Blockchain has been continuously receiving an exceptional response and attention for the world and the media. The cryptocurrency aspect of the blockchain emerged as one of the top money-making tools and made many millionaires. The technology is seen as the next disruptor that may integrally embed businesses with great efficiency and a wide horizon.

Instead of going ahead with the formal definition, the term blockchain refers to a chain of blocks. Cryptocurrency is a something of cryptographic currency. The fundamental difference between the two concepts has to do with how and in what sense the distributed ledger technology is being used.

To a great level, blockchain has been a term always used with cryptocurrencies and the term blockchain has become synonymous with cryptocurrencies. However, blockchain has a wide range of aspects that have been playing a great role in the business processes. The blockchain is widely being seen as a replacement of trust and is expected to improve visibility, productivity, & security in various aspects of the day to day lives of many.

The Real Blockchain

Invented to support the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency chain, blockchain is a virtual ledger book, the one which is one of the most secure and capable to hold the transactional data. Blockchain as new technology was seen with doubt by many but with the advent of the innovation and usage patterns it has brought, it is expected to change how the business and commerce in the present-day work.

Blockchain has capabilities to deliver enormous benefits to the present world. Some of them are:

• Blockchain is considered ideal for keeping of records of custody chains of IPR and prevent forgeries.
• Major IT leaders of the world, including names like IBM, Microsoft, and Infosys are widely bringing in collaborations to develop better blockchain platforms to work upon.
• The blockchain has brought in many opportunities for start-ups.
• Governments of various countries have been realizing the benefits of blockchain in easing the process of tax reporting and reducing fraud.
• Blockchain acts as a distributed ledger. Several parties of a business can work and collaborate upon the same at once leading to a reduction in cost and improving the velocity of business.

Aspects Of Usage Of Blockchain Technology:

Blockchain has been in the news for a long time in the form of the technology that drives the most popular cryptocurrency named Bitcoin. Despite this fact, blockchain for commercial purposes is yet to be accepted.

Internet of Value-Based On Blockchain Technology

With the expansion and growth of the internet, organisations are expected to progressively discover further applications for the blockchain. Some experts also believe that the current potential of blockchain technology is the same as that of the internet in its early advent.

Several start-ups have come up in the sector and are already investigating ways and means of using blockchain more efficiently and effectively to get the maximum benefits out of the same.

Banks in the game

It is very much likely and clear that banks will soon create a blockchain platform for themselves. Transactions are expected not only to be quicker but cheaper too. Instead of every bank using its internal accounts, blockchain has the potential to unify them all and be used as a single ledger for all. This would potentially enhance the efficiency and effectiveness and maybe the next to a major transformation of the industry.

Transfer of Securities

Many countries continually deal with the absence of trustworthy land registers and authority offices. Blockchain is being seen as a cost-effective, efficient, and secure method for property rights, being one of the most transparent ones.

Electronic registers can be setup creating new possibilities for the industry and making the system smooth and easy. For even a gem being owned, in a blockchain, every gem would be identified by a certain number assigned to it of characteristic features (such as size, weight, purity, color, and cut) and assigned to its owner.

Key Differences between Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies

• Blockchain is the platform that acts as a bridge between Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The blockchain provides a platform to the cryptocurrencies to form a network and work. This network of blockchain is responsible for transacting and enabling the transfer of values in the form of cryptocurrencies.
• The values in these networks used to transact and pay are called cryptocurrencies. The blockchain network serves as a base technology platform for the whole cryptocurrency chain to work and Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are a part of this ecosystem.
• Aim of Bitcoin is to simplify and increase the speed of transactions without many governmental restrictions. However, blockchain serves as a low costing tool to provide a safe and secure environment for the transactions of the cryptocurrencies to happen.
• Bitcoin is limited to trading as a currency although blockchain is capable of transferring anything from currencies to property rights.
• Bitcoin is an anonymous currency and hence, even though it can be seen on the ledger, they are numbers without sequence but as blockchain works with various businesses, it should have compliance with KYC and other legal norms. Hence, blockchain is comparatively transparent.

Blockchain works with several industries in compliance with all the legal rules and norms of the companies like the anti-money laundering, knowing your customer, etc. It tends to showcase all the transactions clearly and the public has full access to the ledger.

Both the terms, Bitcoin, and blockchain have their strengths and weaknesses. In this era of digital growth and development, every person has certainly been looking forward to how they can be benefitted from the advent of Bitcoin and blockchain. With a tremendous amount of cross-border transactions taking place every single day, Bitcoin and blockchain will make the lives of the people easier.

But with the continuous improvisations happening with the blockchain technology, it has secured further applications than just cryptocurrency. Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency to enter the market and become available for public use and since then many cryptocurrencies have been invented and used in the blockchain network.

Sumit Kumar, Co-Founder & CEO, Gravitas AI

www.gravitas.ai

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