| |November 20199DECENTRALIZED BLOCKCHAIN NETWORKS MAY PROVIDE A HIGH LEVEL OF SECURITY OVER DATA ACCESS BETWEEN AUTHORIZED PARTIESUsage and Adaptation:· Traceability of parts, components in entire production lifecycle· Maintenance of parts, equip-ments and measuring shelf life · Electronic compliance records & tracking · Storage and retrieval of tamper-proof sensors raw data · Maintaining Electronic Health Record· Anti-counterfeit track & trace for drugs and shelf life· Monitoring health profile and im-plants· Telecom roaming & Interconnect billing· Electronic SIM· Government records (titles, birth certificates, licenses, etc.) sharing· Customs (import/export licens-ing, excise taxes)· Regulatory certifications (food, pharma, etc.)· Smart cities servicesWith the above example we can see its usages mostly with high vol-ume of data what IOT sensors are generating or between organiza-tion which may require dependent data flow across multiple parties where trust, transparency , consist-ency and integrity of data is most important and critical.Challenges and LimitationsScalability: IoT's may generate huge sum of data down the years and handling scalability over mul-tiple nodes is tough task and may face data retrieval issues.Security & Privacy: Decentral-ized blockchain networks may pro-vide a high level of security over data access between authorised parties, but IoT devices themselves have to be secured to prevent hack-ers from tampering and re-distri-bution of data across nodes.Interoperability: Cross-chain interoperability has to be archi-tecture if we want to leverage the actual benefits of data over public or cross company domain. If this is not provisioned or build from the start we may end up with multiple siloes networks failing the idea of data collaboration.Legal, compliance and regula-tion: The allocation of responsibil-ity & regulation has to be closely examined and aligned. Since these databases may have sensitive da-talike medical device implants of a patients, critical maintenance logs of machineries which takes an action based on certain rules & algorithm or activity of depend-ent IoT's. In case of any tempering may end up causing the patient or person or machine in harm. Since most of the IoT platforms are block-chain-based, without a controlling of single entity, so identifying and blaming accountable party is little bit difficult.Why is still it is being adopted?Yes there are certain reasons and use case for going into Blockchain environment as described below:· If business exchanges data and have workflows across group com-panies or third party systems.· If thereis a trust deficit be-tween transacting parties of data exchange.· If transactions involve interme-diaries, aggregators charging ex-cessive fees, or adding compliance risk or delays.· If transactions requires periodic reconciliations because of data in-consistency between source and destination systems.· More traceability or audit trail required for regulatory purpose.· If it requires real time vis-ibility of the data flow between multiparty transactions.· If it requires automation of workflow for repetitive steps between parties.Although Blockchain technol-ogy is well-suited on case to case basis but it cannot take over the traditional database systems and approaches which are still better than blockchain in certain capaci-ties. Now it is very crucial for every organization to understand what they want to achieve with differ-ent approaches & methodologies and should review the strengths and vulnerabilities of each kind of solution with due diligence. They should not just follow the crowd blindly.ConclusionBlockchain is overhyped but cer-tainly it has great potential. Com-panies have just started its adapta-tion and system will improve further to take care of mentioned risks. Blockchain project can really be a solution for many problems over data authenticity but it cor-rections will take some more time before coming to SME's or other business enterprises.
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