Blockchain - And Why You Can Trust it more Than Your Spouse

Author's note: Hey! Looking at the positive response I had from yesterday's post on blockchain and the apps that are leveraging on the technology, I figured that I can do more around this area. Plus, a company that I'm consulting on is also in the same space, and these are some articles I've written to educate the masses about the amazing technology (of blockchain), the digital identity industry and more.

Let me know what you think of the series, because I am trying my best to deconstruct the hype and magic around blockchain, so the rest of us can relate to it better.

If you look back at your financial expenditures over the last few years, let me ask you this: how much have you paid a third party (or multiple third parties) just to “feel safe"?

What do I mean?

Here are a few examples:

• You paid your lawyer to draw up a contract because you want the other parties to behave accordingly.
• You want to be sure that if anything were to happen to you, your insurance company would take care of your family.
• You paid a regulatory body to validate certain information, paid banks to confirm that your account balances are in order, paid accountants to verify your business transaction.
• Heck, you even paid to get your marriage registered!

Sure, you can chalk it up to having "peace of mind" or to put things “properly in place”, but does it really warrant engaging and paying so many different parties, just to have the illusion of truth? I say illusion because as you know, contracts can be broken, rules can be changed, exceptions can be made. And when that happens, you’ll tend to question,

“Why the f*ck I bother paying them so much, to do nothing for me anyway!?!”

Now, what if there’s one third party that can rely on, that is immutable, unhackable, and will just store data as it is - data that cannot be tampered with?

Say hello to the blockchain, which everyone is saying will do great wonders to Technology, like what the Internet did to Communication.

Wikipedia defines blockchain as:

A blockchain is a decentralized, distributed and public digital ledger that is used to record transactions across many computers so that the record cannot be altered retroactively without the alteration of all subsequent blocks and the collusion of the network. This allows the participants to verify and audit transactions inexpensively.

In simple terms, it’s a public data storage where every transaction is stored and cannot be altered. That means no going back on any word, or transaction for that matter, because it’s close to impossible to hack the blockchain.

And blockchain is marveled as a technological revolution that will change the world, just like the many other innovations in history. You see, the invention of the printing press bridged the knowledge gap, and the internet has bridged the distance gap. The blockchain will come to be known as the bridge of the trust gap.

Here are there reasons why:

###1. The blockchain puts the responsibility back into your hands.
Without a third party, you are fully responsible for what you store on the blockchain, and the transactions you administer. There is also no reset of passwords, because no one central party is controlling your information, which meant the only leakage of data that can happen, only happen because you allow it.

####2. The blockchain trains you to have self-governance.
Because everything is stored on the blockchain, and the information is available publicly, you will be more cautious on the digital footprints that you leave behind. You will double, or even triple, check before committing to something, which trains us to be accountable too.

####3. Data stored cannot be changed. Period.
Yes, in case I wasn’t clear before, you cannot change anything on the blockchain, and that, perhaps is one of the key reasons why the technology is so trust-worthy. Because instead of taking someone's word on it, or have a contract around it, you can simply refer to the blockchain address, and the trail of info it follows. So if Alice had paid Michael, and he disputed that he hasn’t receive the funds, they simply just need to refer to the blockchain, making the dispute unnecessary even in the first place.

Due to the security and transparency features of the blockchain, many new companies are leveraging on it to provide solutions that take trust to a whole new level. Xenchain is one such company that is merging the benefits of the blockchain technology into their Digital Information Management app. With stricter guidelines on KYC processes (Know Your Customers), end users like you and me are constantly being asked to provide personal and financial data to various parties to “verify” our identities. Imagine how troublesome and tedious it can be when you are repeatedly asked for the same info, to the point that you’d wonder, if there a safe place where I can grant these institutions limited access to, so they can just pull all the info they need (without bothering you again)?

Xenchain is the answer. Built on the blockchain technology, Xenchain’s eKYC app combines super intelligent text identifiers, facial recognition and digital ID scanners with social validation to create a simple and seamless customer onboarding and ID verification process. Being powered by the blockchain also meant end users’ data are being encrypted and stored a decentralized public ledger, making it safer compared to traditional storage practice. With a click of a button, we can grant permission to anyone who wishes to access our info, and that puts us back in control.

Xenchain is having private token sales now, and if you’re ready to claim your piece of pie in the $8 billion Global Identity and Access Management market, register your interest now at www.xenchain.io.

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Hi there! Thanks for stopping by. I mostly blog about Steemit Success Strategies, business, marketing, entrepreneurship, psychology, community and random thoughts.

Talking about Steemit Success Strategies, if you want to 10x your results on this platform, perhaps some of these guides will be able to help you.

1. How to generate at least 365 post ideas for your Steemit Life (and possibly never run out of ideas again!)
2. The 4 Big Cs of Steemit Success
3. 8 Content Strategies to Excite & Engage your Steemit Followers
4. 29 Steemit Post Types to Attract More Followers & Boost Your Popularity (Part 1)
5. 29 Steemit Post Types to Attract More Followers & Boost Your Popularity (Part 2)
6. Copywriting Magic for Steemit: "How To" Post Titles
7. Copywriting Magic for Steemit: "List Type" Post Titles
8. Steemit Success Strategies #1 - The Law of Requisite Variety
9. Steemit Success Strategies #2 - Batching + Parkinson's Law
10. Four + Four Free Tools to get more exposure for your Steemit Projects
11. How to apply the 80/20 rule to your Steemit Life
12. Steemit Experiment Report: 21 days, 21 minutes, 21 posts later, PLUS an 8-Step Guide on How to Write a Steemit Post every day under 30 minutes
13. Case Study on Bid Botting - A Steemit Bootcamp follow-up module, a cheatsheet and why I probably won't use it

At least once a month, I run Steemit community events and training workshops with my buddies at #teammalaysia too. Some examples are:

1. Steemit Bootcamp March 2018 - KICKSTART Your Steemit Success
2. BoilerRoom 03.03.2018 | Let's Huddle, Hustle & Hack Out Awesome Steemit Contents!

I'm also grateful to be part of #steemitbloggers , SmartSteem and the sndbox.

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Wait, why's Mav posting on Steemit nowadays?

Well, unlike other blogging and social media platform, Steemit is the only platform that allows me to earn cryptocurrency when I engage with it. Yup, one Steem is about USD5, and you, too, can earn Steem Dollars every time you:

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Sign up for a free Steemit account, and you can thank me by coming back and upvoting this article. And guess what, you will earn Steem too for doing that! #awesome