Topic: The real value of blockchain (Read 388 times)

The real value of blockchain is in the use case and the solutions it provides whenever and wherever it is applied. Blockchain has proven to be areliable technlogy that has in it numerous solutions cutting across loads of spheres and professions. its application is limitless as every sector works with a directory and the directory can exist on blockchain.

Blockchain is the reason why we have the existing Cryptocurrency Industry. Developers found a way to benefit from the technology and it is really revolutionary since we can also monetize from it. Blockchain Technology boasts its security feature that is really hard to trespass. Learning about Blockchain can be beneficiary to all those who study it since they can create something from it and all they need are servers and knowledge on where to run their Blocks.

According to an article a blockchain is essentially a digital, decentralized, public ledger which acts as a ‘custodian of records’ for verifying and storing transactions in time-ordered blocks. Since a blockchain grows as verified blocks are added to it, it is maintained in chronological order of the most recent transactions. This allows participants on the network to track completed transactions without the need for a central authority.

You can read it here https://blog.westerndigital.com/value-of-blockchain/

There are alot of values in its fundamentals or principles. Decentralization is one of the most important part of them. Without the decentralization, we will have alot of the vices or abuses associated with centralized currencies taking place on the network. The decentralization makes breaking or going against network rules without the participants consent (consensus) harder. There are other really valuable principles of Blockchain like transparency, immutablity, censorship resistant, privacy/anonymity, permissionless/trustlessness, security etc

You already said that Blockchain has a real value in being used for cryptocurrency, isn't that enough value for you already? Or you still need to know more on how it can be useful? Well there are still so many ways that the Blockchain can be helpful to us. And like you said, decentralization, that's really one of the good things about Blockchain and that means Blockchain is really important in the area of securing things. Others mentioned using Blockchain to store information so that they are permanent and open to the public.

Blockchain cannot be breached, which means that any information stored on it is completely safe due to its decentralized nature. Since the Blockchain is transparent, it can be a means of fraud protection for your business. I hope that serves you.

You are right about one thing,  cryptocurrency is the best application of blockchain so far but i assure you, there are a lot that can be done with Blockchain. Few months back,  a young blockchain enthusiasts in African designed an electoral voting system using the potentials of blockchain technology and it is currently being used across many education institutions for voting and electing union leaders. I believe with time, countries will adopt the use of such transparent means of electoral system

We must admit that blockchain, at least version implemented in the bitcoin network, is the first successful realization of digital immutability. Whether or not it is completely immutable, it doesn't actually matter. It maybe just a first step of the big journey into new world of digital technologies where immutability matters. Technologies we have never witnessed before. That is why I rather value decentralized blockchains, because centralized realization don't have unique properties and look similar to databases. When you rename a file on your PC, it doesn't make it different, its properties remain exactly the same. What companies did when they started to use the word "blockchain" is just renaming the file. There is nothing special with using old databases, but they have been trying to make it more valuable by using the modern term "blockchain".

The real value is the change it brings and the fact that it makes a lot of business easier, faster and more reliable and trustworthy. Not only in fintech but think of the supply chain business. It has a reason why Maersk was one of the first that got seriously interested when IBM came up with their supply-chain blockchain solution. Certainly, there are ventures that don´t need a blockchain solution like pretty much everythign that has to do with hard labour

True that, and I also believe that "there is no permanent in this world but change".  Since Blockchain is only a creation of man, anyone with enough knowledge and power can easily modify anything.  I also believe in the uncertainty of the future, who knows there will be another technology far more useful than blockchain technology that will render it worthless. 

Blockchain tech is still young and currently trending, whatever lies ahead we never know until we get there.  The real value of blockchain depends on the people who patronize or despise it.  It might be worth the world or nothing at all.  At the end of the day, it is the individual's valuation that matters.

No one controls bitcoin. That is the part which I like the most.
No ownership as a whole. We are the owner when we acquire it.

The same goes for when you use it in different fields.
No one can edit it. Everything that will happen will be recorded with transparency but they cannot interfere with the results.

I guess we will see fruits if someone will create that kind of project.
The main problem is you will do it for free.
That is how amazing Satoshi is. No one paid him but yet look at Bitcoin now.

Thanks for the article, however I have heard those claims about blockchain being not truly immutable system. These are not baseless at all. But you can claim the same about everything we have today. Every notion can be disputed. Any truth can be viewed from different perspectives, you can find flaws and shortcomings absolutely everywhere. Everything is relative, there is nothing absolute in the universe. Even universe itself can be destroyed by big bang, in the same way it was born. So, while we are talking about immutability of blockchain, we can't predict future of humanity. If humanity refuses the idea of bitcoin, it will definitely fall apart, its immutability will be gone for good. It is people who have to decide whether they need immutability or not. After all, bitcoin and blockchain were created to serve people, so let people to decide what to do.

Well said but I think this article may capture your interest :  The Blockchain Immutability Myth.  Kinda old article but I believe it still has its punch.


The problem is, the government who has the authority won't allow the decentralized system to take over their established centralized system.  They will establish a centralized regulatory board over that decentralized system that we are hoping for and it is happening now.

Main feature of blockchain is censorship resistance. All other benefits come from this one.

Censorship resistance is achieved via immutability and decentralization.

Censorship resistance is such an incredible feature that, it may revolutionize the entire world.

I was just curious to know if I understand the blockchain technology correctly. That is the beauty of new technologies - we learn something new about it every single day. So, in my opinion, the only realization of blockchain that really works was firstly introduced in bitcoin network. We all know that this kind of blockchain is a great solution to the problem of digital cash, we don't need a central server to verify our transactions anymore. Transactions is part of history as long as they're written on blockchain. It is immutability of blockchain, which can be considered one of the main features of this technology, makes it unique. Before invention of bitcoin, we have never been able to achieve immutability. It is not possible to provide immutability in centralized blockchains, so they can use data bases or spreadsheets instead, it is cheaper and has the same effect.

Blockchain itself is a "technology" not something you can do without but something to improve the current system. Just by looking at the blockchain technology itself you will fail to see a value onto it since blockchain is something implemented to help/support/improve something aside from the cryptocurrencies blockchain as a digital ledger is now being utilized by a lot of companies in their ongoing patent war with each other on who will have the most patented versions of their blockchain. This ongoing patent war itself  shows how valuable blockchain technology is on how a current system is improved by the implementation of blockchain. If you fail to see any value with Blockchain maybe you are looking at it in a different way.

And this is exactly where the problem start from. Unless you are the one in control of the system, you can not trust others with you identity. For instance, people information are being traded for money from the dark web. not all these come up out as a result of hacking but people that have access to database sell this informations. In banking sectors, information about people pensions and gratuity are being altered and framed just for their own gain. This we hardly happen in a decentralized world.

Well, we are talking about blockchain here and I am just pointing out that blockchain is not only decentralized but rather, can be centralized.  As of the question, if we need a centralized blockchain, I think the same thought will be given to the decentralized blockchain system.  Each has its pros and cons.  We cannot say that decentralized blockchain has no cons, the same goes for the centralized system. 

The problem with us is that we became fanatic of something that anything against what we believe becomes wrong.  We fall into the category of being biased and that is not healthy.

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BC is still at a very young stage, and during this time, it is still on experimentation and exploration of where it will fit in.

Security,lack of centralized control,flexibility.Don't you think that those features give value?
I guess that by "real value" you mean functionality and usefulness,since those are the features that give value.Well,it still hasn't been proved that the blockchain is effective and useful in any big system(education,healthcare,real estate,banking and finance,retail,agriculture,etc...).
Blockchain technology is very promising,but the full potential of this amazing technology is yet to be discovered.

From what I understand from your post, you are saying that it's not ideal to use the blockchain technology for social networks? Why not? It should not just be with cryptocurrencies just because of the applications that BC has and knowing that would lead to other advancements not only just in the financial part but also in the communication between people.

If you are interested in different applications, some researches focus on this and one article that amazed me is this one: Handbook of Research on Blockchain Technology

Just imagine the POS systems that opened borders within different parts of the world and be connected quickly and trade goods and services efficiently. How amazing it is.

The question here is if we really need a centralized blockchain in which everything is controlled by small group of people. They have absolutely different views on how system should work, there is no space for immutability, security, accessibility in a blockchain of such kind. Just some thoughts from this article:


Bitcoin has showed us that decentralized blockchain is the best way to minimize vulnerability. It is an open-source system that is constantly under attack and is still alive. What will happen to centralized blockchain if someone outside finds a bug and use to make profit? How much time will it take for developers to find a vulnerability?

There are a lot of benefits. Let's first take a look at the world of blockchain because those all of the transitions are going into recorded by the blockchain which is encrypted and in every block makes a duplicate which is another encrypted code to make sure and see that all of the transactions are safe. Also in real life, we could adopt the use of the blockchain because it has a lot of benefits recently there is a topic about the universities applying the use of the blockchain which is more efficient because they are using the traditional way of making a file cabinet which is not good at saving files instead it is good to adopt the blockchain because it is more secured also we are using the cloud storage that we can make a backup immediately without any hassle.

Yes, currently the only successful application of blockchain is cryptocurrency. Some newbies might say that blockchain is used for medical records, supply chains, etc., but they are just parroting what they have read in blogs and articles. In reality all other uses are only theoretical or exist as prototypes, and this is despite 4-5 years of development. No wonder that software engineers are highly skeptical of this technology. And when it's between engineers and marketers, you should always listen to engineers.

I don't think that Blockchain is only a decentralized system, as it was discussed that blockchain can be both a decentralized and centralized system depending on the way it was implemented.


I think the blockchain can be manipulated or hacked. 

Here is one example:


I strongly agree with this one.  There is no such thing as perfect immutability especially a system that can be modified anytime.

As of the value of Blockchain, I got no idea how much it worth.

I am not sure that what I'll say is unique to blockchain (check out DAG which is also used to make cryptos, for instance), but it is what it's famous for. Blockchain makes it impossible to fake data and to change the data which previously entered the database. A good use-case is provably fair gambling where one can check any bet and make sure it was truly random (that the system did not tamper with the data). The verification procedure also seems useful for ticketing and voting, but then again there are easier ways to organize that with a fairly high degree of precision. The best use-case of Blockchain is IMO cryptocurrencies because it's extremely important that the money is impossible to fake, and blockchain offers that.

See blockchain is not limited by cryptocurrencies, blockchain as a whole is this incredible system which has its implications everywhere you can think of .

From taxes to online documentation, block chain is more secure than the network that we are using right now .

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Let us first explain what a blockchain is :
Let us assume that we have 3 blocks , 1, 2, 3. Every block in the chain would have certain things for example:-

Hash of the block
Hash of the previous block
Data

Now the good thing is , all of them are connected, since the new block shows the hash of the previous block , except the first block which is the genesis.

Each block does take time for the confirmation which is more like 10 minutes. You might wonder why this time is important ? This time is actually something that makes sure that no one with a super fast computer can temper with it .

Therefore time lag is really really important thus creating implications about the lightning network.

Now it is not centralized and is dependent on p2p network therefore not one person but a whole lot of them can verify it and if they found that someone tempered with it , can make sure everything is safe and sound.

Therefore this ensures the data is safe .
The transfer takes time but is more secure than what we are using right now .
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So wherever we need security+documentation , we can use it there.

There are lots of things that can be built on top of blockchain and I guess we all have seen it with smart contracts already. There were projects which we store files on the blockchain particularly music file. One example is the Musicoin project.  Although the file sizes are very limited, there are teams developing a project in which we can store big dumps on the blockchain.

You just have to be creative, I believe we can do more with blockchain. I think there was already a technology for electing officials.

There is a lot of benefits of using the blockchain and many people today are using this because it is trusted and encrypted which is the users favor also the transactions are transparent so both transactions of the users are good because it is easier to identify if the transaction is getting confirmation and process.
Many people would like to innovated and adopt this kind of activity because it is more secure about their information also it avoids getting too many expenses like the storage because some of the business today is with the use of file cabinet system which is already old and we are aiming to have a good storage of all of the information we need.


Today we are using the blockchain into the world of cryptocurrency because it is easier to use because of a high level of security also on every information of the blocks it can create a new duplicate of information is the blocks with another private key which is a good thing because we can now freely safe on this kind of cases.

Also one of the most popular kinds of databases today is the cloud because it is more on the internet even there is trouble happens there is a backup in the cloud internet server which we can recover immediately the file.

You can create cryptocurrencies without using blockchain technology too. Same applies to everything else. What is blockchain? In simple words, a method of maintaining database where data is stored in blocks and hash of each block links to the next block, that's it! You can adopt this principle and apply blockchain for maintaining database for any project. It will neither make your website decentralized, nor tamper-proof unless you take care other stuffs as well.

When I talk about other stuffs, it includes the methodology of creating new blocks, place of keeping database and difficulty of tampering database.

Methodology of creating new blocks : If new blocks are added to blockchain on sole discretion of creator then your blockchain is not decentralized and adding no value. You can simply go forward and design your project with simpler database structure. If, there is some protocol of adding new blocks like in case of Bitcoin we have the protocol of adding new block when someone finds a hash whose value is less than the target difficulty, only then your blockchain is decentralized and adding value.

Place of keeping database : Next important thing is that where are you keeping the records of all blocks. Are these kept on single device or spread across number of devices where each device is keeping the copy of blockchain. If the storage is centralized then your blockchain can't be said decentralized and adding no value. On the other hand, if anyone can maintain the copy of database on his system then it would be difficult to temper data across all devices making your blockchain valuable.

Difficulty of tampering database : This is most important point. If you can manipulate the data that is stored in blockchain and re-write whole blockchain easily, then your blockchain is not decentralized and adding no value. The value of blockchain depends upon how difficult and costly is to manipulate the data in any block and re-hash the blocks above that. In case of Bitcoin, even manipulating one block less than the current height and mining two blocks above that to make that the longest valid chain is very very difficult which makes bitcoin decentralized up to great extent.


So here is your answer. You can use blockchain technology in any stuff you want no matter if it's cryptocurrency or a social media site. But if your blockchain is not fulfilling these three points then it's better you adopt simpler structure of database maintenance. On the other side, if your blockchain fulfills these three points then you can surely create any project no matter if its social media site or any kind of other utility.

Social networks with blockchain aren't useless, we have the example of steem, they made a social network and a video platform where the users get coins as a reward for their contributions.

The real value of blockchain is the technology behind it, is like if you ask yourself what's the real value of SQL, the value comes with the implementation it adopts. And not all the Blockchain projects are decentralized.

Decentralized coins.

This one is easy... got to https://coinmarketcap.com/ and sum all the Market Cap...there you will see the value of $200 Billions. Now you can se it 

I'm well aware of the fact, that Namecoin isn't really used by anyone,
that's why I wrote "can be used".  

Doesn't change anything though, I still think it's pretty amazing and one of the few altcoins (if not the only one) I really like, maybe because it's not about money.

It's up to the people to use it, or not and so far, they decided not to.

Really? That's your conclusion?  Let me give you a couple of examples of what a blockchain can do outside of the cryptosphere:

- UEFA wants to use a blockchain: https://coingeek.com/uefa-announce-blockchain-based-mobile-ticketing-system-for-euro-2020/

- Tesla and Costco want to use blockchain: https://cointelegraph.com/news/cargosmart-tesla-and-cosco-to-pilot-blockchain-tech-in-cargo-release-process

- JP Morgan approves blockchain: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-21/jpmorgan-says-blockchain-is-laying-foundation-for-digital-money

Major companies around the world keep talking about blockchain, so you can hardly call it "useless".

i wouldn't say it is absolutely useless for anything else. but at the same time i can make this conclusion based on my observation. as i said i have not seen it be used for anything else successfully.

that's the problem, "can be used" is very different from "is being used". for example could you show me a place where Namecoin is really being used as a DNS alternative in real world?

@Brewmaster is right, the blockchain itself does not have its value. What gives the value is on how are you going to apply the blockchain, we have different fields to look onto simply because blockchain is a helpful technology as it records data that cannot be altered retroactively, in short term, it is immutable which might be the best solution to our very old problem, Corruption. I think the blockchain was really made for cryptocurrency to offer the anonymity of a user in dealing with transaction. On top of these things is the security given the decentralization, its algorithm is so secured that hacking it would be impossible that's why I believe that blockchain is the revolutionary technology.

The blockchain technology is so valuable because it posses the ability to disrupt essentially everything we know about from supply chains to financial sectors, changing the voting systems and everything else in between. Blockchain can be so disruptive that many institutions and organisations have started researching into the filed for fear of not losing out once it will emerge as the global successor after the discovery of the internet.

While it's true that it's actually used only for cryptocurrency, that doesn't mean it's useless for anything else.

Take the very first altcoin for example: Namecoin
which can be used as a decentralized, censorship resistant DNS alternative.
Pretty amazing if you ask me and can't be done without the blockchain.

Bitcoin and voting system. Can't get more real use cases for now.
Since there is no real application of blockchain other than Bitcoin for now then blockchain = Bitcoin.

Value is often how much people want to pay, how they feel its worth.

Ok so basically blockchain is used only for cryptocurrency and that’s it. For anything else it’s useless because everything else can be created with existing tech

the blockchain on its own has no value at all specially when there are centralized blockchains. the technology is created to be used decentralized.
so far i have not seen any usage other than using the blockchain for creation of a currency and for that only bitcoin has been successful and maybe coins like monero that have focused on anonymity. and the real value in that case can be easily seen in the way bitcoin works.
there has been a lot of attempts, like what you said about social media, but they have either failed badly or ended up being centralized which is another type of failing.

The problem is that the things around blockchain technologies are very dramatized because of commercial purposes. A lot of business attracts a lot of people by just using this word and it looks like blockchain is all in one magic thing, while in reality, it's not like that.

Blockchain is a decentralized system that is used to record transactions across many computers. It's secured from Cyber attacks and equipment destroy because stored data is available worldwide on a lot of computers and isn't stored on a single one. All computers automatically block any attempt that is directed to manipulation with data.

So where can Blockchain Technologies be valuable?
I'll give you one example and that's a land registry, that I'll explain:
The benefits of implementing of blockchain technologies in land title registry are record reliability and a boost of security. BC technologies make registry transactions more accessible, more transparent and much more secure. It's impossible to delete, edit or manipulate with data that's stored on Blockchain. The authenticity of records is verified by the identical hashes available on Blockchain and on a website of land registry (hash is a combination of symbols that are unique for each document).

So blockchain is used for anti-corruption systems? Something that needs to be done so nobody can’t be bribed. Hmm actually that can’t be the case because systems are made on purpose to be altered

If you are talking about monetary value here, it's really hard to quantify it. But according to this article, they can save $50 billion per year in Logistics Industry. Another good example is in Land Registry services, we all know that around the globe, there are a lot of disputes in land specially in third world countries. Blockchain can help when all the records are transparent and permanent and it's going to be difficult to tamper the data itself.

But blockchain technology is not for everyone, specially if you are thinking of applying it on a small to mid-tier data sets. A good centralised database or relational database management system will be suffice enough, in my opinion.

I’m trying to figure out the REAL value of blockchain. For example creating social network on BC is totally useless, BC for cryptocurrency is the REAL value

Can someone explain what’s the real value, why would I build something on BC except for “decentralization”. If I can build something with other technology why would I use BC.

What is it that I can do ONLY with BC and cannot be created with any other tech?

Please help me see the value in BC because I still don’t see it