What is Blockchain?
In recent years with the help of rapid technological developments, people got introduced to the internet. Apart from its core purpose, the internet affected many areas, helped to generate new technologies, and blockchain technology is one of those technologies. Blockchain technology primarily evolves around its secure, transparent, and decentralized nature and develops rapidly to become a reliable tool for its users to integrate the technology to create a secure and convenient environment on the internet. According to Parry and Collomosse (2021), blockchain technology with its unique features can allow its users to create new use cases besides its primary use in the finance sector. For example, two of the areas that can benefit the most from blockchain technology are healthcare and education systems due to the great amount of user data that flows around the web every second.
Unique Core Features
For Parry and Collomosse (2021), Blockchain technology has two primary features which are the decentralization of data and the elimination of intermediaries. In today’s centralized data model, in any web activity, users provide data to a network, and after various processes and modifications, data gets transferred to a central server and then gets redistributed from there. However, all this user data is not available for users to view so there are some transparency concerns also intermediaries such as central servers hinder the efficiency of the data mobilization process. Also, storing all user data in one place is not a good idea either since it makes the job a lot easier for criminals to locate all the data.
Decentralized Data Model
On the other hand, blockchain technology utilizes the decentralized data model. The decentralization mechanism of the blockchain aims to increase user involvement and reduce the exploitation of user data (Catalini & Gans, 2020, as cited in Parry & Collomosse, 2021). In this model, user data is free of central servers and has mobility and the data is distributed among individuals through a peer-to-peer network increasing user involvement. Also with the help of cryptography, it avoids data exploitation issues. Since blockchain technology is free of intermediaries like decentralization, it also benefits from a peer-to-peer network.
Intermediary-Free
The traditional process of finance involves intermediary elements such as banks, institutions, and their web-based applications. These intermediaries are not user-friendly at all because they slow transactions, charge high amounts of fees, and, most importantly vulnerable to data leaks. That is why Blockchain technology eliminates all of these intermediaries and replaces them with a user-oriented model. There is no need for intermediaries in a blockchain because all data processes get executed through the users’ network which we call a peer-to-peer network.
Security and Data Rights
Parry and Collomosse (2021) state that there is a new type of trust mechanism in blockchain technology that utilizes various security measures to maintain individual rights and data privacy. One of the main concerns for new technologies is trust. Perception of trust has shifted from traditional elements like institutions and companies to technological factors (Parry & Collomosse, 2021). Trust in a blockchain is provided by users and the security elements of the technology itself. Each user’s data can be encrypted and verified by another user through a peer-to-peer network utilizing cryptography. This allows for creating a collaborative trust environment on the web (Tapscott, 2016). Another aspect related to trust is privacy. Privacy is mainly provided by decentralization in Blockchain technology. Decentralization gives individuals control over their data on the distribution of the data and lets them be responsible for it (Parry & Collomosse, 2021). So far the technology looks like it provides a perfect solution. However, there are some concerns about this model too. One of them is criminal activities. Blockchain, with its convenience and anonymity-related features, appeals to criminals. Criminals can exploit blockchain technology to commit fraud, and sell drugs, weapons, and other illegal possessions. Also, the lack of regulations on blockchain in some countries facilitates illegal activities even more.
How Does The End User Benefit From It?
According to (Agbo et al., 2019), the healthcare system can benefit from the conveniences blockchain technology provides in various areas. For example, the management of patient data in the healthcare sector is a significant problem. Furthermore, EMRs (Electronic Medical Records) are the medical data that a health institution keeps, and managing and distributing the data safely is an issue. Blockchain technology, with its decentralized and network-oriented nature, can help to organize medical records systematically; also, it can enable to sharing of these organized data with other health institutions through a blockchain network (Agbo et al., 2019). With this application, when healthcare personnel demands the medical record of a patient, After required permissions, healthcare personnel will be able to access any prior medical data. I believe that another area that can benefit from blockchain technology is medical equipment and the medicine supply chain. I know that patients with severe health conditions struggle to access their required medicines because hospitals and pharmacies are struggling to keep up with orders of these materials. Most importantly, a mistake in an equipment order due to verification or an organization issue can cause significant inconveniences with the shipments. Therefore with its core features Blockchain can create a collaborative environment between suppliers and healthcare institutions and organize processes between these elements.
Blockchain technology can help the education sector with management, and verification and help to organize the supply progress. In addition, blockchain technology can increase credibility in the academy. For example, (Bhaskar et al., 2020) states that “The blockchain technology is generally used for issuance and verification of educational certificates like degrees, transcripts, students’ competencies, achievements and professional ability that can be verified by employer worldwide.” (p. 8). This type of an application can avoid possible headaches for both ends when it comes to verifying documents.
In the management aspect, blockchain can help with the distribution of student-related data such as courses and grades. Especially it is helpful to provide academic data when students apply to educational institutions, international programs, and scholarship programs. I believe that blockchain technology can improve communication between students and academic staff. I know that students struggle to communicate with lecturers through phone and e-mail. Institutional e-mail systems are usually clunky and vulnerable to threats. Therefore, e-mails lag, do not get filtered, and people end up with cluttered e-mail inboxes, which hinders the collaborative educational environment. With its decentralized, intermediary-free, and secure nature, Blockchain technology can help to create an encrypted communication hub so students and academic staff can communicate with each other safely without any friction.
All in all, blockchain technology differentiates itself from the traditional model of data technologies with features such as decentralization, being intermediary-free, and providing robust security measures. Therefore, Parry and Collomosse (2021) and Tapscott (2016) state that it has some valuable utilization in near future despite some of its concerns. According to (Agbo et al., 2019) and (Bhaskar et al., 2020), these utilizations are not limited to the finance sector and more use cases will emerge and will continue to influence future technologies to provide conveniences into our lives.
