Why the auto industry should embrace Blockchain

Technical innovations happen constantly in small and big ways across our modern society, but relatively few breakthroughs ever have far-reaching impact.

Consider Wi-Fi and the smartphone, to name a couple. Increasingly, savvy observers are adding blockchain technology to the list of creations that could transform our universe.

Decidedly a hot topic today, blockchain is the protocol behind bitcoin digital currency, but it was around as a concept for years prior to enabling bitcoin in 2009.  Blockchain, which involves cryptography, digital transactions, databases and other elements, is a ledger of distributed records in batches called blocks that are securely linked together virtually.

Each valid block is made of time-stamped transactions and linked to a previous block, with the whole forming a chain. Blockchain architecture allows a distributed network of computers to reach consensus without the need for a central authority or middleman.

There are thousands of entrepreneurs and investors betting on blockchain technology to reimagine transactions of all types, and not surprisingly, the financial sector is aggressively in pursuit.

Some are saying blockchain will someday revolutionize Wall Street, insurance, online content distribution, gaming platforms, messaging services such as Twitter, voting, and intellectual property. In other words, practically anything we do online.

While blockchain is currently in an embryonic stage, an industry that should step forward to take advantage of its many benefits is the automotive sector.

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