At a glance, AI and Blockchain seem two poles apart and they pretty much are. Blockchain was created by an anonymous figure known as Satoshi Nakamoto which is the underlying technology behind the sensational Bitcoin. It is a distributed ledger that enables the secure storage of data. Whereas, AI is the ability of a machine/program to learn from its experiences, was first described by John McCarthy in the year 1956. But recent breakthroughs in Big data has created a conducive environment for the amalgamation of these technologies.
How Blockchain helps AI:
The most compelling reason for bringing these two disruptive technologies together originates from the need to augment big data analytics. Big data has been used actively by organizations to understand their customer base and enhance customer experience, acquisition and retention. Big data helps in chalking up a target based advertising and even improve risk management. But there is huge data which needs to be processed to be converted into meaningful information. So, here is where AI comes in. The algorithms can be taught to draw meaningful insights from this vast sea of data available. With blockchain, organizations can safely store meaningful data derived. Being a distributed ledger and decentralized technology, it creates a massive database of every transaction on the network. So when a network is decentralized, it stores data on a vast network and regularly verifies the information with each other making the data stored here immutable. Data manipulation is impossible on Blockchain as if one computer gets compromised, the abnormality is often picked up by the other computers on the network.
How AI can help Blockchain:
AI can have a huge impact on the way blockchain networks are managed and make them efficient. For example, when transferring Bitcoin to another in a shared network, it may take up to a few days for confirmation of the transaction. This is inadvertently caused by the decentralized nature of the blockchain. This would mean an increase in the time for availing confirmation for the transactions. Now, AI can reduce the cumbersome process by reducing the computing power needed to confirm these transactions. Further, an AI system can be used to improve blockchain algorithms by providing it with the right set of data.
As mentioned earlier, these technologies are already creating a positive disruption in the way businesses are being done and also garner tremendous potential for revolutionizing various sectors. But bringing these two could definitely be the advent of a new era of technology, that is sure to bring on an unprecedented level of growth.
