Health Record Management
·
Manufacturing and Vehicle
lifecycle management,
·
Retail loyalty &
reward program for repeat orders,
·
Supply Chain,
·
Transfer of Land Records
(Property Record Management),
Blockchain Services
Vendors. As of 2021, the leaders in
the BCT field are--- IBM Blockchain, Oracle Blockchain, Amazon
Managed Blockchain, Microsoft Azure, SAP Blockchain, and HP. However, IBM is the most popular Blockchain service provider. From
2022 onwards, there will be many more such service providers.
Blockchain jobs types. To work in a Blockchain environment, you need to
have a degree in Mathematics or Science or Computer Science or
BCA/MCA. You should be an efficient programmer in C++ or in C#. You also need
basic knowledge of cryptography and have the aptitude to learn new
technologies. Some common Blockchain-related jobs are listed below:
•
Blockchain Project Manager,
•
Blockchain, Analyst
/Designer and Software engineer/Developer.
•
Blockchain Digital
financial professional,
•
Crypto-currency Expert,
•
Cyber Security Expert,
•
Experts on distributed
computing and cloud computing,
•
Networking engineer,
Salary
Expectations.
It is observed that some BCT
professionals who have good hands-on experience, leave their jobs and become
entrepreneurs. They start up their own businesses and attract other
talented and known BCT professionals. Therefore to attract experienced BCT
professionals is a very hard task for any employer. To attract Blockchain
professionals, many employers are willing to pay a very lucrative pay package.
In India, salary could be between Rs20 L pa to Rs40 L pa for those having
2-3 years of experience and say Rs 60L pa to Rs 90L pa for those
having five or more years of experience. In the USA, salary could be $ 90K to
$150K pa. Likewise, every country joining the Blockchain wave pays a very good
salary for BCT professionals.
Skills required for a Career in BCT
A market survey by leading
consulting houses like PWC shows that many hardcore IT professionals are
tempted to switch to high paying jobs in the BCT environment. However, working
in a BCT environment is not simple software program coding, storing and
retrieval of data. Before switching your career to a BCT environment, one
should decide whether he/she wants to be a Software Developer, Data Analyst,
Tester, Architect, Consultant, Marketing / Sales Manager or Network
engineer. You should search on the internet and pick up some basic
courses on BCT. As per the recent survey, to start a career in a
Blockchain environment you need to equip yourself with some of the following
qualifications and skills:
·
Engineering Degree. One must have a degree in B. Tech/ B Sc. Computer Science
or Master/ Bachelor of Computer Applications. (MCA/BCA) or B Tech/BE in
Computer Science / IT.
·
Programming
language, Hands-on experience in using OOPS, languages like C++
or C#, Solidity or Javascript,
·
Cryptography. A basic understanding of cryptography is useful.
·
Basics of Blockchain. The beginning can be made
through Self Learning by reading the articles/blogs by experts
in Blockchain.
·
Related online courses. Search on the web for free/ paid short curses on BCT
·
Search for related
industries. You should track which industries
are going for the Blockchain applications.
Ethereum Blockchain platform. Select the blockchain
platform for your learning and practising. Ethereum is the most widely
used Blockchain Platform.
·
Make some demo projects
based on Ethereum Blockchain: Write
some demo DApps (Decentralized Applications) and upload your code
on GitHub.
·
Showcase your skills. Make a Proper LinkedIn profile mentioning your experience in
BCT.
·
Update your CV with BCT
competency and circulate it on the internet
Preparation for BCT Jobs. Learning BCT is not an easy task since it is a new technology and
is changing very rapidly. Therefore selecting a good training institute plays a
key role in your learning and practising BCT skills. To gain hands-on
experience in BCT, you must search for premium institutes or companies offering
Blockchain development training. For this, Blockchain Council is
one premier training institute where you can test-tune your skills and learn
more about Blockchain development. Some salient points which may help you
in starting a career in a BCT environment are listed below:
·
Self-study.
•
Attend seminars/ webinars
and conferences related to BCT. Read a few books/e-books / blogs on the
basics of cryptocurrency and Blockchain.
•
Study Bitcoin concepts
and its role in finance companies
•
Browse on the google to pick
up some basics of blockchain through white papers/ blogs published by
Blockchain experts
•
Learn how to
deploy applications on the Ethereum,
·
On-line/Part-Time
BCT Course. You should learn BCT
from industry experts or from the best training institute or college
/university. Don’t go for a free online short course. A paid online
course is more effective for learning Blockchain and getting certified. You can
search for BCT courses on the internet and find the training institute having a
good reputation and track record for trained people getting BCT jobs. Several
institutes in India, IIT,s, IIM.s, MDI, and Gurgaon are offering 3 days contact
classes of Basic courses on BCT. Another popular paid course is “Upgrade”. This
course is specially structured for the convenience of working
professionals. You should find a reputed training institute in your own
city which operates on convenient days and times.
·
Programming and scripting
skills. Good knowledge of C++ or C# and exposure to Solidity language is
essential.
·
Open Source Tools. For getting started, you should use open source Blockchain
tools and start developing simple exercises on TestRPC and deploy those on
Ethereum.
·
Interaction with BCT
professionals. Getting in touch with other BCT
professionals, will help you to share and discuss your/their code. . After you
get confidence in Blockchain coding, submit your code to “Blockchain Projects”.
If your code is selected or improved by someone, you will soon be picked up for
work in a BCT environment.
·
Practicing BCT. Search on the internet for organisations/institutes which offer
practical handling of Blockchain projects. Build small projects in
Blockchain and share your source code with your seniors/ peers who are already
working in the Blockchain environment. Blockchain Council is one such
forum, where you can learn and practice BCT skills.
·
Blockchain as a Service
(BaaS. To quickly get started with BCT you may sign up with one
of the Blockchain service providers like IBM Blockchain or Microsoft Azure
Blockchain. This can help you to boost your skills.
Hiring Blockchain Professionals
by top companies
Many world-leading
companies like IBM, Microsoft, Intel, JP Morgan, and Chase Bank have been
recruiting BCT developers in large numbers since 2018, In India, Reliance
Infocomm, Yes Bank, Bajaj Electricals and Mahindra Group have employed
Blockchain in many of their operations. PwC report of 2018, shows that 56% of
Indian businesses are inclined to make BCT a part of their core business. These
organizations will need a lot of professionals for their transition of the
business from old to new technology.
Looking for a job in a BCT
environment. Besides
hardcore programming, there are many other
Blockchain-related roles, where you may fit in as per your expertise.
Look for BCT jobs on the internet or through consulting companies and you may
get an opening in the following:
·
Blockchain
Startups. Some Blockchain
companies like Ethereum, Everledger. and Eris are hiring IT professionals
with basic knowledge of Blockchain. They will provide on-the-job training
to build their Blockchain teams.
·
Large IT firms. IBM. Google, Amazon, Microsoft. Intel and Fujitsu have
been already offering Blockchain As A Service (BAAS) for creating products to
support BCT development, with tools built into their existing cloud portfolios.
·
Banks and other private
sector firms. Barclays, UBS, BBVA,. HDFC,
ICICI, YES bank have sown interest to use BCT for their secure banking business
·
Consulting services
firms. All big consulting firms like Deloitte,
Capgemini, KPMG, Rubix and PwC
are developing expertise in BCT and advising their clients to adopt Blockchain
at the earliest.
·
Other sectors. Health care, Insurance, Real estate, and Land records have
a lot of demand for Blockchain professionals.
Global Efforts
as of 2020. Many countries have
launched platforms and services using BCT and many vendors are offering
Blockchain As A Service (BAAS) to the customers. Some leading counties
are;
·
China, Blockchain-based
Service Network (BSN) This initiative
of China aims at helping companies and individuals deploy
Blockchain applications faster and cheaper.
·
Europe. European
Blockchain Partnership (EBP) aims to use Blockchain and DST to
develop a trusted, secure and resilient system.
·
Estonia. Keyless Signature Infrastructure (KSI) is a Blockchain
technology designed in Estonia and deployed in Estonian
government networks. This helps to prove the authenticity of the electronic
data (records) mathematically.
·
the United Arab
Emirates. UAE has a “Smart Dubai” initiative, which had
planned Dubai to become the “first city fully powered by Blockchain by
2021.” However, there has been some slippage in their schedule due to
Covid 19.
·
Brazil. They have announced moving the e-voting system onto
Ethereum. Brazil is also focusing on public bidding of contracts online,
Agriculture applications, student certificates and tracking student
performance.
·
Chile. They use Ethereum to track the data and finances from the
energy grid to eliminate corruption and ensure transparently, immutable data is
available for every citizen.
·
Switzerland
In Switzerland Digital IDs are offered and registered on
Ethereum since 2018.
Initiatives are taken by India to
adapt BCT
·
From 2016 onwards, the
Government of India (GOI) had taken big steps towards digitization of various
records, rules/regulations and processes to ensure transparency, integrity, and
security in transacting business. Most of the banking, and insurance
sectors. travel ticketing and reservation and e-governance from State (Province)
to District / Divisional level have been digitalized.
·
Considering the great
value of BCT, GOI has formulated its National Level Strategy in Blockchain
Technology (BCT) in 2019. www.blockchainstrategy.gov.in.This,
28 pages document ( available on the Internet) provides an insight into the
strategies for evolving the Indian Blockchain ecosystem.
·
For early adoption of
BCT, GOI has moved the bill in the parliament in Jul 2020. The bill
is awaiting the recommendations of the expert committee. BCT related bill is
expected to be passed by the end of 2022.
·
The Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) is planning to constitute an expert committee to study the application of
BCT in creating a decentralized and cashless Banking system.
·
All India Council of
Technical Education (AICTE) has created a new curriculum for
universities/colleges to include BCT as a key subject to be taught at the UG/PG
level.
·
As the number of
professionals in the Blockchain is limited, many leading
universities/colleges/institutes have already launched offering a course in
BCT. Several private training institutes are providing online as well as face to
face BCT courses in Mumbai, Pune. Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chandigarh,
Gurgaon and many more.
Blockchain Implementation
Challenges. Some of the common challenges in 2021 are listed below:
·
Difficulty in Transitioning
from Legacy Networks to Blockchain networks.
·
Shortage of Blockchain
professionals.
·
BCT is not yet the main
curriculum in all universities/colleges
·
Lack of Technology Partners
·
Rising cost of
infrastructure for Blockchain Implementation.
·
BCT is not yet adopted by
many countries.
Future Growth of
Blockchain. In 2019, Gartner has made
the following predictions :
• By 2022,
many new companies will start using BCT. This will boost BCT based business by
approximately $10 billion.
Summary. It is well established that
distributed Digital Ledger System (DLS) will lower operational costs and speed
up the settlement of secured financial transactions. Indeed, BCT is proving to
be a game-changer for the future of financial institutes and banks. Although
BCT has been around for nearly eight years, the real breakthrough came only in
2017. Despite its good progress in recent years, BCT still has a long way to
get global acceptance. However, it is hearting to note that since 2020, many
leading industries, institutions and universities/colleges have started
adopting BCT. This will offer huge job opportunities for software
developers. data analysts, finance experts in financial and banking sectors.
Although the Government of India is waiting for clearance of its bill by the
expert committee, some Indian companies like Reliance, Yes Bank, and Bajaj
Electricals are already employing BCT in many of their operations. Blockchain
developers are in high demand across big IT players, including Google, Amazon,
Microsoft and IBM. Therefore, it is the right time for young
professionals to shed any hesitation and get set to ride the Blockchain wave.
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