Steemit Crypto Academy Season 4 Beginners' course - Task 4:Blockchain, Decentralization, Block explorer
Hello Everyone,
Define decentralization.
Decentralization is the connection of network nodes made to interact with each other without the involvement of intermediaries. The nodes are made to interact with each other and all information is being distributed to all nodes involved in the network. This means every node has its updated copy of the data in the network.
This feature of the blockchain makes it invulnerable to hackers, since the data is distributed among the network and not centralized into one node.
In decentralized system authority is not invested into one individual but rather distributed by every individual in the blockchain. Hence the management of the system is dependent on every node connected to the system.
Describe the advantages and disadvantages of a decentralized system.
1. Fast Transaction Time:
The transfer of cryto from one user to another is made faster compared to than of the centralized banks. The transfer time for each crypto currency is different, but taking into confederation the average time take compared to banks we would all agree decentralized systems are more faster. Fast transaction speed up our daily activities.
2. No Intermediaries
Transactions in decentralized systems does not involve any third parties involved for the transaction to be executed. This allows users to send money anytime of the week without having to rely on anybody. Most banks don't work on Sundays so individuals have to wait on Monday to make a transaction but with the help of decentralized system the individual make the transaction easily and comfortable anytime of the week.
3. No Govern Rules
Decentralized system is not regulated by the government or central bank hence there are no rules governing the blockchain. As such, individuals are not compelled to provide their identification or KYC. It gives users freedom and are allowed to do whatever they wish to do without any interferance.
4. Fraud Prevention
The blockchain is transparent and due to this feature, every transaction made is recorded and made public hence fraud is easily detected when taken place. There are thousands of validators and these validators validate transactions that only conforms with the rules and regulations and stop or prevent any other transaction that does not. This feature of the blockchain makes it invulnerable to fraud.
5. Stability
The centralized system at time have the issue of server failure or network problems. The decentralized system solves this problem. There are no network server failure in decentralization, this is due to the multiple nodes managing the decentralized systems.
1. Crime
Due to the anonymity of the blockchain, individual takes advantages of it to commit crimes with the knowledge that they can not be traced and punished. In a time, criminals used bitcoin as their payment method to purchase illegal stuffs like weed because they know they cant be traced.
2. Volatility
The price of cryptocurrencies are very volatile which means the prices fluctuate with time. This is due to the entry and exit of the market by individuals and companies. Hence individuals who input their funds into the market has the tendency of loosing their funds due to the volatility of the market.
3. Data Is Immutable
On the blockchain, once data is written it can not be erased or tempered with. Example is right here on steemit, when a user makes a transfer of steem from one steemit user to another, the transfer history will be written and there is no way this transfer history can be erased.
4. Scalability
Scalability is one of the issues relating to the decentralized system. Transactions are sometimes delayed to be executed due to low scalability especially in the newly introduced cryptocurrencies. This is one of the reason why its difficult for cryptocurrencies to be used in so many scenarios.
5. Lost of Private Keys
The centralized systems have individuals private keys and only allow them to set passwords so whenever they loss their password the company reset their password for them using their private keys. With the decentralized system, every individual is handed his or her private key to manage all of their affairs by themselves so incase this individuals lost their keys, there is no one to get their keys back so that mean the account can not be regain. This is the reason its warned to save keys in a very secured place.
In what areas of life can a decentralized blockchain be helpful?
1. Education
The Education sector is one of the places the blockchain can make a great impact to make the life of students and lecturers more easier.
a. Student Records: Recording record of student is one of the hardest task to do as a lecturer. Imagining a student changing to a different university to continue his or her studies. The current university he or she is enrolled in will want to see the student records to make verification. Each student record is approximately 700 pages and needs to be signed and stamped. isn't it tedious work?
With the blockchain, an individual gets the verified records at hand in few clicks.
b. Storage: Institutions usually store information which require large storage spaces to save on local hard drive. Another option institutions use is the cloud storage which cost a lot of money considering the amount of data the institutions has to be saved.
Above all, there is the chance that the local hard drive could crush and files and data would be lost or data can also be compromised.
The best solution to this problem is the blockchain. Filecoin is a better option for the problem to store large data in a more secure way avoiding lost of data or data compromising.
c. Lower Cost: The above mentioned points reduces the time used to complete a task which goas along to lower the cost in these task.
2. Health Care
The health care is one of the sectors the blockchain can be applicable. The use of the ledger technology can be used to securely transfer patient medical records and also check on the medical supply chain.
a. Patient Medical Records: Keeping patients data secure and safe is one of the major concerns in the health sector. As we know the blockchain is transparent and decentralized hence it is more secure and not vulnerable to hackers or compromised. While the blockchain is transparent, it has the ability to be private, by hiding the identity of patients at the same time share the data among patients and doctors very quickly and safely.
b. medical supply chain
There are a lot of questions raised to the drugs we take in our everyday life. Are the suppliers of these drugs trust worthy? along the way are they not tempered? The blockchain has these questions answered.
With the concerns of the trustworthy of the supplier, the use of the ledger technology to mark the point of origin of the supplier. A ledger is created each drug so as to mark the point of origin.
The transparency nature of the blockchain guarantee transparency of the shipping process of drugs and medical equipment. After the drug has been shipped, it records the shipping steps and the people in charge in each step.
3. Voting
The blockchain uses the digital ledger to verify, process and record data across the system. The blockchain data can't be tempered with and can be easily verified. The system can not influenced by one person hence maintain the security of the data and the system in general.
Previously online voting has been denied due to its vulnerability to hackers and compromise. Now the blockchain has solve most of these problems. Voters had the ability to submit their votes without having to submit or reveal their identity or the political party they belong or cast their vote to.
One ID is attributed to one vote, fake votes cant be created, and also tempering of results not possible hence officials are certain of the count of the votes casted.
Decentralizing our systems will have our lives a lot easier, taking consideration how life how fast transactions are executed, and how data is stored safely. There are so many good to come out of blockchain decentralization, right now its still young and not a lot of companies and individuals have adapted to it yet. All what is required right now is patient as it gain attention all around the world naturally.