Blockchain technology has several important uses including facilitating secure transactions, lowering compliance costs, and accelerating data processing. It can be applied to smart contracts, money transfers, digital media, IoT, and more. Specific companies in each sector are utilizing blockchain, such as BurstIQ for healthcare data sharing, Propy for real estate transactions, and Circle for cryptocurrency investments and exchanges. Blockchain works by recording transactions in distributed ledgers called blocks that are verified across a network.

1. Importance of Block chain

2. Importance
• Blockchain facilitates the verification and traceability of
multistep transactions that require verification and traceability. It
can ensure secure transactions, lower compliance expenses,
and accelerate data transfer processing. Blockchain technology
can aid in contract administration and product auditing.

3. Blockchain Use and Usecases

4. 1. Smart Contracts
• Smart contracts Blockchain-based contracts enforced in real-time. They are
created as an agreement between two or more parties without the involvement of
any intermediary. The contract exists across a distributed and decentralized
Blockchain network. Smart contracts are now a staple in healthcare, real estate,
and even for government agencies.
• Use cases:
• BurstIQ (healthcare)
• BurstIQ used Big Data-based smart contracts to facilitate the transfer of sensitive
medical data between patients and doctors. These contracts specify clear
outlines and parameters for data sharing. They contain personalized health plans
and other relevant details for individual patients.

5. • Propy (real estate)
• Propy is a real estate platform that uses a Blockchain-based
title registry system. It automates all transactions for brokers,
realtors, and their clients. Thanks to Blockchain tech, Propy
makes title issuance instant and allows the buying/selling of
properties via cryptocurrency.

6. 2. Internet of Things (IoT)
• The Internet of Things (IoT) industry is growing rapidly with
billions of connected devices. The latest forecasts suggest that
by 2030, there’ll be 50 billion devices in use globally. As this
number continues to grow, it will increase vulnerabilities as
hackers can easily breach your data through a single connected
device. By integrating Blockchain technology in IoT devices, the
possibility of data breaches can be reduced to a great extent.

7. • HYPR
• HYPR takes cybersecurity to the next level by combining
smartphone technology with the highly secure FIDO token. This
is the secret behind its True Passwordless Authentication
feature. Through its decentralized credential solutions and
biometric authentication, HYPR makes IoT devices tamper-
proof.

8. 3. Money Transfer
• Money transfer and payment processing are the most excellent
Blockchain technology use cases. Blockchain tech enables
lightning-fast transactions in real-time. This has already
transformed the BFSI sector for good as it saves both time and
money (mostly eliminates transaction fees charged by
banks/financial institutions).

9. • Use cases:
• Circle (FinTech)
• Circle uses USD Coin (USDC), the fastest-growing regulated Stablecoin, to help individuals run and
establish their internet business. The platform offers around seven cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Monero,
Zcash, etc.). Every month, Circle handles over $2 billion in cryptocurrency investments and
exchanges.
• Chainalysis (FinTech/Cybersecurity)
• Chainalysis offers Blockchain data and analysis reports to financial institutions, exchanges, and
government agencies in 40 countries across the globe. Essentially, it focuses on helping institutions
monitor cryptocurrency exchanges. Chainalysis’s compliance and investigation tools enable you to
monitor and identify fraudulent transactions, money laundering, and compliance violations, thereby
building a reliable Blockchain-based economy.

10. 4. Digital Media
• Digital media companies are burdened with many challenges
like data privacy, piracy of intellectual property, royalty
payments, and copyright infringement, among other issues.
• By incorporating Blockchain technology into the digital media
infrastructure, companies can protect their intellectual property,
maintain data integrity, target the right customers, and ensure
that artists receive their royalty payments in due time.

11. • Use cases:
• MadHive (Media & Advertising)
• MadHive is a New York bases advertising agency that delivers full-stack
solutions to digital marketers. You can use MadHive to monitor, record,
and create reports on customertarget=”_blank” rel=”nofollow” activity and
stores all the information in a private Blockchain ledger. By offering real-
time data monitoring and audience analytics reports, MadHive allows
marketers to understand their target audiences better.

12. • Steem
• Steem is a social media or a “Social Blockchain” platform that
encourages users to create original content by rewarding them
with cryptocurrency. When you use Steem, you become a
stakeholder of the platform with full control over your data. For
each contribution you make, you earn cryptocurrency tokens.
So far, Steem claims to have paid over US$ 59 billion to
platform creators.

13. 5. Education:
• Blockchain technology can be seamlessly integrated into control systems
and document storage. The key benefit of this blockchain use case is the
incapability to modify data saved into the system. The information can be
added but can’t be overwritten. Moreover, the document’s legality can be
easily confirmed because everybody can observe who wrote it and when.
• Comparatively, fewer people have used the benefit of blockchain in
education. One of the pioneers is the University of Nicosia in Cyprus. This
university used blockchain technology to store certificates and degrees.
Moreover, it is the first university to accept cryptocurrencies as payment for
tuition.

14. 6. Medical Field:
• The use of blockchain technology in the healthcare industry
proves to be a lifesaver, especially in terms of data processing.
The reason is the medical business has long been exploited.
Since medical data is massive, blockchain technology is useful
for a small amount of information.

15. • One of the best blockchain use cases in the medical field is the
Healthureum system. Based on blockchain technology, it works as a tool to
control and account for the data concerning modifications in the medical
records. It means that the answer was for data to be saved outside the
blocks, whereas the links directing to huge files will be saved on the
blockchain.
• Different initiatives are available to manage the data encryption problems,
like restricting the type of access to patient data or preparing a closed
array on the blockchain with restricted access to a supervisory body or
other regulatory units.
•

16. Block chain Solutions
• Blockchain works via a multistep process, which in
simple terms happens as follows:
1.An authorized participant inputs a transaction, which
must be authenticated by the technology.
2.That action creates a block that represents that
specific transaction or data.
3.The block is sent to every computer node in the
network.

17. 4. Authorized nodes verify the transaction and add the block to
the existing blockchain. (Nodes in public blockchain networks are
referred to as miners; they're typically paid for this task -- often in
a process called Proof of Work, or PoW -- usually in the form of
cryptocurrency.)
5. The update is distributed across the network, which finalizes
the transaction.

19. Blockchain Transactions
• For a public blockchain, the decision to add a transaction to the
chain is made by consensus. This means that the majority of
“nodes” (or computers in the network) must agree that the
transaction is valid. The people who own the computers in the
network are incentivised to verify transactions through rewards.
This process is known as ‘proof of work’.

20. Proof of Work
• Proof of Work requires the people who own the computers in
the network to solve a complex mathematical problem to be
able to add a block to the chain. Solving the problem is known
as mining, and ‘miners’ are usually rewarded for their work in
cryptocurrency.
• But mining isn’t easy. The mathematical problem can only be
solved by trial and error and the odds of solving the problem are
about 1 in 5.9 trillion. It requires substantial computing power
which uses considerable amounts of energy. This means the
rewards for undertaking the mining must outweigh the cost of
the computers and the electricity cost of running them, as one
computer alone would take years to find a solution to the
mathematical problem.

21. Consensus Mechanisms
• A consensus mechanism is a fault-tolerant mechanism that is
used in computer and blockchain systems to achieve the
necessary agreement on a single data value or a single state of
the network among distributed processes or multi-agent
systems, such as with cryptocurrencies. It is useful in record-
keeping, among other things.
• On the Bitcoin blockchain, for instance, the consensus
mechanism is known as Proof-of-Work (PoW), which requires
the exertion of computational power in order to solve a difficult
but arbitrary puzzle in order to keep all nodes in the network
honest.

22. • The proof of stake (PoS) is another common consensus
algorithm that evolved as a low-cost, low-energy consuming
alternative to the PoW algorithm. It involves the allocation of
responsibility in maintaining the public ledger to a participant
node in proportion to the number of virtual currency tokens held
by it. However, this comes with the drawback that it incentivizes
cryptocoin hoarding instead of spending.
•

23. Scaling Blockchain
• Even though blockchains might have been intended to replace
the traditional banking system, few of the early developers
anticipated their astronomical growth. For that reason (and
because the process is really, really difficult), no mechanisms
were put in place that would enable them to be scaled, or
simply put, grow bigger and faster. But that is exactly what their
exponential, grand-scale adoption across the globe is calling for
right now.

24. Increasing block size and reducing block
time
• Bitcoin’s block size limit was set a year after its conception. At
the time, the new block size limit of 1 MB was not problematic.
The network was not as busy, and transactions were never
large or numerous enough to fill up the 1 MB blocks.
• But as Bitcoin’s popularity grew, it became clear that a 1 MB
block size limit was not enough for the ever-growing community
of Bitcoin users. A block size increase from 1 MB to 8 MB was
proposed. Because the community could not reach an
agreement, the blockchain was forked.

25. SegWit
• Another solution that addresses scaling across Bitcoin and its altcoins
is Segregated Witness (SegWit). At first, SegWit was aimed at
addressing transaction malleability (capability of being influenced or
altered by external forces). Before its implementation, it was possible to
change the transaction ID and trick the sender into sending coins twice. Its
implementation has made any feature that relied on unconfirmed
transactions less risky. But its potential is far greater than that, as it
introduces a new concept called block weight.
• Block weight is a mashup of block size with and without the signature data,
which has a limit of four times higher than before. This means that SegWit
virtually increases the block size from 1 MB to 4 MB. Theoretically, this
enables a transaction throughput that is four times as high. And, while this
sounds promising in theory, experts believe that the network’s condition
will not allow for a block size greater than 2.1 MB. In reality, the average
block size is nowadays only somewhat larger than 1 MB.

26. Working of Bitcoin
• To use Bitcoin, first you need to have a wallet. Once you've
installed a Bitcoin wallet on your computer or mobile phone, it
will generate your first Bitcoin address and you can create more
whenever you need one. You can disclose your addresses to
your friends so that they can pay you or vice versa. In fact, this
is pretty similar to how email works, except that Bitcoin
addresses should be used only once.

27. Bitcoin Blockchain
• Bitcoins themselves are not files stored on your computer's
hard drive like MP3s or PDFs. Rather "owning bitcoins", means
owning a bitcoin address, which has a balance recorded on the
blockchain. What it means to own a bitcoin address is to control
the associated Private Key, and therefore allow the signing of
transactions.

28. • A Block refers to a set of Bitcoin transactions from a certain time
period. Blocks are "stacked" on top of each other in such a way
that one block depends on the previous. In this manner, a chain
of blocks is created, and thus we come to the term "blockchain".
• Finding and publishing new blocks is what Bitcoin miners do to
earn bitcoins. Whenever a new block is broadcast,
approximately every 10 minutes, a quantity of bitcoins is
received by the miner who solved that block. Bitcoin miners
keep the network secure, and this is how they are rewarded.
This system ensures that all transactions are valid, and keeps
the bitcoin network secure from fraud.

29. Bitcoin Network:
Peer-to-Peer Network Architecture
• Bitcoin is structured as a peer-to-peer network architecture on top of the Internet.
The term peer-to-peer, or P2P, means that the computers that participate in the
network are peers to each other, that they are all equal, that there are no “special”
nodes, and that all nodes share the burden of providing network services.
• The network nodes interconnect in a mesh network with a “flat” topology. There is
no server, no centralized service, and no hierarchy within the network. Nodes in a
peer-to-peer network both provide and consume services at the same time with
reciprocity acting as the incentive for participation.
• Peer-to-peer networks are inherently resilient, decentralized, and open. The
preeminent example of a P2P network architecture was the early Internet itself,
where nodes on the IP network were equal. Today’s Internet architecture is more
hierarchical, but the Internet Protocol still retains its flat-topology essence.
Beyond bitcoin, the largest and most successful application of P2P technologies is
file sharing with Napster as the pioneer and BitTorrent as the most recent
evolution of the architecture.

30. Bitcoin Scripts
• Bitcoin Script is a simple programming language used to
interact with the Bitcoin software. In particular, Script gives the
Bitcoin software instructions on how coins in a UTXO (Unspent
Transaction Output) can be spent. Of course, most users never
need to learn Bitcoin Script. Wallets and other Bitcoin
applications complete all the processing behind the scenes
automatically.