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If 2017 was the year blockchain swept the tech industry with the potential to disrupt a variety of verticals -- FinTech, healthcare and shipping – 2018 is already shaping up to be the breakout year for the distributed ledger technology.
Case in point: Maersk and IBM announced earlier this month that they've joined forces to create a new company focused on building a blockchain-based electronic shipping platform. According to Maersk, the platform would effectively supplant an archaic system that now relies on legacy technology, and paper, to track shipments around the world – something that could save billions of dollars.
The platform, Computerworld senior reporter Lucas Mearian explained, is expected to be up and running within three to six months.
Mearian and Computerworld Executive Editor Ken Mingis dove into just what Maersk and IBM are doing, and then Mearian detailed an even bolder effort: The creation of a blockchain-based peer-to-peer (P2P) cloud storage network.
The effort, which involves companies like FileZilla and Atlanta-based Storj Labs Inc., would create a secure, decentralized storage network that would pay for unused storage capacity – either on a PC or even a corporate data center – using cryptocurrency. That's the plan, at least – assuming some very real issues around scaling can be solved.
Those issues, Meariann said, prompted Storj to freeze the number of users it has for the time being until its infrastructure can be re-architected. Storj hopes to have that done in about six months.
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