13 Reasons Why you should Learn Blockchain Technology

Before you get into a deeper understanding of blockchain, you might want to know why exactly is blockchain becoming so popular and why should you learn it? Here, we have brought to you 13 interesting facts about blockchain which are also the reasons to learn blockchain. Explore the article and decide whether investing your time in learning blockchain is going to help you in the future or not.

Before diving into reasons to learn Blockchain, first, let’s revise its concept.

What is Blockchain?

Blockchain is a distributed digitalized ledger technology which enables legitimate and extremely secure transactions to take place by means of a point-to-point network. It was introduced in 2008 and brought into practical use in 2009 as the technology to use Bitcoins. Since then, blockchain has continued to gain popularity and has become increasingly useful in a lot of domains. After bitcoin, there have been many kinds of cryptocurrencies operating on a blockchain network. Along with having application in cryptocurrency, blockchain is also proving to be useful in areas such as governance, cybersecurity, industrial processes, financial sector, entertainment, etc.

Wait a minute! Have you completed the Types of Blockchains article? 

Importance of Blockchain Technology – 13 Reasons to Learn

1. Promising Career

Since blockchain was introduced as a new concept of operating a network for cryptocurrencies, it has kept gaining popularity. This, in turn, has created more and more job opportunities for trained blockchain professionals. The titles for blockchain professionals are; Blockchain developer, Cryptocurrency analyst, Blockchain consultant, Blockchain solution architect, Senior software engineer (Cryptocurrency), and Research analyst, etc. Every year, and especially around 2017, a significant hike in salaries were noted motivating more people to get trained and seek jobs in the blockchain domain. The average salary of a blockchain professional ranges between $80,000 to $1,50,000 as of 2019. In the coming years, blockchain will get more mainstreamed creating even better job opportunities for the people.

2. Chain Disruption

With a breakthrough concept of a peer-to-peer network and distributed ledger secured by cryptographic techniques, blockchain is disrupting established processes and chains. The established system says that there must be a centralized authority controlling every underlying operation and activity. But with blockchain technology, there is no need for a central authority and two parties can securely conduct business with one another at a faster pace. This has disrupted bank systems as well as the chain of processes in industries. With this crucial shift in how businesses and organizations might work in the future, it is likely to generate more opportunities for benefitting people.

3. High demand

Since the time of its advent, blockchain has continued to turn heads, gain credibility and popularity. It is statistically proven that blockchain’s demand in the market has increased every year. This shows that in coming years too, blockchain is going to remain a domain having job opportunities and business applications.

4. Industries on Blockchain

One main reason for you to be interested in blockchain technology is its promising application in the industrial sector. Blockchain technology and network prove to be a perfect solution to monitor and manage industrial operations especially supply chains. For instance, a company named Maersk have already deployed blockchain to track their containers globally. They have untampered information about the locations of their trailers and complete access to it 24*7. Also, Walmart is exploring blockchain applications so that they can have a system to track products in their journey from the manufacturers to the stores.

Many industries and sectors including healthcare, real estate, aviation, energy & resources, banking, computing, retail, etc. have started the process of integrating blockchain as their operating technology.

5. New-age Technology Integrations

Blockchain provides the universal infrastructure which is flexible to integrate with all sorts of old as well as new technologies. It has various applications in the domains of voting, banking, commodity trading, supply chain management, etc. In addition to this, the concept of blockchain, smart contracts, and distributed ledger system works perfectly well for the Internet of Things (IoT).

6. Digital Identity

There must be hardly any of us left except for our grandmas and grandpas who do not use digital banking or transaction services. This digital revolution has also given the notorious hackers millions of possibilities to carry out cybercrimes. This made our digital identities unsafe. Many incidents of hacking and fraud were reported where hackers could crack into the system and know our ids, passwords and other details to misuse them. Blockchain will introduce a strict cryptographic system where it is impossible to hack and access information. Also, an individual’s digital identity remains intact i.e. there will be only one online identity which can be used anywhere. One cannot carry out digital frauds by creating fake identities as every digital identity will be verified and recorded in a blockchain.

Any queries in ‘Why Learn Blockchain’ article till now? Mention them in the comment section.

7. Cybersecurity

In continuation to the point we made regarding maintaining a secure digital identity, we come to our next reason i.e. cybersecurity. As blockchain is a decentralized and distributed record system, our information is not stored all together at a central location. Instead, it is distributed to its rightful owner and is secured with cryptographic encryption methods. Only the person to whom the personal details belong will be able to access it and control its use for others. It is easier for hackers to hack important and confidential information if it is stored collectively at the location. Thus, by implementing the blockchain system, people’s digital identities are impossible to hack and the operations/transactions are can occur safely.

8. Universal Infrastructure

With the system of block-chaining data records and distributed ledger technology (DLT), a new layer of universal infrastructure has come into existence. By this, we mean that any type of business or organization can use blockchain and DLT has a networking and data storage infrastructure universally. Businesses can have blockchain as their main operative system or use it as an add-on technology. In any case, blockchain is available as a universal layer or infrastructure through which data or information can be securely transferred from point A to point B anywhere in the world.

9. Cryptocurrencies and ICOs

As we all know, Bitcoin was the first-ever cryptocurrency that got in fashion in the mid 2009s. It has drawn some serious attention and popularity ever since and has resulted in the introduction of more types of cryptocurrencies in the market. Although, the legitimacy and reliability of cryptocurrencies remain to be a topic of contention. But if you are one of those who keep genuine interest in investing in cryptocurrencies, you must have a thorough understanding of blockchain and DLT system. This is because blockchain acts as the underlying system for such currencies and dealing with them means having to use blockchain. You can invest smartly if you know how blockchain works. Similarly, learning blockchain will help you understand and shortlist ICOs better.

10. Transparency and Improved Governance

The most important factor for any country to function is having a transparent and accountable government. In almost all of the countries, the governance is not see-through, that is, the citizens are not a part of the processes and decision making. Also, they don’t have access to records and information which they might have a right to see. By introducing blockchain into a government system like taxes, elections, welfare, healthcare, etc., transparency and legitimacy can be achieved.

Countries like Germany, Britain, Australia are already working on plans to integrate blockchain into their governing operations to ensure tax compliance, store digital records, for welfare payments, etc. Whereas, Dubai has already successfully integrated blockchain into its official operations and has become the first government that is completely powered by blockchain.

11. The Inflection Point of an Era

The world has seen many revolutionary technologies securing a spot in the market. Blockchain is believed to have made a similar motion. It is said to create an inflection point of an era where many big players like Citi bank, Master Card, CIBC, VISA, SBI, Standard Chartered, Western Union, Accenture, J.P. Morgan, etc. have integrated with blockchain technology. This means in no time, blockchain is going to become a widely accepted technology. It will also open flood gates for a deluge of new career opportunities. And so, it is better to ride the trending wave and make the most of it while it lasts.

12. Equitable Entertainment

Entertainment industry such as music, movies or books for that matter has always been disappointed by the system of distributing their content online. There exists a lot of middlemen between the creator and the consumer swooping in a fat amount of money for being the mediator. This leaves the content creator with merely 10% or even less of the actual earning. This is entirely unfair to the content creators who have worked hard dedicating their time and passion.

Blockchain is the perfect solution for this problem as it will completely remove the middlemen from the process of content distribution to the audiences. Due to its peer-to-peer networking infrastructure, the creator can directly send a copy of their content to the consumer. For instance, currently, we use apps like Spotify, Saavn to stream and listen to music. These apps too are the middlemen.

Every time to listen to an Ed Sheeran song, the money is getting cashed for Spotify leaving a very little royalty for the singer. To eliminate this, the artist can upload its music as an encrypted file on the cloud through blockchain. Then, any interested listener can request the song directly at a minimal charge.

13. Crowdsourced Energy

You will be surprised to know that blockchain even extends its applications in the energy and resources sector. Global warming has been a pressing issue since time immemorial and is going to be a grave problem in the years to come. The most important step to take at this moment of need is to control toxic emissions from industries. UN’s IPCC body has strict laws framed up that monitor emissions from industries worldwide. Blockchain can help here by registering the number of emissions occurred and keeping a track of to keep it under the limits. It will make sure that no industry is able to violate the rules and dispose off environment harming substances under the guidance and as permitted.

Summary

This concludes our discussion on the reasons that can make you consider learning blockchain and take it as a profession. We hope the list of reasons which we provided helped you in making your mind. And, I am sure that you must have got the answer to your question – Why learn Blockchain?

If you know any other reasons to learn Blockchain, please drop them in the comment section below.