Blockchain and Big Data Analytics – Transforming Technology and Beyond

By Mr Vijay Pravin Maharajan, Founder & CEO, bitsCrunch

“We change the world with technology”. This statement is clear if we look back to see how our lives have changed with the invention of each technology. Blockchain and Big Data Analytics are equally intelligent innovations that solve both quantity and quality problems with data.

To put it in layman’s terms, Blockchain technology is an append-only ledger that aids transactions or information recording on a distributed network. Big Data Analytics is the use of techniques to extract quality data from large, unstructured and semi-structured data sources.

The synergy between these two has made room for a diverse and unimaginable number of applications. You can simply deal with a cryptocurrency transaction from user X to user Y, an NFT sold from user A to user B, and several such transactions on a digital asset or NFT marketplace. These are some vivid examples of the combined technology use of Blockchain and Big Data Analytics.

Now let’s understand the bigger picture. According to a study by Blockchain.com, approximately 750 million blockchain transactions have taken place as of July 2022. There are approximately 360,000 NFT holders on Ethereum. This is a huge amount of user data that needs to be stored, secured and formatted for information. This is where Blockchain and Big Data Analytics go hand in hand.

How can Blockchain help Big Data?

Putting blockchain and big data together can solve countless data-centric problems. Some of them may be:

1. Data accuracy and integrity

Data obtained from external sources is mostly prone to duplicates. Inaccurate data can lead to loss of revenue, cyber attacks and compliance issues. Blockchain and data analysis together can ensure the authenticity of data records in larger volumes such as terra and zettabytes.

The application is practiced by blockchain pioneers such as IBM, Coinbase and chain analysis to verify documents and user data and secure them on blockchains.

2. Traceability

The transparency of distributed ledger enables traceability of data from source to destination. For example, the series of activities on Amazon right from ordering to tracking to delivery, the data can be tracked for any order-related discrepancies. Giants such as Amazon, Walmart, Microsoft, Oracle and Huawei have already used Blockchain for their supply chain management.

3. Data sharing

Data scientists and analysts use data derived from reports, analyzes and studies. This data is stored on the blockchain and allows access for several people at the same time. Furthermore, the data analysis results derived and shared on a blockchain can be monetized by the data scientists.

The healthcare sector chooses blockchain for this purpose, as fraud by altering patient records can have a negative effect on the reputation and trust of each brand with their customers.

4. Real-time data analysis

Blockchain technology provides real-time data analysis with utmost accuracy. In any cryptocurrency transaction, a smart contract is involved. The smart contract contains the data of the sender, the receiver and the timestamps of the transaction. This can help detect suspicious and fraudulent transactions. Banks can also implement blockchain technology for real-time data analysis and observe significant improvements in decision making.

5. Data prediction

Blockchain obtains structured data from sources such as user accounts and devices. This data can help data scientists predict outcomes related to customers and businesses. Market research, business investment and industrial production can benefit from the predicted data. The data further helps to study patterns and trends in each industry.

Blockchain technology is being adopted by 80% of the world’s public companies that are customer and transaction data houses. At various stages of adoption such as research, pilot, development and production, companies are making their footprints with this emerging technology. While Paypal and Walt Disney started their penetration into Blockchain in 2014, as of 2022, 27 global companies have fully functional products built on Blockchain. For functions such as real-time data analysis and traceability, blockchain creates a massive impact when combined with big data analytics, and it has come to be assumed that the infrastructure will become more cost-effective in the near future.