Can Blockchain Help In Other Ways Apart From Cryptocurrencies?

Published on: 07 October 2021 Last Updated on: 17 January 2025

Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies go hand in hand. Whenever we think of one, the thought of another one automatically crosses our minds. Blockchain is the foundation of Cryptocurrency; it is quite known to all.

But it can not be the only identity of an amazing technology like Blockchain. It has the potential to change our lives in a wider manner. We all should know about the amazing applications of Blockchain apart from Cryptocurrency. Let’s start with the definition of Blockchain.

What Is Blockchain Technology?

Blockchain is the main technology behind almost every Cryptocurrency. It is a system of recording information in a specific way, making it very difficult or almost impossible to hack, change, or cheat.

Essentially it is a digital ledger of transactions, which is first duplicated and then distributed across the entire network of computers on the specific Blockchain network. Whenever you are trading with Bitcoin using the bitcoin revolution in a particular network, the transaction is being seen at every node of the network.

Can Blockchain Help In Other Ways Apart From Cryptocurrencies?

In case you are thinking or have a conception that Blockchain can only be utilized in Cryptocurrencies, you are totally wrong. Apart from Cryptocurrencies, an amusing technology such as Blockchain can be utilized in many ways.

In fact, across the globe, Blockchain is being used for major tasks by a number of big organizations. Here we will discuss some of the applications of Blockchain apart from Cryptocurrency.

1. Smart Agriculture

Think of a supply chain. Blockchain in agriculture is more like a supply chain. When the supply chain offers understandable applications of Blockchain, the agricultural sector can also benefit from Blockchain Technology.

Let’s take an example of tracking any ingredient like rice, quite literally from the farm to your plate. An RFID tag scan will work great as an initial block, along with tracking its entire life cycle, from farm to sale, and where the final product is actually ending up.

2. Smart Contracts

We all are pretty much aware of the fact that Blockchain is all about trust. This is the reason why it is perfect for smart contracts. Suppose an oil company has a contract with a shipping company that the specific type of oil has to be kept below a certain temperature limit all the time, at any cost, can not exceed a particular humidity level.

With the assistance of IoT devices, all these essential metrics might be easily tracked. In addition to this, Blockchain technology will make sure that smart contracts are duly fulfilled. It will also ensure that the shipment reaches its destination within a particular time.

3. Online Voting

The Electronic voting system, which is Blockchain-centric, is capable of potentially accelerating voter fraud. The concept of a Blockchain-powered voting system is quite like the following points.

It will capture votes using a token.
Then it will be placed in a wallet of a specific candidate.

As it is almost impossible to hack or cheat a Blockchain network, there will be nearly zero chance of voting fraud.

4. Refugee Aid

Every year, millions of people become refugees. For most, being a refugee is not only scary but also a dangerous experience. Generally, refugees are poor and are in need of financial assistance.

Keep in touch with whatever is happening in the Crypto and Blockchain industry. You might know that one of the biggest implementations and utilization of the Ethereum Blockchain ever-for-a-kind charitable cause has finished with a successful trial recently.

Blockchain Can Be The Future

We have got some pretty impressive applications of Blockchain apart from Cryptocurrencies. Hospitals or health sectors are also implementing and using Blockchain to keep and track patients’ records in their work system.

This way, the data will be secured and transferred without delay to the right computer system whenever needed. The data of the patients will also stay secured and protected. So, next time you are thinking about Blockchain, ensure, apart from Cryptocurrency, you are considering all these marvelous applications.

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Mashum Mollah

Mashum Mollah is the feature writer of Search Engine Magazine and an SEO Analyst at Real Wealth Business. Over the last 3 years, He has successfully developed and implemented online marketing, SEO, and conversion campaigns for 50+ businesses of all sizes. He is the co-founder of Social Media Magazine.

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Top 10 Computer Security Mistakes

So you’ve gone out and purchased a brand new laptop, and now you have plans of using that laptop in the workplace. Well, for anyone who has experience running a company, knows that laptops can be conduits for spyware and viruses. Once data is being processed, thought must go into who is capable of stealing it, where they might store it, how they could archive it, and how valuable the data is to the company. Well, if you want to ensure you’re never in any unfortunate positions, then I suggest you check out my list of common mistakes most new computer users make. 1. Connecting to an Unsecure Network If the network is open, then it should be fine for you to connect to, right? I wouldn’t say that. You should always be suspicious of open networks, especially ones at hotels and airports. If it’s possible for you to connect to a network without using a password or agreeing to any terms, then there is a good chance you could be leading yourself into a trap. 2. Opening Attachments from Unsolicited Emails You want to check the content of your emails, if anything in it looks suspicious, or if the sender is asking you to do something that you do not feel comfortable doing then there is a good chance its spam. Check the sender, if you’re not familiar with the person, then try searching for the email on any of the major search engines. If you’re at your workplace, then consider contacting your email administrator for verification on whether or not the email is spam. 3. Using Common Passwords While the vast majority of people are wise enough not to fall into this trap, especially when signing up for services online, there are still many work colleagues that have a knack for using basic passwords, like their birthday or their username123. You’ll want to re-work your password by combining uppercase letters, numbers and uncommon symbols. If you chose London as your password, then you could rejig it to something like L0nd3N. Even though it isn’t the most complex password, it would be much more difficult for a hacker to guess. 4. Not Making Backups When it comes to archiving files, many end users make the common mistake of backing up data too infrequently. I can see how the lazy approach can be more comforting, but if your company files are that important to you, then you’ll want to ensure that they are backed up as often as possible, using a number of different mediums, such as the cloud, external hard drives, etc. 5. Leaving Your Webcam Enabled It’s a great idea for you to familiarise yourself with your webcam so that you can determine when it’s disabled or active. Hackers are very adept at hacking into your webcam, especially in the workplace, and they can even record meetings if you’re not careful. Covering the webcam with tape won’t do much since audio can still be recorded; it’s for this reason why you’ll want to ensure its disabled when not in use. 6. Searching the Deep Web The deep web, unfamiliar to most internet users, is the shady part of it, not accessible from the major search engines like Bing and Google. Work systems should be used for work only, there are many deep websites out there that will stick malicious code onto your computer and use that to track whatever you say and do. 7. Assuming Your Hard Drive Will Never Fail In this world, there are two different kinds of computer users, those who have lost computer files and those who will eventually lose computer files. You want to back things up as often as you can. You also want to think about alternative media, like using an external hard drive to save certain confidential data onto it. 8. Using a Suspicious Thumb Drive Everyone needs a place to store their work documents. If you’re in the office, it’s not uncommon for you to find a thumb drive lying around. My advice is not to use it, especially if you don’t know where it came from, that’s because there’s a good chance it could have a virus on it. 9. Using the Same Password across Accounts It’s very important that you make a habit of changing your passwords. It’s not uncommon for end-users to keep the same password for many years. That is something you do not want to do. For business-critical, sensitive data, you want to ensure that all passwords are changed at least once every three months. Make sure all your accounts have different passwords. Having multiple passwords for your many accounts reduces the chances of all your accounts being compromised. With the increasing amount of cyber-attacks, the age of your password, along with its length and complexity are far more important today. 10. Agreeing to Install Anti-Virus Software Have you ever visited a website that asked you whether or not you wanted to check your system for a virus? You may have asked how or why it knew you needed a virus scan. In most cases these prompts to install antivirus software are in fact attempts to install malicious software on your system. Read Also : Would Your E-commerce Website Pass The Cybersecurity Test? Here Are 3 Things You Could Be Doing Wrong How To Securely Wipe Your Confidential Data From A Hard Drive

Top cloud security controls you should be using

Most organizations use at least some form of cloud storage, yet security issues are still a top concern. Data loss and security breaches are always in the news, with some of the most high profile data breaches to happen in 2018 so far including those that occurred at Reddit, Timehop, and FedEx. What this shows us is that even large companies can make mistakes that seriously compromise the security of their data. A 2017 survey conducted by Clutch revealed that while confidence in cloud storage security is high among small businesses, most are not doing enough themselves to protect their cloud storage. After all, cloud security requires involvement from the user, as well as the provider. We go over some of the top cloud security controls your business should be using to help ensure your data is adequately protected. Why do you need cloud security control? Every day, sensitive information continues to fall into the wrong hands. That’s according to Breach Level Index, as of August 2018. While cloud computing can be great for businesses, providing several benefits such as cost savings and data portability, it does come with certain information security risks. To protect your business against vulnerabilities, you need to put specific controls and standards into place. That’s where cloud security controls come in. They help to address, evaluate, and implement cloud security. They can include the following types of controls. Deterrent: These serve as a warning to potential attackers, warning of possible adverse effects if they were to proceed in their attempt, thereby helping to deter unlawful access. Preventative: These controls strengthen the system against attacks, protecting and managing vulnerable parts of the storage. Corrective: These help to reduce the consequences of an attack, which typically involves limiting damage. This could take place during or after the incident occurs. Detective: These controls will identify or detect an attack, and then respond to the incident. If an attack is detected, the detective control will signal to the corrective and preventative controls in an attempt to minimize damage. Using different types of controls will help to limit and prevent potential damage when using cloud storage solutions. What seems to be the problem? What businesses need to understand is that you cannot rely on your provider to do all the hard work. The issue is not that the cloud environment itself is insecure, but that customers are failing to configure their networks, applications, and data accurately. For instance, let’s take a look at what went wrong with Timehop. On 7 July 2018, the company was affected by a significant data breach that included email addresses, names, dates of birth, and phone numbers being taken. What was the issue? A cloud account that didn’t have multi-factor authentication. For Reddit, although they had two-factor authentication in place, their SMS-based authentication was not as secure as it needed to be. As for FedEx, the problem traces back to Bongo International LLC, a company bought by FedEx back in 2014, which had been storing sensitive client data on an open Amazon S3 bucket. The data had been available for public access for several years, having been collected from 2009 to 2012. Data can be put at risk in many different ways, so it’s essential to have the proper controls in place from the start. Find out what you are responsible for Many cloud services will offer some level of security. What companies need to do is find out exactly what they are responsible for when it comes to securing the data that is uploaded to the cloud. Ignorance is no excuse. Speak to your provider and find out which cloud security controls you are responsible for and what services they offer. Whatever tools are at your availability, make sure you use them all. Ultimately, you are responsible for securing your data, so take advantage of any security tools at your disposal, then make sure you take care of the rest. Limit cloud access A good way to reduce risk is to limit who has access to the sensitive information you are storing. Public cloud storage resources, such as Amazon’s S3 bucket, should not allow external access. Leaving SSH open is another common mistake. You should only allow those who must use the data directly to carry out their job to have access to the data. You can grant temporary access on an as-needed basis to any additional employees. Make the most of the identity and access control tools used by most major cloud providers, so you always know who has access to your data. When granting access, you have the option to limit what data someone has permission to access. Delegate appropriate permissions as needed and remove or disable accounts if an employee leaves the company. Keep your data secure One of the most common mistakes that companies make is to leave data unencrypted. You want to be sure that even if all other security measures fail, you have at least encrypted your data as a last measure of protection. While some providers offer encryption, companies should still use their own encryption techniques alongside these. Your decryption keys should remain within the company so that you can maintain control over these at all times. Learn from past mistakes Even large companies make mistakes when it comes to cloud security. You cannot merely rely on your provider to handle all aspects of security. Users need to ensure they are using current cloud security controls to ensure their data remains secure. The good thing is that we can learn from others’ mistakes. You can take extra precautions and implement certain controls and standards to improve security. Just make sure you pay attention to what is happening in the world of cloud security and update standards and controls accordingly. Read Also : What You Are Paying For With A Virtual Data Room Top 10 Computer Security Mistakes

Why I Can’t Download From Google Drive? How To Fix It?

Why I can’t download from Google Drive remains to be one of the most generic questions that bug every user. Google Drive, as you are all aware of is the most popular component of Google that provides users with a great number of functions and features. It is extremely feasible to access, and people won’t have any trouble understanding the ways of its work. Many users around the world prefer this platform over any other to store their folders and files. The problem that we are elucidating on remains that sometimes it is not possible to download files from this Drive. Therefore, we are here to find a solution. What Is Google Drive? Google Drive is basically a storage solution powered by Google that is cloud-based. With the assistance of Google Drive, you will be able to save files online. It can be accessed at any time from devices such as tablets, smartphones, and computers or laptops. There are many advantages to being able to use Google Drive. It is quite feasible to share as well as store your files in a reserved location. This software has built-in integrations associated with the suite of Google’s services and products and even makes use of various collaborative tools. If you are already signed up on Google, be sure to acquire an additional space of 15 GB on the Drive. Why I Can’t Download From Google Drive? Google Drive, as you know, provides us with several benefits to help ease our work over the internet. It also allows us a great deal of storage space that is adequate for standard use. However, at times you might be faced with a few problems occurring around Google Drive. The most general of all these issues is that you can’t download from Google Drive. There are two major reasons that cause this problem of not being able to download from Google Drive. The first cause is that the number of file downloads is generally limited by the software. This is because many people can get access to the file within a span of twenty-four hours. Whenever someone shares the files on Google Drive, this scenario pops up. Hence, these occurrences will deny your file download. There might be another irrelevant issue that will make you realize that you can’t download files from Google Drive. The reason is a poor internet connection. Since the Drive is a cloud-based file storage system, the user must have a proper net connection at all times for getting access to the files. How To Fix Can’t Download From From Google Drive? There are various ways to fix your problem of why can’t I download from Google Drive. Let us have a look at some of those: 1. Restart Your PC No matter which operating system you are working on from Mac or Windows, restarting your computer is always the best initial solution before hopping on to other solutions. 2. Few Other Methods Method 1 Right-click on the file you want to download. From the drop-downRight-click menu, choose the download option. If more than one file is to be downloaded, select the desired number of files. Right-click on any of these files and select the download option from the menu. The files will now be downloaded. Method 2 Choose the folders or files you want to download. On the top right corner, you will find the three-dot icon. Click on it. From the drop-down menu, select the download option. Method 3 Open the file if you wish to download any specific photo or video. Click on the download icon at the top right corner. The file, image, or video will now be downloaded. Method 4 If you do not have any Google accounts and are still using Drive, then on the file list view, you will find the download icon on the right-hand side. Move your mouse towards that part and click on the icon that appears. This will allow your file to be downloaded. 3. Enable Cookies Open Google Drive in Chrome Browser. As you find a tiny lock icon on the left side of the address bar, click on it. From the list, click on cookies. You will find a pop-up window appearing. Here, you need to click on the Blocked Tab option. Find out any link that is related to Google and click on it. Next, tap on the allow button at the bottom. Finally, choose Done. Restart the browser or page, and you will have the downloading options open to you again. 4. Switch Google Accounts A user needs to be signed in with the same account to get access when someone else sends a Google Drive link for downloading files. The file-sharing permission of Google Drive follows two considerations. The user can easily be able to view or download the files if the owner who generates the link has made it accessible for all. However, on the other hand, the owner of the link can even limit the number of users who can get access to the file by mentioning their email ids. During such a case, if you aren’t signed up as a Google user, you might witness errors in the file not opening. This way, you can’t download from Google Drive. Thus, you need to choose and switch for the correct account on Google. Final Thoughts Well, I hope now you have a clearer picture of why you can’t download from Google Drive. However, in this article, every aspect of this issue has been covered. The ways how to overcome this problem have also been explained in various steps. Thus, you just need to read through and understand so that it won’t be any difficult task for you to face such an error. More Resources: How to Free Up Space on Your Mac Top 10 Computer Security Mistakes Best Server Management Tips for Startups

Can Blockchain Help In Other Ways Apart From Cryptocurrencies?

What Is Blockchain Technology?