How to create a powerful career with it!

Posted by TCS iON on June 21st, 2019

Research states that the use of blockchain technology has doubled in the past year. Here is a list of 50 real-life examples of blockchain use cases that are being currently adopted by different industries. More and more organizations and businesses are understanding not only the implications of implementing blockchain, but they are also encouraging their employees to specialize in this field to enhance their career as well. 

The World Economic Forum predicts that Blockchain could enable 1 Trillion Dollars in Trade by 2025, primarily driven by small and medium businesses in Asia and other emerging markets. The distributed ledger technology (blockchain) is expected to solve important problems exporters face in getting the trade finance approved. 

All of the above data suggests that blockchain is going to be a disruptive technology that will change the way a business operates today and bring in a lot more transparency to the customers. It could be as simple as where the vegetables are sourced from and how fresh they are, or it could be to validate that the diamond you buy is not from a conflict region. 

Customers would love to have this information and hence would prefer buying from companies that provide this level of transparency in every industry. This customer demand will be the primary driver for the blockchain initiatives across the globe. 

All of this translates into a need for people who are good at Blockchain technologies. LinkedIn reports that on its platform Blockchain developer jobs have increased 33x during 2018. The primary skills recruiters were looking for included Solidity, Blockchain, Ethereum, Node.js and Cryptocurrency.

What is blockchain? 

Blockchain was originally created back in 1991 to timestamp digital documents. The idea was to ensure that documents are not backdated and essentially tampered with about the date of creation. However, this was not widely used until 2009 when the concept was picked up to be used by Bitcoin creator to maintain the sanctity of the transactions. 

You can think of the blockchain, as a chain of data blocks. If you have read Data Structures, you can compare this to a linked list. In essence, each of the data blocks consists of 3 key elements.

1. Data - This the information that is stored in the block. This will ideally be transaction data. For example, if it is a certificate blockchain, it would have the name of the issuer, the name of the recipient and the details of the certificate issued.
2. Hash - This is a unique key generated for the block and serves as its identity. It also gives the block the ability to be tamper-proof because any change in data will also change the hash.
3. Hash of the previous block - In the chain, this refers to the previous data block. This connection of one block to the previous block creates the blockchain and also makes it secure. The first block in a blockchain is called genesis block and it will have 0 for this element.

Why is blockchain secure? 

Let us explain this with an example. Here is a blockchain with 4 blocks

 In the table above, you can see:

1. the Previous Hash of Block 2 is referring to the Hash of Block 1 creating a chain.
2. A new block, Block 5 if required to be added, will be at the end and will connect to Block 4 and refer to Hash 9IA 

Assuming if someone tampers with the data in Block 2 and changes it to 4500. This would result in the regeneration of its Hash. Let’s assume the new hash is 2NM.

The change in the hash of Block 2 makes Block 3 and all other following blocks no longer connected to Block 2, making them invalid. 

Yes, we can hear you say that in today's powerful computers can calculate millions of hash per second, why can the hacker not change all the hashes of the following blocks to cover his tracks? This is exactly the reason a concept of “Proof-of-work” has been introduced. To be explained simply, “Proof-of-work” creates delays in the creation and modification of the blockchain to ensure any changes will take a long time and will easily be deducted by the administrators. 

Apart from Hash and “Proof of work”, the third characteristic that provides security is by being distributed. What this means is that the blockchain is present across a Peer-to-Peer network (P2P). In the case of a public blockchain, anyone can join the P2P network. When a computer (or also referred to as nodes) joins the network, it is sent a full copy of the blockchain. 

For example one of the most popular open source public blockchain ethereas has more than 25,000 nodes spread across the world. 

We discussed the creation of Block 5. When this is created, it will be sent to every computer in the P2P network. Each of the nodes validates that the blockchain is not tampered before adding the node. 

It is also interesting to note that the nodes are connected to one another and create consensus about validating and adding a new block to the blockchain. If the consensus is not achieved, the block is rejected. 

So to summarise, if someone wants to tamper with the data in one block they need to achieve all of the following:

1. Regenerate hashes and update for all the following blocks
2. Complete the proof-of-work for each of the activities
3. Propagate the changes across the majority of the P2P network. 

This is what makes blockchain secure and tamperproof. 

Merits of using blockchain 

• Provides a safe way to transfer and store large amounts of data.
• It has no centre. Complete decentralization means everything would be the same.
• Cybersecurity is at its maximum. Records and validate every transaction made, which makes it secure and reliable.
• The distributed nature of this tech makes the transaction unchangeable.
• Any user of blockchain can request for a query on a real-time basis.
• No one person is in charge of the chain.

Application of blockchain

One of the biggest expectations of blockchain is to remove intermediaries and allow direct transactions. This brings a lot of advantages, and we have seen that every industry is coming up with a multitude of blockchain use cases. This is only going to increase between now and 2025. 

An important concept that will also drive the application of blockchain across different industries is Smart Contracts. You can think of smart contracts as a programmatically written agreement between the buyer and seller which is automatically executed on completion of a particular event. The smart contract (code and the agreement) is present in a blockchain. 

Here is one great document that explains the insurance industry can use blockchain to create more value for its customers through transparency and responsiveness 

A career in blockchain

As clearly seen, the blockchain technology presents to you plenty of opportunities that can be utilized in various applications. The technology is only likely to progress and advance. It is not enough just to know about blockchain but to get a blockchain certification, to stand out from the crowd. 

Here is the list of blockchain career options you have today in different industries:

1. Blockchain Analyst
2. Blockchain Architect
3. Blockchain Developer
4. Smart Contract/ICO Developer 

Blockchain Analyst: 

A blockchain analyst would be the person who would look at the existing business process or a new business process to determine the suitability of applying blockchain to it. This is a critical role because the analyst would need to understand and detail the impact of applying blockchain to a particular function has on the rest of the business value chain. 

He would also be expected to do write up the project requirements and do cost and benefit analysis for a blockchain project. This role requires a deep understanding of the industry functions and knowledge of blockchain. This can be a role taken up by an industry specialist or technology person who understands the business process. 

Blockchain Architect:

The blockchain architect is the one who designs the blockchain solution for an organisation. The architects do infrastructure, application and data design, set the models for smart contracts etc., They will also be responsible for conducting impact analysis of the blockchain on the existing IT landscape. 

Blockchain architect roles can be done by experienced software architects who have worked with distributed systems, understand service design and have designed complex IT systems in the past. This is a good career progression for experienced IT and System Architects. 

Blockchain Developer: 

The blockchain developer is the one who understands building an end to end blockchain application. The activities would involve creating a blockchain, setting up the nodes, propagation of the blockchain through the network, including smart contracts to the blockchain etc., 

The role can be pursued by anyone who has experience with full stack development. This involves an understanding of the server side concepts, good programming skills and understanding of blockchain concepts. Experience in object-oriented programming languages and experience of web programming would be a plus. 

Smart Contract Developer: 

A smart contract developer is responsible for building smart contracts wisely over the blockchain. With the number of ICO (Initial Coin Offerings) and the business need for smart contracts, this would be a role to watch out for. 

This role can be done by someone who understands blockchain and experience in Solidity. Solidity is an OOP language inspired by C++ and Python used for building smart contracts. Knowledge of ethereum and other popular blockchains would be a plus. 

Conclusion 

• Being a certified blockchain expert puts you on the map of one of the most wanted professionals in the world.
• High paying jobs, high profile career and cutting edge technology to empower you every way
• It is an upcoming field, and it is widely expected that blockchain would power the Web 3.0. It gives you a fantastic opportunity to be on the leading edge of change, as it would give you a great opportunity to grow your career.