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World’s Top Vehicle Manufacturers is Leveraging Blockchain-Based “Birth Certificates” to Combat Used Car Fraud

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World’s Top Vehicle Manufacturers is Leveraging Blockchain-Based “Birth Certificates” to Combat Used Car Fraud

According to the latest announcement, Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative, a member-led consortium that works to create and promote high industry standards for smart mobility Blockchain adoption, has launched an initiative in order to track the purchase and maintenance of the history of second-hand vehicles.


Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative (MOBI) is aiming to combat used car fraud with Blockchain-powered “birth certificates.” 

Established in 2018, MOBI missioned to accelerate the adoption of Blockchain technology in the automotive domain.

It was reported that the initiative will utilize distributed ledger technology, Blockchain, to track the registration of vehicles and maintenance history using “VID II,” which is MOBI’s second vehicle identification standard. 

Apart from the automotive industry, other use cases for VID include supply chain, autonomous vehicle data exchange, supply chain, etc.

MOBI’s VID II is co-chaired by the world’s top vehicle manufacturers BMW and Ford. Other supporting initiatives are IBM, Quantstamp, Honda, Hitachi America, AutoData Group, Bosc, Quantstamp, among others. 

How will VID II Help?

According to the report published, the initiative will help reduce fraud in the second-hand vehicle markets and maintain traceability.

The report further revealed that on the Blockchain, vehicle registration grants previously disconnected vehicle registration systems between states and countries to connect using a distributed shared ledger. Furthermore, maintenance traceability will offer a tamper-proof history. 

MOBI COO and Co-Founder Tram Vo expressed his opinions regarding this initiative. He stated that he expects this automatic network for frictionless transfer of value in the New Economy Movement to bring millions of opportunities and possibilities to monetize vehicles, services, and infrastructure.

BMW’s Andre Luckow, believes that the reference architecture in the VID II standard is a key building block in reconstructing a frictionless mobility ecosystem.

Cynthia Flanigan, Director, Vehicle Research and Technology, Ford Research and Advanced Engineering, also believes that this research into vehicle identity technology could bring better opportunities in terms of ownership and help clarify the purchasing process in the near future.

It is believed that the VID standards, along with other MOBI standards for Blockchain applications in the mobility ecosystem, will increase mobility services and lessen frictional inefficiencies to a great extent. 

To get instant updates about Blockchain Technology and to learn more about online blockchain certifications, check out Blockchain Council.

World’s Top Vehicle Manufacturers is Leveraging Blockchain-Based “Birth Certificates” to Combat Used Car Fraud

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Blockchain Governance in Estonia may be Inspiration for the Entire World

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Blockchain Governance in Estonia may be Inspiration for the Entire World

This article talks about how Estonia has implemented the Blockchain for various purposes, especially in governance, creating inspiration for the rest of the world. 

Table of Contents 

  • Estonia: The First Digital Republic in the World 
  • Tiger Leap for the Development and Expansion of Internet Network
  • How the Estonians Way of Voting is Unique 
  • Other Ways Estonia is Utilizing Blockchain
  • Concluding Lines 

Estonia: The First Digital Republic in the World 

Estonia is a small nation in the Baltic region that offers the most widespread governmental online services in the world. Right from voting to healthcare and tax returns, the small nation has persistently adopted the concept of digitization. And this is the reason it is recognized as a ‘digital republic.’ Since 2005, the citizens of the nation are able to cast their vote digitally, and surprisingly, Estonia has digitized 99% of its public services, including tax returns, voting, healthcare treatments, and much more. In an era when trust in government services is declining, Estonians have a higher level of trust in their government and parliament than the EU average, according to the Eurobarometer study conducted back in 2014. 

Estonia is implementing Blockchain technology for governance, and this is the reason why it outperforms compared to other countries in terms of online governmental services. 

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Tiger Leap for the Development and Expansion of Internet Network

The invention of a digital society started in the year 1997, when only 1.7% of the world’s total population had access to the internet. The government of Estonia envisioned creating a digital society where all citizens would be technologically educated, and governance would be automated, decentralized, transparent, and secured. Keeping in mind the aims, the government launched a project called Tiigrihüpe, also known as ‘Tiger Leap’ in 1997, spending heavily on development and the expansion of internet systems and creating a knowledge-based society. Within a year, almost all schools gained internet access, and by 2000, Estonia became the first country to pass legislation declaring internet access as a basic human right for all citizens.

In 2001, Estonia created X-Road, an anti-silo data management system to enable both public and private organizations to share data securely without worrying about privacy. But this effort was dissipated as it was seen that X-Road experienced various cyber-attacks. This presented a need to adopt more powerful and advanced technology such as distributed ledger technology that is resistant to cyber-attacks. Thus, keeping in mind, the nation became the first country in 2012 to use blockchain technology for governance purposes.

How the Estonians Way of Voting is Unique 

Estonia is considered to be a world leader in electronic voting. This is because, since 2005, Estonians are able to cast their votes irrespective of their geolocation. Where most countries are still only contemplating the possibility, Estonia has already implemented a remote voting system using Blockchain for voting purposes. 

The tiny Baltic nation of Estonia has redefined its ‘Estonia’s i-Voting system’ that allows citizens to cast their vote from a remote location using a government-issued smart card. Unlike traditional voting mechanisms, this voting system offers a simple, elegant, and secure solution and is currently used by 46.7% of the population.

This system allows Estonia citizens to log on with their digital ID card and cast their votes multiple times during the pre-voting period, with each vote canceling the last, empowering voters to change their voting decision later. This unique solution has safeguarded Estonian voters against fraud and other manipulations. It was stated that while using this electoral system, the total time saved in the last elections was 11,000 working days.

Other Ways Estonia is Utilizing Blockchain

Apart from voting, there are other ways the tiny nation is utilizing DLT. Deploying Blockchain not only ensures protection against cyber attacks or any kind of future attacks but also poses other benefits. For instance, instead of filling the different forms with the same personal information when they need to access public services, citizens only need to input their personal information once with Blockchain. This is because technology ensures that data is immediately accessible when required.

Moreover, citizens have a valid digital ID, and they have full control over their information, ensuring that no one can access their personal data beyond what is approved by them. This is facilitated by Blockchain technology.

If you want to gain an in-depth understanding of Blockchain technology and become a Certified Blockchain Developer, we are here to assist you!

Concluding Lines 

From the above discussion, we can conclude that the Blockchain governance of Estonia may be an inspiration for the entire world. The future of Blockchain is near, and if implemented on a global level, we will experience a world full of transparency and trust. 

To get instant updates about Blockchain Technology and to learn more about online Blockchain Certifications, check out Blockchain Council.  

Blockchain Governance in Estonia may be Inspiration for the Entire World

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How Blockchain technology offers improvements to payments security

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Codezeros

Blockchain is disrupting industries like Fintech, Agriculture, Supply Chain Management, Pharmaceuticals, and Real Estate Registry. It has found unique solutions to some of the most pressing concerns of modern time. With the advent of big data and analytics, blockchain also provides pioneering solutions in data management.

The first and foremost application was found in the payments industry, with the introduction of cryptocurrencies, making them faster and more secure. In this article, we will look at how blockchain structure and Blockchain Payment Gateways can help make our payments secure.

Blockchain can be described as a living ledger with a network of peers who participate and monitor the assets and their transfers. They individually hold all the data of the blockchain but are collectively responsible for approving transactions. Data once approved is immutable and disincentives are present for shady or unscrupulous practices. This decentralized system has improved the efficiency, reliability, and security of countless industries.

Cryptocurrencies were the first application of blockchain technology, bitcoin, being the first of its kind. Any transaction or modification is accessible by all the users on the public ledger, adding a level of security. Just like fiat currencies issued by Central Banks, cryptocurrencies have all the properties: scarcity, fungibility, and non-repudiation but are not issued by a central authority. Instead, bitcoins are mined by solving complex mathematical puzzles related to the stamping of a transaction. Moreover, as this solution is impossible to falsify, it makes the complete architecture secure and very easy to verify.

The PCI (Payment Card Industry) Security Standards Council, a global forum created by leading payment networks such as American Express, Visa, and the likes believe that the payment industry is seldom prepared for changes. It works reactively to new threats and all-new payment method implementations are vulnerable to more modern attacks. For example, all critical payments information including credit card numbers, currently pass through the merchant’s payment systems and become the potential place for security breaches. A Blockchain Payment Gateway Development has the potential to eliminate this shortcoming.

Cryptocurrency is already accepted by a plethora of merchants and its usage is witnessing an upward trend. Consultants at PCI state that cryptocurrencies challenge these traditional approaches to privacy, trust, and security by its decentralized structure.

So far, centralized systems have controlled how payments are executed and users upheld their trust in the central institutions responsible for privacy and security. On the other hand, a cryptocurrency functions not on trust but on the integrity of the underlying algorithms governing the structure.

Every node holds a copy of the ledger and the protocol is governed by an MIT license open-source software. It uses a number of public security primitives and data structures that are well established. These include but are not limited to SHA256 hashes, Merkle trees, and Elliptic Curve Asymmetric Cryptography.

A group of transactions are used to form a block and this block is assigned a unique SHA256 hash. The subsequent block holds this hash key from the previous block and the cycle continues. This exercise links all the blocks to each other and forms a chain, which is known as a blockchain. Hence, it becomes impossible to modify a transaction once it has entered a block.

Firstly, cryptocurrencies provide an alternative to the current payment systems and highlight the flaws in the latter. Secondly, it provides a strong underlying architecture which can be used by Blockchain Development Companies to prepare future payment gateways and enhance security.

Cryptocurrencies are legal in most countries and with better regulations, its mainstream application can be witnessed pretty soon. The costs associated with cryptocurrencies to send and receive money are negligible compared to the current charges levied by card issuers, banks, and other intermediaries. Removal of intermediaries would also lead to shorter execution time and reduced risk of security breaches. A Blockchain Payment App Development would leverage all these benefits and provide a fool-proof, secure, inexpensive, and fast way to make payments.

Blockchain has the potential to acquire a huge market in the micropayments industry. Payment networks levy heavy charges in the form of a fixed + variable fee which goes exorbitantly high while handling very small payments.

The payments industry has seen major overhauls but struggled to keep pace with the growing internet and payment demands. Payment security is a big concern, especially when money is sent across borders and involves an exchange. In such a scenario, information passes through multiple processors and increases the likelihood of a data breach. A Blockchain Technology Payment Security offers the perfect solution through its decentralized system, thereby reducing intermediaries, costs, and risks in executing payments.

How Blockchain technology offers improvements to payments security

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Hyperledger Vs Ethereum — Which Blockchain Platform Will Benefit Your Business?

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Codezeros

The two popular open-source Blockchain platforms, Hyperledger and Ethereum have created ripples of innovation in the blockchain world. They have not only found numerous blockchain applications but are also continuously encouraging blockchain developers around the world to engage in its collaborative development of framework and tools. Ethereum development company has tremendously changed the very face of the technology industry, and Hyperledger Blockchain Development, on the other hand, is warming up and doing a great job on the block.

In this article, we will underline the differences between these two highly sought-after blockchain platforms by discussing in lengths about their features.

What is Ethereum?

Ethereum is an open-source distributed public blockchain network which allows access of data to each participant in the network. Every time a new block is added to the Ethereum Blockchain, it will also be added to the universal copy that exists with all the individual nodes in the network. Everyone across the globe can connect with the help of Ethereum Blockchain Development and maintain the current state of the network. For this very reason, Ethereum is widely referred to as the “World Computer”.

What is Hyperledger?

Developed and hosted by Linux Foundation, Hyperledger is an open-source blockchain project. It was developed keeping in mind the distinctive needs of organizations. So, the Hyperledger Blockchain framework allows enterprises to customize Blockchain applications in accordance with their unique requirements. Hyperledger comprises tools and projects that assure to deliver high scalability, confidentiality, and resilience.

Purpose

Ethereum is designed and developed with the purpose of running smart contracts on EVM for the mass consumption of decentralized applications.

Hyperledger development, however, leverages blockchain technology for business. It has a modular architecture and provides flexibility in the way the enterprises want to use it.

Ethereum is a public network so it is entirely transparent and all the transactions recorded in the Blockchain network are both visible and accessible by every peer.

Contrary to Ethereum, Hyperledger being a permissioned Blockchain platform is highly secured. All the transactions on the network are visible and accessible only to the parties having correct encryption keys.

With Blockchain Ethereum Development, all the participant nodes must reach consensus over all the transactions, irrespective of whether an individual node participates in a particular transaction or not. By leveraging the Proof of Work (PoW) consensus mechanism, all nodes must agree on a ledger to access the recorded entries in the network.

Hyperledger, on the other hand, allows nodes to choose between a no-op (no consensus needed) and Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT). In the latter approach, two or more parties can agree on a key to influence the desired outcome. This precludes undesirable third parties from intervening in the agreement.

Ethereum uses a high-level contract-oriented programming language called Solidity to write smart contracts. However, Hyperledger uses the term “chaincode” as a synonym for “smart contracts”. These “chains codes” are written in Golang, which is a programming language created by Google.

Ethereum has a built-in cryptocurrency, Ether (ETH) and participants can mine Ether by paying “gas” as the cost of each transaction they carry out on the network.

Unlike Ethereum, Hyperledger does not require cryptocurrencies for transactions. Hence mining of cryptocurrencies is not required at all which allows for a scalable consensus algorithm that enables it to handle high transaction rates that further automate business deals made across the network.

But looking at both sides of the coin, as Ethereum has its own ether, it can turn out to be advantageous over Hyperledger in the cases which require a cryptocurrency.

Ethereum vs Hyperledger: When to use which?

Ethereum can be used when,

  • You want to develop public applications or B2C applications. With Ethereum Development Company, one can create a node and each node on the network possesses a copy of the blockchain.
  • You want a community-led by blockchain developers as Ethereum is enhanced and improved by developers worldwide.
  • You are open to working with third parties since most of the tools used for Ethereum Development rely on third-party, open-source projects.

Hyperledger can be used when,

  • You specifically want to develop B2B applications as it is explicitly designed to cater to B2B requirements.
  • You want to define your unique Blockchain infrastructure right from consensus algorithms to which nodes can decrypt which block on the network.
  • You are comfortable using in-house tools supported by top companies as the Hyperledger Blockchain framework is backed by Linux Foundation.

To conclude, both Ethereum and Hyperledger are highly flexible and come with their own set of advantages that are useful for different business scenarios and challenges. You can choose to work with any of these two tools based on the requirement of your blockchain project.

Hyperledger Vs Ethereum — Which Blockchain Platform Will Benefit Your Business?

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Real Estate Investing Through Security Tokens

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Codezeros

Real estate being the largest global market in the world, is currently valued at approximately $200 trillion which is 33 times more than the global gold market. Small improvements in the real estate market can have tremendous economic value. It’s hard to find a segment that has not been influenced by Blockchain Technology and real estate couldn’t escape the blockchain disruption either.

In this article, we will look at how blockchain technology can be leveraged to invest in real estate through STO solutions.

Tokenization refers to the digitization of real-world assets. With the help of Blockchain in Real Estate, digital assets can be programmed to represent ownership rights, which can be sold as “security tokens”. Through the use of robust smart contracts and technology, security tokens create a standard trade between buyers and sellers.

The main difference between security and utility token is that security token holders are entitled to ownership rights and are considered as “securities” by most financial regulators whereas utility tokens function as coupons and give holders no right or stake in the asset.

Real estate being the largest global market in the world, is currently valued at approximately $200 trillion which is 33 times more than the global gold market. Small improvements in the real estate market can have tremendous economic value.

Let’s explore some possible improvements in-depth:

  1. Increased Liquidity In Real Estate

Blockchain technology in real estate adds liquidity in the intrinsically illiquid market. With Security Token Development, it is easy for the owners of expensive properties to quickly sell their assets without affecting the price. Miniscule investors can diversify their global real estate portfolio with a small ticket.

2. Reduced Intermediaries

With blockchain, the number of intermediaries is reduced almost to naught as most of the processes are automated and minimal human participation is required. This substantially eradicates the fees and charges paid to the intermediaries, which will ultimately result in significant cost and time savings.

3. Enables Fractional Ownership

Blockchain real estate development would lower the barriers to real estate investing by allowing fractional ownership. Typically, investors would require a significant amount of money upfront to acquire property but tokenizing ownership enables “fractional shares” which lowers the capital requirement. Hence, it would be possible to hold half or even 10% or 20% of the land.

4. Diversifies Real Estate Portfolio

Diversifying investments minimizes the risk. Real estate investing through blockchain enables the ability to diversify the investments not only by region but also by allowing the investors to spread their money in different categories of real estate; be it residential, multifamily, commercial, or cash flow properties. By tokenizing ownership of a real estate, investors do not necessarily have to own 100% of a single property but they can own 10% of a property in 10 different cities around the globe.

5. Irrefutable Proof Of Real Estate Ownership

The digital history of transactions held in the blockchain ledger enables the investors and stakeholders to prove their ownership beyond any doubt. This technology leaves no room for fraud attempts. It shows the exact history of ownership and makes it impossible to falsify transactions or con the investors.

In the next part, we look at some of the ongoing projects who used Blockchain real estate development by converting them into security tokens.

Polymath

Polymath makes it easy to unlock the blockchain to tokenize and trade assets. It is dramatically lowering the barriers by providing STO Solutions that represent real-world ownership of assets such as real estate. It is an ecosystem that comprises KYC/AML, broker-dealers, law firms, and exchanges that facilitate the compliance of security tokens.

Polymath had partnered with BlockEstate, a real estate fund in an attempt to use predictive analytics to manage its real estate portfolio. Unfortunately, they decided to shut down the project which would have been the first instance of a real estate property represented by the ST-20 Security Token protocol.

Harbor

A platform designed for tokenizing private investments, Harbor seeks to leverage blockchain technology to record, maintain, and transfer ownership of investments including real estate. It provides a decentralized protocol to establish and maintain standardization for tokenized securities. Announced with much fanfare, Harbor’s STO Development Services for a real estate project (Hub at Columbia REIT) had collapsed.

ReitBZ

Security Token Offering Development by ReitBZ is the first of its kind for the Brazilian real estate market. It combines local expertise and global reach to offer the best investment opportunities for its investors. They claim that real estate is a flourishing market in Brazil and after a period of economic lockdown they have started to recover and it is the right time to invest in this asset class.

Challenges

Though blockchain technology could have a drastic effect on the real estate industry, it is still in its early stages and full adoption and adaptation across the real estate industry come with its own set of challenges like regulatory uncertainty and general lack of understanding in the budding industry as many are yet to fully explore its potential applicability.

Though it is clear that this emerging technology has the potential to disrupt the real estate industry, there is a long road ahead before it reaches maturity. We see a strong promise and future regarding its implementation and proper regulation with time and efforts and before we know, we would be buying our new house on the blockchain.

Real Estate Investing Through Security Tokens

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What is Blockchain Technology, and How Does It Work?

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Are you a Blockchain enthusiast? Want to gain in-depth knowledge about it? This guide will help you in understanding what this technology is all about its benefits and how it works. 

So let’s get started. 

Table of Contents

  • Blockchain: In Most Simple Words 
  • Bitcoin and Blockchain: How They are Related?
  • Working Mechanism of Blockchain
  • Benefits of using Blockchain Technology
  • Concluding Lines: How to Learn Blockchain?

Blockchain: In Most Simple Words 

Blockchain is a peer-to-peer decentralized distributed ledger technology that makes the records of any digital asset transparent and unchangeable and works without involving any third-party intermediary. It is an emerging and revolutionary technology that is attracting a lot of public attention due to its capability to reduce risks and frauds in a scalable manner. 

Now here comes the question why is Blockchain a distributed, decentralized P2P network? A decentralized network offers multiple benefits over the traditional centralized network, including increased system reliability and privacy. Moreover, such networks are much easier to scale and deal with no real single point of failure. The reason why Blockchain is distributed is because of shared communication and distributed processing.

The P2P architecture of Blockchains provides several benefits such as greater security compared to traditional client-server based networks. A distributed P2P network, paired with a majority consensus requirement, provides Blockchains a relatively high degree of resistance to malicious activities. 

Looking for the best Blockchain Certifications? You are just a click away!

Bitcoin and Blockchain: How They are Related?

Although the advent of Blockchain has taken the world by storm, many people still get confused about these two terms. Thus, it is important to understand how these terms differ and how they are interrelated.

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, which is an application of Blockchain, whereas Blockchain is simply an underlying technology behind Bitcoin that is implemented through various channels. So if you are working on Blockchain and learning Blockchain, then you are not actually learning cryptocurrency but learning how cryptocurrency works. 

Working Mechanism of Blockchain

Blockchain can be defined as a shared ledger, allowing thousands of connected computers or servers to maintain a single, secured, and immutable ledger. Blockchain can perform user transactions without involving any third-party intermediaries. In order to perform transactions, all one needs is to have its wallet. A Blockchain wallet is nothing but a program that allows one to spend cryptocurrencies like BTC, ETH, etc. Such wallets are secured by cryptographic methods(public and private keys) so that one can manage and have full control over his transactions. 

Now, this is how Blockchain works. Initially, when a user creates a transaction over a Blockchain network, a block will be created, representing that transaction is created. Once a block is created, the requested transaction is broadcasted over the peer-to-peer network, consisting of computers, known as nodes, which then validate the transaction. 

A verified transaction can involve cryptocurrency, contracts, records, or any other valuable information.

Once a transaction is verified, it is combined with other blocks to create a new block of data for the ledger. 

 Here it is important to note that with each new transaction, a secured block is created, which are secured and bound to each other using cryptographic principles. Whenever a new block is created, it is added to the existing Blockchain network confirming that it is secured and immutable.

Benefits of using Blockchain Technology

We have learned a lot about Blockchain technology. Now let’s explore what its benefits are.

Immutability

In a traditional database, you have to trust a system administrator that he is not going to change the data. But with Blockchain, there is no possibility of changing the data or altering the data; the data present inside the Blockchain is permanent; one cannot delete or undo it. 

Transparency

Centralized systems are not transparent, whereas Blockchain (a decentralized system) offers complete transparency. By utilizing blockchain technology, organizations and enterprises can go for a complete decentralized network where there is no need for any centralized authority, thus improving the transparency of the entire system.

High Availability 

Unlike centralized systems, Blockchain is a decentralized system of P2P network which is highly available due to its decentralized nature. Since in the Blockchain network, everyone is on a P2P network, and everyone has a computer running, therefore, even if one peer goes down, the other peers still work.

High Security 

This is another major benefit that Blockchain offers. Technology is assumed to offer high security as all the transactions of Blockchain are cryptographically secure and provide integrity. Thus instead of relying on third-party, you need to put your trust in cryptographic algorithms. 

Concluding Lines: How to Learn Blockchain?

Learning Blockchain is easy now, all thanks to reputed online courses and training sessions. Blockchain Council is one such organization that offers online training and certification programs to aspiring trainees to render them desired competencies so that they have a successful career in the Blockchain space. Keeping the rising demands of blockchain professionals in mind, Blockchain Council certifications are diversified to meet each aspirant’s discrete needs. Right from understanding what Blockchain is, the certification covers a variety of basic and advanced level topics.

To get instant updates about Blockchain Technology and to learn more about online Blockchain Certifications, check out Blockchain Council.  

What is Blockchain Technology, and How Does It Work?

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