Blockchain is undoubtedly one of the fastest-growing tech skills in the world. Although blockchain tech initially found popularity in the BFSI sector, it is not limited to a single industry anymore. It has expanded its reach to numerous industries beyond the banking and financial services sector, including retail, eCommerce, healthcare, real estate, gaming, supply chain & logistics, to name a few.
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What is Blockchain?
As the name suggests, Blockchain literally means a chain of blocks that can store any form of information (date, time, location, etc.) of digital transactions. It is a public, decentralized, and distributed ledger used to store and record digital transactions in a peer-to-peer network.
Since it is decentralized, there’s no single authority managing or handling a blockchain network. Instead, it is managed and validated by all the participants in a network. This feature makes it nearly impossible for any third party or outsider to hack into a blockchain and tamper with the data stored in it. Learn more about the functionality of blockchain technology.
What makes Blockchain a compelling technology?
There are several reasons why Blockchain has spiraled its way to the top tech trends in the market right now:
1. It is highly secure and immutable – Cyberattacks and cybercrimes have skyrocketed in the last decade, making data a vulnerable asset for both businesses and customers. However, a blockchain helps solve this problem since storing and validating data in a blockchain is highly complex and protected via cryptography. Thus, it is immutable and tamper-proof.
2. It is transparent – Since Blockchain is a public ledger, anyone can view the data stored in a blockchain. All the parties can access and view the same information. Each participant in a blockchain network can access an individual copy of the Blockchain protected by a unique cryptographic key. Also, this information is spread across a vast network, which makes it difficult to manipulate it. Anyone wishing to make even a minute change in one block’s records will need to modify each copy of the blockchain network.
3. It facilitates speedy transactions – With Blockchain, you can instantly send and receive any kind of transaction, be it financial or sharing data over a network. A blockchain officially has no downtime whatsoever.
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4. It increases financial efficiency – As mentioned before, transactions in a blockchain occur without third party involvement. All transactions take place according to the agreed-upon sanctions of the parties involved. Since Blockchain eliminates the concept of intermediaries, the transactions are smooth, private, and cost-efficient.
5. It eliminates the possibility of fraud – Being an open-source ledger, all transactions in a blockchain are visible to all peers. Hence, the network participants can quickly identify if anyone tries to manipulate or violate the data and if any fraudulent actions occur.
Read: How to make a successful career in blockchain?
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Industries Using Blockchain
Here are five industries that are already leveraging Blockchain:
1. HealthcareÂ
Healthcare institutions have to handle and manage large volumes of sensitive medical and patient data. Usually, this information is stored in a central repository making it an easy target for hackers. However, healthcare providers are now storing medical data across a decentralized and distributed network with blockchain tech. This increases privacy and keeps sensitive data safe from any violations.
2. Pharmaceuticals
Pharma companies use blockchain tech to take the track-and-trace serialization process to the next level by enhancing real-time supply chain transparency and eliminating erroneous data. By making the process seamless and transparent, pharma companies can minimize costs and improve system security.
3. Food industry
Food supply companies are using Blockchain to enhance and regulate food safety. By incorporating blockchain technology in the food supply chain, all food suppliers, processors, regulators, vendors, retailers, and customers can access the information about the origin and sourcing of food items. All the transactions are transparent. Blockchain not only ensures that food items are sourced ethically and legally, but it also helps companies to trace contaminated foods, allowing them to eliminate them from their inventory.
4. Asset management
Blockchain is fast becoming an integral part of asset management, especially for managing tangible/intangible and complex assets like real estate. Typically, these assets are constrained by determining factors like liquidity and investment size. Thanks to Blockchain, asset management firms can easily tokenize, section, and distribute the assets securely with minimal friction and management costs.
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5. Capital markets
The modern capital market is regulated by stringent laws, rules, and risks. One of the most compelling risks involved in capital markets is high operational costs, which hinders companies’ profit margin and harms potential customers by raising the entry bar. Blockchain can solve this challenge by optimizing the back-end operation costs via a permissioned, immutable, and single shared ledger accessible to the capital market stakeholders.
Thanks to the security and transparency that it offers, Blockchain is making its way into many industries. This is further pushing the demand for blockchain experts across different sectors.Â
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Learn Blockchain for free: The upGrad advantage
According to LinkedIn, Blockchain is one of the top skills for professionals worldwide in 2023. After all, Blockchain’s ability to store, validate, authorize, and share data securely over the Internet makes it the perfect tool for sensitive digital transitions.
If you want to make the most of this emerging opportunity, now’s the time to enroll in a blockchain online course. The best thing about online learning is that it offers you the flexibility to learn and progress as per your convenience and set schedule.Â
upGrad has 2 free courses on blockchain i.e. Blockchain Technology: A Quick Introduction and Blockchain Features Simplified. These courses are the perfect choice for you if you’re looking to expand your skillset at no cost. These courses can be completed in 2-3 weeks and will help you learn the basics of blockchain technology.
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You’ll be trained by qualified instructors and industry experts who’ll not only impart theoretical knowledge but also guide you on how to use your newly gained knowledge for real-world scenarios. Like any other upGrad course, these free blockchain courses comes with top-notch learning material, and a certificate of completion.
Below are the details of the courses:
1. Blockchain Technology: A Quick Introduction
The first module will introduce you to Blockchain and cryptography’s fundamental concepts, such as PKI, Digital Signatures, Smart Contracts, etc. You will learn their use cases and also how these cutting-edge methods act as alternatives to the existing legacy systems.
2. Blockchain Features Simplified
This course will teach you all about the global use-cases of Blockchain. It will mainly focus on Bitcoin’s network architecture, Smart Contract development, and their basic features.
 Learning blockchain skills can be a massive boost for your career and increase your market value. As an increasing number of companies experiment with blockchain tech, new and exciting positions in this field are opening up.Â
Also Read:Â Blockchain Project Ideas & Topics
Career in Blockchain
As blockchain continues to emerge as one of the world’s most prominent technologies, individuals are searching for ways to learn more about it for better future opportunities. Perceiving the rapid growth of blockchain, the future holds vast opportunities for programmers with lucrative job roles in businesses with blockchain as their underlying technology.
Reports claim blockchain developers have an average salary of around $175,000, far more than software engineers, making the future thoroughly competitive for developers to win opportunities. Although growth in demand for blockchain developers is also expected, opportunities will be grabbed by individuals with solid blockchain knowledge and development skills.Â
A free blockchain course can help you kickstart your future-proof blockchain journey. All you need is the right place that offers a blockchain online course free of cost, and upGrad is that place!
In order to bag potential blockchain developer roles, your preparation must start early, and the free blockchain course from upGrad emphasizes doing the same with their expert team of efficient mentors. upGrad shares two extensively curated blockchain courses to introduce and further take candidates through its advanced stages.Â
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What do you get from the course?
upGrad aims to make blockchain and crypto knowledge accessible through a blockchain online course free of cost, which is curated under the guidance of industry experts with years of experience and industry-relevant expertise. The course is compiled using real-time projects to make learning as authentic as possible for learners while keeping it relevant. Besides the obtained knowledge, you also get certification to strengthen your resume by exhibiting your blockchain knowledge and skills.Â
Interested candidates hoping to make a career in blockchain can pursue an advanced blockchain program under upGrad, too, to enhance their skill level and attain exciting opportunities in the current and future blockchain market.Â
How to Start
To join our machine learning online course free, follow these simple steps:
- Head to our upGrad Free Courses page
- Choose the course you want to join
- Register
All the courses present on our upGrad Free Courses page are available for free and don’t require any monetary investment. These courses help you kickstart your learning journey and get acquainted with the fundamentals of such complicated subjects.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please let us know through the comments. We’d love to hear from you.
If you’re intrigued by reading this article and want to start your Blockchain career, you can visit upGrad. Check out IIIT-B & upGrad’s Advanced Certificate Programme in Blockchain to learn building smart contracts and chain codes. The course will surely help you understand Blockchain’s basics and its future in marketing strategy.Â
What is Hyperledger?
Hyperledger, created by the Linux Foundation in 2016, is a global enterprise blockchain project to create distributed ledgers using blockchain technology. It offers necessary frameworks, guidelines, standards, tools to build blockchain-related applications and has had the support of prominent organizations such as IBM, Intel, American Express, and many others. Hyperlink-based technology works using five layers: consensus, smart contract, communication, API, and identity management services. Some of the famous projects offered by Hyperledger are Hyperledger Sawtooth, Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperledger Indy, Hyperledger Besu, etc.
What are Block Identifiers?
The role of Block Identifiers is basically to identify a particular block. A cryptographic hash identifies each block. A digital signature is created using the SHA256 cryptographic hash algorithm by hashing the block header twice. Every block hash is unique and is created using the previous block, also known as the parent block. It means every block contains its parent’s hash inside its header, and the sequence of linking hashes with their previous block creates a chain. This chain is known as the genesis block. Each parent block can have many following blocks, although only one block remains at the end.
What is Crypto Token, and how is it different from Crypto Coins?
Tokens, usually confused with Crypto Coins, are tradable assets with multiple utilities. Crypto tokens can be considered digital assets stored on a blockchain. Unlike cryptocurrencies which are used to make payments, crypto tokens can be used for many things. They can be held as a store of value, act as a medium of exchange, etc. Another fundamental difference between them is that crypto tokens don’t have their own blockchains; instead, they run on the blockchains of Crypto coins. Tokens are proof of ownership, which means it has to be physically moved from one place to another in case of transfer of ownership. One example can be NFTs which are proof of ownership and whose transfer of ownership has to be transferred manually.
