What is Blockchain and Why should Records Management Professionals Care? - BigStep Technologies
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What is Blockchain and Why should Records Management Professionals Care?

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Blockchain

Records Management is one of four Blockchain business initiatives that can save money and ensure revenue generation, according to Gartner. This technology has the potential to impact and expand all records management processes. It also has broad implications for securing and validating intellectual property at lower costs and greater efficiency.

Blockchain is an important technology that Records Management Professionals need to understand because it has broad implications for securing and verifying intellectual property with lower costs and greater efficiency.

There are many ways to verify the authenticity of paper documents, including watermarks, signatures, and embossed seals. However, Digital Assets pose a problem. Documents in digital form can be edited and copied without anyone being the wiser. This makes it difficult for them to trust. Many products and services provide secure and authenticated document management, but they can be expensive and often require third-party involvement. So here’s a solution to that.

Records integrity through Blockchain

Blockchain is used to create and store a cryptographic hash that serves as a data reference check against a record, its workflow, and signatures. If any of the above changes, the hash no longer works. Blockchain is attractive to auditors and lawyers because it effectively certifies data without corruption.

Blockchain also uses a distributed record-keeping system called a ledger that tracks changes to assets on the chain. Unlike a banking or financial accounting system, the ledger is not centralized but distributed to all computers in the chain. As long as all documents have the same Blockchain signature, everything is fine. However, if a version of the document is introduced that does not match the Blockchain signatures of others (which are tracked in the ledger), it is rejected. This ensures safety against fraud or manipulation.

Advantages of Blockchain

Blockchain has several unique advantages. One of them is anonymity. Parties that come onto the Blockchain can join trusted exchanges without revealing their identity, reducing time. Another is the distributed structure of the Blockchain. Any two or more people can create a Blockchain without going through a registration process with a central authority. They can even create private Blockchains that have different security definitions of their own that limit what chain participants can do. In all cases, the Blockchain parties decide what the rules are. Hence organisation can maintain their records / documents on their own private Blockchains as well.

It is important to note that Blockchain is not just about documents. It can be used with any digital assets such as images, video files, and email backups. Blockchain is becoming especially popular in intellectual property businesses. For example, professional photographers can use it to manage licensing rights to their creations and even pay royalties.

Why it Matters?

Here are a few reasons why records management professionals should familiarize themselves with Blockchain:

1. Cost savings

This is the most obvious advantage. Because Blockchain transactions do not require intermediaries, processes can be more efficient and cheaper. There is no need for auditors or legal professionals to verify the authenticity of the information, so this cost comes out of the process.

2. Efficiency

Fewer people mean faster turnaround. Transactions that might take days to wait for multiple checkouts can be closed in seconds.

3. Security

The fewer participants in a transaction, the lower the risk that something could go wrong. Handover points constitute a significant vulnerability and Blockchain effectively eliminates them.

4. Flexibility

Blockchain can be used to secure any digital asset, including hard-to-protect items like multimedia and email records.

5. Competitive Advantage

Intellectual property companies – such as Law Firms and Photography Agencies – may consider using Blockchain to offer new services that will benefit both buyers and content creators.

Conclusion

Blockchain is likely to bolster the recent move by a group of more than 70 of the world’s largest financial institutions to make their jointly developed Blockchain platform freely available under an open-source license. Banks hope the move will unleash a flurry of innovation around new products and services based on the technology.

At BigStep Technologies, our Blockchain experts have helped various companies with a successful support system. Contact us if you have any queries regarding Blockchain or are planning to implement it and our team will provide you with the best solution.

Kailash Malveeya

Software Engineer @BigStep Technologies. Specialized in WebRTC Technology and expert in solving modern technology problems.

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