Reading assignment: Benefits of the Blockchain technology

[JelleSmaRT]

Transparency:
One single source of truth. Only authorized participants can add or view transactions. To change a transaction, everyone has to agree to the change (consensus), which is then stored decentrelized in the ledger.

Security:
All transactions must be approved by a majority and then encrypted and linked to the previous transaction (chain). In addition everything is stored in a decentralized way, which makes it difficult for hackers to manipulate the data.

Improved traceability:
In the blockchain you have a history of a transaction (audittrail). With that history you can authenticiteit an assit and prevent fraud.

Increased efficiency and speed:
Because everyone uses the same information (digital ledger), you don’t have to check as much. You can process transactions more efficiently and faster.

Reduced cost:
The biggest expense is staff. Most of the time is spent checking whether a transaction is correct. By using a digital ledger, you can rely on the data it contains, as everyone has already approved the data. This allows you to work more efficiently and faster, so that you need less staff.

[Milos]

transparency : everyone is sharing the same original documentations,and in order to be changed,everyone in the system need to agree and give authorization. this is why blockchain does not depend on trust like centralized systems.

security : all transactions are linked inside the blockchain,and they need to be agreed before they are recorded. every new transaction is linked to previous one,making the chain longer and more difficult to hack.

traceability : every transaction or suply inside the chain is recorded and can be trased easily…

efficiency and speed : without third parties,every transactions is connecting directly and much more efficient without having to worry about human errors.

costs : again,without having third parties envolved,costs of sending money are much less…not needing documentations for transfer is also reducing costs.

[magicrypto]

blockchain transparancy:
Because all participants share the same documents on one ledger that is accessible for all participants instead of individual copies.
To change a single transaction you must alter everything with the permission of all participants, so it is more accurate, consistent and transparent. Instead of the process of heavy paper.
enchanced security:
Transactions has to be agreed before they are recorded. After it is approved it is encrypted and link to previous transactions and the information is also stored on different computers. Instead of one server of a third party, that s why it is difficult to hack.
Tranceablility:
because with blockchain you can trace a item back to his origin. You have an audit trail that shows us where the asset came from and every stop it made along the way his journey and in what state it was.
efficiency and speed:
with the old system everything is time consuming and that is sensitive for human error because most of the time you need a third party. By automating and streamlining these processes with Blockchain the transaction can be faster and more efficient. because everything is stored on a single ledger and shared along all participants ou end up with less clutter, when everybody has access to the same info you also speed up the process
reducing costs:
taking out 3th party or middleman and you just trust the data on the blockchain, it costs automatically less.

[MaGoSu]

Explain with your own words, why these are the benefits of using a blockchain.

1. Transparency:
   Proving transparency shows there is nothing to hide, everything is auditable at any moment by anyone who has access to the ledger. This is true both in the case of public as well with proved blockchains. There is also the benefit of not having to show all the data behind what its being put on chain, thus, companies can still keep their confidential records private, but these will always need to correlate with what has be indexed on chain.
2. Security:
   The cryptography and use of public/private keys and unique identities combined with protocols along with the network of nodes all combined ensure (theoretically) that hacking/fraud/tampering/ malicious use is kept at bay. Although, personally, I wonder what will happen when quantum computer becomes mainstream… Perhaps somebody has an opinion to share on that account.
3. Improved traceability:
   Companies in different sectors whether operating in primary, secondary or tertiary sectors have brands to protect, reputations to safeguard, the need to prove quality standards and that they lead responsible operations. They are accountable not only to their customers but also to their shareholders, but also to government agencies and to society in general. This is equally true for food producers, mining companies, seafood and aquiculture firms, supermarket chains, franchised restaurants, luxury goods companies, industrial goods and equipment manufacturers, automotive companies, pharmaceutical and chemical companies… And why not, also, government entities, insurance and financial companies and law-firms. Any business or organisations who prides itself in what they do, how they do it and with whom they work with can potentially benefit from proving traceability in their operations.
4. Increased efficiency and speed:
   On this one, I am still a bit hesitant. Blockchain speed in certain industries, still needs to catch up to the volume and speed requirements that other industries are able to show, for example the credit card an payments industries processes far more transactions and volumes than the majority to the existing blockchains out there. Another example are stock exchange transactions and another the Travel industry (Airlines, Travel Agencies, Hotels, OTAs, Airport Operators etc ) availability and reservations services which companies like Amadeus or Sabre carry on a second by second basis at volumes far greater than what blockchain is capable of delivering today.
5. Reduced cost
   I agree on the account of reducing the number of intermediaries involved in transactions, so it reduces the steps and therefore improves commission, margins and pricing potentially. However, there may be a social cost as by introducing the technology, people may be losing their jobs due to automation and introduction of smart contracts, and these people will need to recycle themselves, representing lost income, and time invested on their part to get back on track. Also, there is a cost associated to the processing power required by the network of computers to maintain and solve the problems required to add blocks to the chain.

[Charlie1]

Transparency: Any transaction on the blockchain can be seen by anyone, it is all public and cannot be manipulated unlike other forms of payments and transactions, this makes it a very trust less system where manipulation of the system is out of the question.

Security: Many different record keeping systems have to be checked before a transaction is agreed upon, these are very secure and makes it very difficult to manipulate a transaction or the market, as you cannot just say you have 1million ETH because whilst it may say you have the ETH for you, other systems will check and will see you have not gotten the ETH from a transaction, meaning its obviously fake.

Improved traceability: There is an audit trail showing every transaction and stop on the journey of the asset, this makes tracing easy.

Increased efficiency and speed: transactions happen by the blockchain, without any capability of human error. everyone has access to the immutable audit trail of your assets.

Reduced cost: middlemen and third parties are hardly needed with blockchain which cuts costs by a lot.

[mcs.olive]

Transparency
In blockchain all transactions are visible to everyone.

Security
Information is stored across a network of computers instead of a single server.

Improved traceability
Every transaction can be traced and tracked.

Increased efficiency and speed
Everyone has access to the same public updated copy of information, so transactions are easily accessible.
So efficiency and speed to access the information is increased.

Reduced cost
It is not necessary middleman or third parties.

[TonyDow]

1. Transparency: All the network participants share the same documentation. This shared documentation is only updatable with the consensus of the network. The whole network must agree that all records are correct, so the data is more accurate. consistent, and transparent. To change a single transaction, would require all subsequent transactions in the network to be altered.

2. Security: All transactions must be agreed upon by the network. Upon being approved, the transaction is then encrypted, and “linked” to a previous transaction on the chain. The information is stored among a network of computers, rather than a single server, making it more difficult for the data to be compromised. The security this provides can help prevent fraud and un authorized activities within the network, especially when handling sensitive data.

3. Improved Traceability: Everything is recorded on the blockchain, leaving an “audit trail” which makes it easy to track an asset, seeing its origin, and the stops its made along the way. The use of the blockchain’s ledger can help verify authenticity and prevent fraud

4. Improved Efficiency and Speed: Processes can be completed faster, more efficiently, without human error, and without third party mediation. With only a single ledger spread amongst participants, there is no reason to keep track of multiple “ledgers”, which in turn means less clutter. Everyone having access to the same ledger also makes it easier to trust, and eliminates the need for intermediaries.

5. Reduced Cost: With the blockchain, you don’t need as many third party involvement. Being unable to trust your trade partner doesn’t matter as much when you can trust the data on the chain. There’s no need to review multiple documents, when you can instead use the single immutable version of the ledger that everyone has access to.

[Devo]

1. Transparency: In a blockchain, all network participants share the same documentation as opposed to individual copies and all must agree if willing to modify or reverse any single transaction on it.

2. Security: Transactions must be agreed before being added to the blockchain and once they are they’re encrypted and linked to the previous transaction. With this and as information is stored across a network of computers instead of a single one it is way harder to hack the network.

3. Improved traceability: Due to the public feature of blockchains when exchanges of goods are recorded on a blockchain an audit trail of all the movements is formed and one can see every stop of the good in the supply chain on it.

4. Increased efficiency and speed: Digitalizing the trading processes of anything and eliminating third-parties, including humans prone to errors, on them transactions are made faster and more efficiently. Records are smaller as it is a single network to which all participants have access. No need for private and extended and confusing copies of information.

5. Reduced cost: Thanks to the trustless nature of a blockchain third-parties are not needed and costs are heavily reduced, which is an important priority to any business. One just have to verify the immutable information on the network with their own eyes. No need to review as much either as plenty of parties have the same access to the same information and would raise the hand if they consider any issue occurs on the network or believe there is something that is not right.

[jlappi]

Transparency: With the blockchain everybody shares the same information, so everyone can know exactly what is going on, there is an audit trail, plus impossible to cheat.

Security: You don’t have to trust middle man, you trust the network (protocol) and each transaction once it is verified is recorded on the blockchain and cannot be changed, it is immutable.

Improved traceability: Because it is all written in the blockchain, you actually have an audit trail of where every thing came from, which is essential for supply chain.

Increased efficiency and speed: Much more efficient since there are no paper or software that needs to communicate with each other, here everybody relies on the same infrastructure / database and don’t need to reconcile differences.

Reduced cost: Because you don’t have different middle-mans that increase cost in order to trust another third party, you just trust the data recorded on the blockchain.

[karendj]

1. Transparency: the ledger of the blockchain is available for everyone to see and download.

2. Security: instead of trusting a 3rd party/an organization, we trust a protocol that is based on math – it cannot be bribed or bought to gain our favours.

3. Improved traceability: everything that has happened or is happening on the blockchain is recorded, and can never be edited, manipulated, or reversed.

4. Increased efficiency and speed: since the blockchain network runs for 24/7/365, anyone can make transactions and be processed at that very second without having to wait for “office hours”.

5. Reduced cost: since there is no middlemen, there is no need to pay anyone with commissions along the way to get the transactions validated.

[ivan997]

Transparency: it is a distributed ledger, accessible to all network participants

Security: transactions are agreed upon before being processed, and then encrypted. the fact that it relies on a vast network of computers makes it near impossible to hack.

Improved traceability: the audit trails is built in the blockchain, so traceability becomes very easy

Increased efficiency and speed: record-keeping is made in one single distributed ledger, so it is faster and easier to execute and record transactions.

Reduced cost: blockchain reduces the need for middlemen and for multiple documentation, hence the lower costs

[Likho]

Explain with your own words, why these are the benefits of using a blockchain.
Transparency: Because the data on the blockchain is public everyone has access to transaction information and history.

Security: Through consensus a transaction must be verified by all peers on a network before it can be confirmed. After being confirmed new transactions are linked to the previous block, ensuring that transactions cannot be changed or reversed.

Improved traceability: Because the data on the blockchain is public, it is easy to track transaction data or for a business trace the origins of a product from their supplier.

Increased efficiency and speed: Because the data on the blockchain is public, once confirmed transactions can be quickly verified. There is no need to wait for a third party to confirm a transaction and once confirmed a transaction cannot be reversed.

Reduced cost: Since there is no need for a third party to confirm or verify transactions, organisations can rely on the data on the blockchain to confirm transactions

[Deen99]

1. Transparency: Blockchain is a type of distributed ledger where all network participants share same documentation. That shared version can only be updated through consensus, meaning everyone must agree on it.

2. Security: Blockchain is more secure than other record-keeping systems. Transactions must be agreed upon before they are recorded. further, information is stored across a network of nodes instead of a single server, making it resilient to hackers.

3. Improved traceability: Transactions recorded on blockchain offers an audit trail that shows where an asset came from, offering transaction data that can help verify the authenticity of an asset and preventing fraud.

4. Increased efficiency and speed: Blockchain can be used to streamline and automate transactions, making it faster and more efficient.

5. Reduced cost: Blockchain enables removal of middlemen or third parties, making transaction less costly since everyone has permissioned access to single immutable version.

[JeffJ]

Transparency: The blockchain provides a single source of truth about the transaction all parties involved have access to.
Security: Data transactions are agreed upon and are then are added to an imitable chain of transactions on many separate computers connected to the internet and not one individual network or computer.
Improved traceability: The blockchain provides the one source of truth of the history of transactions as they are added to the blockchain.
Increased efficiency and speed: No need for independent audits or verification of data or TRUST as that is all built into the protocol and available for all to see. Once source of truth.
Reduced cost: Saved in man-hours see the answer to “Increased efficiency and speed”.

[ClaususCatenae]

Transparency: everyone can check and see instantly any changes made in ledger, when/if those changes are approved by consensus
Security: no changes, or any manipulation of data is possible, because everyone have to agree on to any potential changing of data, and it is not reversible, nothing can be changed what was already confirmed and executed on ledger, which brings us to: Improved Traceability.
Increased efficiency and speed: no need for intermediary entities, simplified process overall, only one ledger for everyone, etc.
Reduced cost is a quite obvious result of all above (and more).

[Damnkingkong]

Explain with your own words, why these are the benefits of using a blockchain.

Transparency:

• Rather than being a single network, blockchain is a public ledger. Transactions are being validated by the entire network.

Security:

• Activity in the blockchain network are verified as a whole, information cannot be changed and is almost impossible for anyone distort or make some fraudulent changes.

Improved traceability:

• Once blockchain activity is recorded it cannot be changed and final, therefore it has the capability to verify the information from where it began.

Increased efficiency and speed:

• The information shared on the blockchain is more accurate there is no need for reconciliation as with the traditional record keeping method.

Reduced cost:

• Without the use of middleman or many other third party that charges costly fees, information on the blockchain is trustless and rely on the program itself.

[MichielSchouten]

Transparecy: This is created because al participants have the same information in their hands. The information can only be changed if all participants agree on it, this is the consensus.

Security: The blockchain data is writen in stone once the transaction is finalized. All this information is stored across the different nodes collaborating on the network. This makes it hard for hackers to compromise or change data. Also miners are mining 24/7/365 which makes sure the blockchain is always secure.

Improved traceability: When an exchange happens this is being recorded on the blockchain with all information, which leaves an audit trail on the blockchain. Every exchange this audit trail can be seen, so the user can see what happend with a product in the supply chain before they buy it.

Increased efficiency and speed: Storing and sharing information can be a paper heavy process which is automated by the blockchain. This saves time to perform the proces.

Reduced cost: more efficient processes also lead to a reduced cost. Besides that the Blockchain is trustless so you can make exchanges with people or companies you don’t know without any 3th parties taking fees etc.

[alhomeronslow]

The IBM article, IBM blockchain benefits, spoke of accuracy, consistency, and transparency when comparing blockchain to a standard "paper heavy" process. Transparency is partially due the every node on the chain having all the data from the entire chain. Another aspect that makes up transparency is the add only nature of the chain. No transactions have been edit by changes including no deletions.

Security discussion in this article revolves around encryption and distributed nature of the network. The chain in blockchain is a cryptographic construct that under the classical module of computing cannot be broken or changed without a majority of the network nodes reaching consensus. This majority has a high enough cost, in classical computing, to be a significant barrier to practicality and possibility.

Traceability, in simple terms is the ability to follow the paths of a chain of events from current state to an early, even initial state. Complex networks are highly complex to traceability. If you understand the idea of packets in a packet switching network, it is easy to see how the path of packets may be global and traverse very large numbers of sub-networks on the internet, which is a network of networks. Blockchain with its transparent ledger which includes all transactions, offers the ability to trace a path for the transaction of interest back to its origin.

Efficiency and speed are due to the nature of the blockchain encoding which is based on maths, physics, and technology. The verifiable nature of these constructs by separate, non-related individuals makes the trust based on things which are the essence of efficiency and speed. The underlying logic of the complex technology is known to have produced protocols that operate at great speed with little human input. Humans, even if a majority of the population could be involved and trained, cannot offer this speed and efficiency in any attempt to compete using processes that are hands on. Efficiency is not what humans excel at during long repetitive processes, such as adding huge number of transactions to a ledger.

Computing and the hardware of computing developed before the electronic blockchain. The reduced costs of computing are evident in terms of what early computing offered. Less human computers, at the cost of 'living wage' per human, and more electronic computers calculating huge amount of mathematical operations. Blockchain leverages this efficiency and reduced cost from the earliest implementation of Bitcoin. The genesis of Bitcoin was a result of a financial crisis that was caused by huge inefficiencies and and the huge costs of fraud.

[mitja]

1. Transparency:
   Transactions are visible to everyone.
2. Security:
   For action to be performed there has to be confirmation from other nodes on the base of protocol.
3. Improved traceability:
   It is possible to trace the flow of transactions to the origin, allso in the future those transactions won’t be changed.
4. Increased efficiency and speed:
   Eliminating middleman from the transactions.
5. Reduced cost:
   No paper needed, no middleman needed, in case that company has to provide financial information to some second party or for assessment of the company, the data is easily reachable, no problems due to currency changes in case of international transactions…

[radu.archi]

1. Transparency: everyone can see what had happened on the blockchain. The benefit is related to the security of the blockchain.
2. Security: because you can have faith in it.
3. Improved traceability: this comes to the transparency.
4. Increased efficiency and speed: we need efficiency and speed.