Blockchain's Many Opportunities Continue To Expand

This is what we were working on at ShelterZoom before the pandemic hit and when it became clear businesses were going to have to shift rapidly to working remotely our document management platform saw a strong uptick in subscribers and overall interest. What we heard over and over again was its blockchain-based security gave companies peace of mind for managing all their sensitive information.

Another area where blockchain will show its strength is with limiting the massive amount data pollution we generate on a daily basis. Current estimates suggest at least 44 zettabytes of data exist in the world and by 2025 the world will create over 450 exabytes of data every day. This growth is unsustainable. If we develop a digital universe where blockchain underpins the information we create, we won’t have to duplicate the same information repeatedly—such as the case of sending documents to a group of people who all download it individually and then re-upload it once they have made their changes. This, and all the other times we send data-heavy files only to have multiple copies downloaded, create an unnecessary amount of data pollution that the world will have to reckon with sooner rather than later. When blockchain becomes trusted as the source of truth the world won’t have to resort to cumbersome data generation.

My biggest hope for this year is that the pandemic starts to recede into the distance as something that is no longer the substantial threat it has been. But I also hope that business don’t go back to the way they were before the pandemic. We all learned how to work remotely, and how that can continue over the longterm, but we need to put best practices in place so all the digital tools don’t mean we have to sacrifice security. Blockchain is one way to make that happen and I see 2021 as the year blockchain makes an even bigger name for itself.