During the last year, the idea of using bitcoin’s underlying system, the blockchain, has been debated by numerous companies. Recently, IBM has announced that it has started working on a new project meant to make better use of the blockchain technology.
With this in mind, the company is launching a new project known by the name of ‘blockchain-as-a-service. To put things better into perspective, the project consists of a specific set of tools meant to make creating, running, deploying and monitoring blockchain-based applications on the IBM Cloud possible.
For those who are not yet aware, the blockchain is popular for giving firms the possibility to better keep track of their sales, while also offering more transparency. The technology’s best benefit is the fact that it makes the need of having a centralized database of all transactions obsolete. Not only this, but the system is also unhackable, thanks to the advanced cryptography techniques used to record data on it.
Initially, popular financial institutions were the first to invest into the platform, as it could be used to make operations such as money transfers faster, safer and more reliable. Later, other companies saw potential in the technology as well, which is why they decided to focus their research efforts on finding smart ways of using the system to their advantage.
At this moment in time, IBM will not only focus its efforts on the financial potential of the blockchain, but rather on its possible logistic uses as well. Based on this, in a recent interview, IBM spokesperson Holli Haswell stated that: "It is a single source of truth that can be shared among all parties that could be applied to a lot of different industries. When all participants in an interaction have an up-to-date ledger that reflects the most recent transactions or changes, this allows organizations to cut out intermediaries and settle contracts or transactions much faster. Speed, visibility, and having an immutable record are the primary business reasons blockchain could make sense in some industry applications."
Currently, there is no reliable information regarding IBM’s investment into the blockchain technology. However, the company mentioned that a total of 35 software engineers and researchers are actively working on finding new ways to use the platform, and on implementing current ideas. In fact, tens of thousands of lines of code have already been written.
Based on everything that has been outlined so far, what do you personally think about IBM’s interest in the blockchain? Will we get to see blockchain-based applications in real life sooner than expected? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.