What can faster internet and blockchain technology bring to the world?
It seems the internet could go faster with the rollout of 5G. Initially announced for 2018, various powerful telco companies have described 5G as the next big thing due to the multiple benefits it could bring to our current technology. They have boasted faster connection, reduced latency, and expansive network on a large scale. Indeed, the implications of faster internet can be seen on daily consumption like streaming, mobile phone use, communications, and business processes. But blockchain seems the puzzle piece the 5G puzzle is missing.
Over the past few years, blockchain experienced increased attention from investors and financial industries. Due to the heightened focus on cryptocurrency, senior executives and industry leaders have shifted their crypto perspective from a simple extra fiat to an actual powerful technology that could override our functions. The slow unravelling of blockchain potentials and its tokens have shifted in reputation and pragmatics. JP Morgan, IBM, Facebook and other major companies have invested into blockchain technology and its integration that it has been the main topic of research and development. For the past 2 years alone, there have been 3.7 million Google search for blockchain and it is still increasing. Deloitte’s 2019 blockchain survey for expert perspective among industries have shown increased interest in company adoption. They admitted that incorporating blockchain into their company would bring extreme benefit and that they would agree to a coalition. This is a change from the previous perspective of blockchain, signing of the dotted lines of trust that it couldn’t breakthrough before.
5G: What It Does
Source | Micron
Basically, 5G are digital cellular networks provided over a small area of cells, similar to 4G. But what 5G does better with numbers makes it more compatible with blockchain. 5G networks boasts larger bandwidths and ranges. It can reach up to 10 gigabytes per second compared to broadbands and 4G’s 7.2 megabytes per second.. In addition to that, 5G promises reduced latency or quicker response, which is a good mix with the speed boost when considering transactions done over platforms. Also, 5G is more capable of handling numbers. While 4G can support up to 100,000 devices per square kilometer, 5G can support a million devices per square kilometer. This is great in the sense that processes could be transferred to multiple devices instead of having a singular central unit doing everything for your company. While 5G is yet to roll by 2020, Apple, Samsung, Ericsson and other telcos have said it looks promising.
The Symbiosis of Two Technologies—Blockchain and 5G
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With 5G and blockchain working together in a unit could mean tremendous changes to what the Internet of Things (IoT) can do. As digital world, and society itself, moves into the fields of automation, virtual reality and augmented reality, the demand for robustness and security is high. Indeed, the reduction of latency, to be exact, improves the possibilities of automation to a point where occupations could drastically change. Remote work done in real time would be more possible than ever. And we could expect to reach more people because of the large network scale of 5G. As a result, IoT will eventually rely on a bigger number of units doing all the processes for it to be fully integrated into our society.
And with people watching over blockchain, we could change the way you do menial tasks in different industries like agriculture, finance, and online gaming. Smart contracts offer the biggest benefit and the amount of data we have in the digital world would do great with smart contracts. Smart contracts would definitely benefit from 5G considering the possible amount of workload we would create and do when it comes to fruition. In addition, multiple industries would benefit greatly from the trust that blockchain brings and the ease of work it allows in their processes.
Further Blockchain Challenges—What Could Arise
The biggest challenge of blockchain is not in the technology, but in its network. Malicious devices have been always been an expected challenge. They would experience the same fortification that 5G brings to other tech, possibly ramping up what they could do their infiltrate important entities. But this one could be solved easily by blockchain.
Our biggest feature when it comes to tokenization and blockchain is the immutable ledger that validates users and allows irreversible storage of hash. Verification is one of blockchain’s biggest strengths. And with 5G, we could easily account all users within a network to ensure security with 5G. These tamper-resistant data could easily root out these unwanted users and allow 5G to function completely.
Taking that into consideration, the number of transactions are unexpectedly paramount to what we can actually handle. Even with the capabilities of 5G and blockchain, we agree that the volume of transactions would increase than what we know at present and that it could push the boundaries of what we can handle. Its implications towards technology and our daily occupations would shift as we have never handled anything like that before.
Blockchain and 5G seems to be made for each other. In fact, it seems like it needs to work together and find a solution for its other lingering problem before we discover extensive use. Industry leaders agree that these two must work in harmony rather than by itself to find solutions. And only until then can we tap into it full capabilities.