Blockchain technology: Despite the challenges it poses in terms of time and effort, It is clear that blockchain adoption will mean a real revolution in a multitude of operations and processes in a wide range of sectors, to trigger the demand for specific profiles and capabilities, and to force traditional companies to completely rethink their processes to take full advantage of the advantages offered by this promising technology.
Next, we analyze ten trends that will dominate blockchain technology in 2020.
Table of Contents
The call, Blockchain as a Service or BaaS, will be one of the trends with the most significant projection 2020, especially for the interest that has aroused among various startups and, above all, large consolidated companies. BaaS is a cloud-based service that allows users to develop their own digital products working with blockchain. These digital products can be smart contracts, decentralized applications (Dapps), or even services that do not require a blockchain-based infrastructure to function.
Microsoft and Amazon are just some of the companies that are already working on the development of a blockchain that allows them to start offering BaaS services and thus shape the future of blockchain applications.
Blockchain networks can be classified as Private, public, federated, or hybrid. The federated Blockchain term has been coined to designate one of the most promising trends that have emerged in the blockchain segment in recent times. It is an advanced form of the primary blockchain model, which makes it more suitable for many use cases. In this type of blockchain, instead of a single organization, each preselected node in the blockchain can be managed by multiple authorities. In federated networks, it is this group of nodes that is responsible for validating the blocks so that transactions can continue to be processed. In 2020 it will increase the use of federated blockchain platforms thanks to the customization possibilities of blockchain networks that it enables.
Bitcoin is one of the most used examples to illustrate the volatility of cryptocurrencies. The concept of stable currencies, or stablecoins, emerges from the need to guarantee some stability in the value associated with each coin. Today, stablecoins are still in a developing phase, and they are expected to reach their historical highs throughout 2020.
The launch of Libra, the cryptocurrency of Facebook in 2020, will be a fundamental milestone for the adoption of stablecoins, despite the multitude of problems that the company is facing and the flight of partners that is occurring within of the organization created to manage this cryptocurrency.
In 2019, the number of social network users worldwide reached 2,770 million.
The introduction of blockchain in social networks will allow curbing some of the problems that have raised the most controversy, including violations of privacy, data control, and relevance of the contents. Therefore, the incorporation of blockchain in the field of social networks will be another booming trend during 2020.
The implementation of blockchain ensures non-traceability and prevents duplication of all data published on social networks. Besides, it will allow its users to store data more securely, as well as guaranteeing their ownership. Blockchain will also enable content creators to determine their relevance, rather than the owners of the platform. This way, users can have more control over what they want to see. The tricky thing will be to convince social media platforms to implement these solutions voluntarily. If not, we will have to wait for future regulatory developments in this line, similar to what has happened with the GDPR at the European level.
The interoperability concept referred to the blockchain, refers to the ability to share data and information between different systems and networks of blockchains. This function would allow visualizing and accessing the same data from various blockchain networks. Thus, for example, it would be possible to send data from an Ethereum blockchain to another specific blockchain network. Developing this interoperability poses many challenges, but it would offer significant advantages.
Contrary to what happens in other traditional businesses, in the banking and financial sectors, the adoption of blockchain technology does not require significant changes in terms of processes. After its successful application in the development of the cryptocurrency segment, numerous financial institutions have begun to seriously consider the possibility of implementing blockchain to improve their traditional operations.
According to a PWC report, 77% of financial institutions plan to adopt blockchain technology as part of some system or process in production throughout 2020.
Blockchain technology will allow banks to streamline bureaucratic processes, execute transactions faster at a lower cost, and increase privacy levels. The consultant Gartner has estimated around $ 1 billion, the value of the business that will be derived from the use of blockchain-based cryptocurrencies for banking.
Also, blockchain can also be used to launch new cryptocurrencies regulated or influenced by monetary policies. In this way, banks intend to reduce the competitive advantage of independent cryptocurrencies and increase their level of control over their monetary policy.
The idea of distributed registration is also extremely attractive to Government authorities that have to manage large volumes of data. Currently, each agency has its own databases, which requires them to be continually requesting information about their citizens. However, the implementation of blockchain technologies to increase efficiency in data management will improve the functioning of these agencies.
According to Gartner, more than 1,000 million people will have some personal data stored on some platform or blockchain system, whether or not they are aware of them. Also, as governments have no choice but to recognize the advantages offered by blockchain-based currencies, national cryptocurrencies will begin to appear, digital money is the future, and nothing can stop it.
As new threats begin to emerge, security will become a priority in the IoT technology market. The complexity of the threats derives from the heterogeneous and distributed nature of the technology. There are already more than 26,000 million devices connected to the internet. Unauthorized access to the Internet of Things devices and networks will be much more frequent in 2020, and it will be the network operators who will have to start stopping the intruders.
The current centralized architecture of the Internet of Things is one of the leading causes of the vulnerability of IoT networks. With billions of connected devices, and with millions more to come, the IoT is a perfect target for cybercrime. And that is why security will become an increasingly relevant factor.
The blockchain offers new hope for IoT security, for different reasons. First, it is a public technology. Everyone who participates in the network of blockchain network nodes can view and validate all the blocks and transactions stored in it. Besides, it also allows users to control their transactions using keys. Second, the blockchain network is decentralized, so there is no single authority that can approve transactions by eliminating the weakness of the Single Point of Failure (SPOF, or single point of failure). Third, perhaps the most crucial aspect: it is a secure technology – the database can only be expanded, previous records cannot be changed.
Many companies that work in IoT adopt blockchain technology for their business solutions. The International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that some blockchain service accompanies 20 % of IoT implementations.
The integration of artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies will allow for better developments. This integration will enable significant improvements in blockchain technology that will result in an adequate number of applications.
According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), global spending on AI will reach 57.6 billion dollars by 2020, and 51% of companies will embark on the transition to AI with blockchain integration.
In addition, blockchain can help make artificial intelligence more coherent and facilitate its understanding, as well as better understand the decision-making processes of machine learning algorithms, offering total traceability on those processes. Blockchain allows recording all the data and variables that influence the decisions made by machine learning algorithms.
On the other hand, artificial intelligence would increase the efficiency of blockchain processes far beyond what any conventional person or computer would be capable of. Just take a look at how blockchains are currently managed with current computers to understand the processing capacity that is needed even to perform the most basic tasks.
Examples of AI applications in Blockchain: Power of intelligent computing, creation of diverse databases, data protection, monetization of data, confidence in decision making by artificial intelligence systems.
Blockchain is an emerging technology, and there is only a small percentage of people with adequate technical training. As the pace of development and adoption of blockchain technology increases, a breeding ground will be created that will motivate many to try to acquire skills and experience in blockchain technology.
Although the number of experts in the various fields of blockchain continues to grow, the pace of implementation of this technology will generate a situation throughout 2020 that will trigger the demand for such profiles.
It should be noted that many universities are making real efforts to respond to this increase in demand. Still, the rate of graduation of students trained to work with the technology remains insufficient. Likewise, many companies are taking steps to develop this type of talent internally through blockchain network development and management training programs.
Also Read : What Is Blockchain? The Financial Sector Revolution
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