Blockchain, besides artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, and virtual and augmented reality, have the potential to deliver disruptive outcomes and reshape digital business in 2018. And companies that have not started the digital investment cycle are at high risk of being disrupted, according to a cyber firm providing hybrid cloud and related digital products, Dimension Data.
This is according to the list of IT predictions for 2018 by the firm. Blockchain – the technology behind Bitcoin – has immense potential to disrupt and transform money, business, and society using a variety of applications.
Ettienne Reinecke, Dimension Data’s Group Chief Technology Officer, says: “Last year, when we looked at the top digital business trends for 2017, we predicted that centralised transaction models would come under attack. We were spot on. In the financial services sector, we’ve seen the US and European capital markets moving onto Blockchain platforms, and similar activity in markets such as Japan. Considering how conservative and compliance-focused this sector is, that’s quite remarkable.
“It’s ironic that the cybercriminals who perpetrated the recent WannaCry ransomware attack could hold a federal government to ransom and demand to be paid in Bitcoin. Bitcoin might be a crypto-currency, but it’s based on Blockchain, and if cybercriminals are confident that Bitcoin provides a safe mechanism for the payment of ransoms, it indicates just how secure the distributed ledger approach is. I believe that Blockchain has the potential to totally re-engineer cybersecurity, but the industry has yet to come to terms with it.”
Reinecke predicts that Blockchain will also deliver on the promise of Internet of Things (IoT) in the year ahead. “In the world of IoT you’re generating millions of small transactions that are being collected from a distributed set of sensors. It’s not feasible to operate these systems using a centralised transactional model: it’s too slow, expensive, and exclusive. To extract the true value from IoT technology you have to be able to operate in real time. Once a sensor alert is received from a control system you must react to it, meter it, and bill for it instantly – all of which negates the viability of a centralised transactional authority. The cost of the transaction has to be near-zero or free, and the cost elements of a centralised model simply don’t support the potential business model in IoT.”
Significant attacks have recently been launched from low-cost IoT endpoints, and there’s little incentive for manufacturers of these devices to incur the cost of a security stack, which leaves them vulnerable, the firm adds. Blockchain can play a fundamental role in securing these, according to the company.
