Blockchain – A Most Disruptive Technology On The Spotlight Of World Engineering Education Paradigm

Abstract

Abstract Throughout its history, preferably over the last four centuries, the world witnessing game changing and disruptive technologies on certain regular intervals. Wheels, Compass, calendar and pozzolana are some of the remarkable inventions in before Christ (B.C) period. Clock, printing press, steam engines, vaccines, electricity, mechanical computer, telegraph, iron and steel, aero plane, transistors, ARPANET, personal computer and Internet are few outstanding innovations fuelled our world for last four centuries. If we look at the time line of inventions, it is dramatically reduced over the advancement of time. Inventions took centuries in B.C, but needs only a few years or a decade in A.D. We would like to add the blockchain technology in this line up, which could fuel new era of inventions in new dimensions. This technology relies on decentralized concepts, entirely against the present centralized system, the world relies on. Why we still need a third party book keepers or why we still need an third party intermediary for trust and transactions? This article will answer these arguments. This article begins with the conceptual understanding, then reveals its disruptiveness through several case studies across several industries such as Banking, Administration, Supply chain management, Logistics, Asset management, Intellectual property management, Transport and Energy. Blockchain technology has the potential to redefine every one another technology of human beings. Concept of ledger and its evolution, from its voyage from Indian origin single entry ledger to Satoshi Nakamoto’s triple entry ledger has been highlighted, as these are vital to understand the technology behind bit coin. Without mentioning the crypto currencies, the blockchain use cases will not ended up, hence few excerpts of crypto currencies also added. From cryptography in technology, Anti money laundering, Know your customer, Transaction monitoring in Banking to day to day administration as in the case of land records storage, identity management etc., are few contributions of this article. We also covered the case studies from corporate giants such as Amazon, IBM, MAERSK to the startups like EzyRemit, Signzy etc., and from an individual state of administration Andrapradesh to the entire country, Dubai. It is important for the global engineering education needs to identify and nurture the disruptive technologies, which could contribute to our society in meaningful way. We believe that, blockchain technology belongs to the category of future technologies, which could shape up and fuel the development of global economy for next few decades as internet did for past few decades. Through this article, the young generation engineering pupils, matured practitioners and influential decision makers will understand the potential of blockchain technology and provide impetus to global engineering education.