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The Internet of Things (IoT) has revolutionized how we interact with technology, seamlessly integrating smart devices into our daily lives. From smart thermostats and wearable devices to industrial sensors and smart cities, IoT solutions are becoming ubiquitous. However, as the number of IoT devices grows, so does the surface area for potential cyberattacks. This article delves into the evolution of cybersecurity in the age of IoT, highlighting the challenges, advancements, and the importance of adopting robust security measures. <h2>The Rise of IoT and its Impact on Cybersecurity</h2>The IoT ecosystem comprises billions of interconnected devices that communicate over the internet. This connectivity allows for unprecedented levels of automation, efficiency, and data collection. However, it also introduces new vulnerabilities that cybercriminals are eager to exploit. The rise of IoT has significantly impacted the cybersecurity landscape for several reasons:<ol><li>Increased Attack Surface: With each new IoT device connected to a network, the potential entry points for cyberattacks increase. These devices, ranging from smart refrigerators to industrial control systems, often lack robust security features, making them easy targets for hackers.</li><li>Diverse Range of Devices: The IoT ecosystem includes a diverse range of devices with varying capabilities, operating systems, and communication protocols. This diversity makes it challenging to implement standardized security measures across all devices, leading to inconsistent security practices.</li><li>Data Privacy Concerns: IoT devices collect vast amounts of data, often including sensitive personal or organizational information. Unauthorized access to this data can lead to privacy breaches, identity theft, or even corporate espionage.</li><li>Legacy Systems and Compatibility Issues: Many IoT devices are integrated into legacy systems that were not designed with modern cybersecurity threats in mind. Ensuring compatibility while maintaining security is a significant challenge for IoT solution development.</li></ol><h2>Evolution of Cybersecurity Measures in IoT</h2>As the IoT landscape evolves, so too does the approach to cybersecurity. The following are some key advancements in cybersecurity measures tailored specifically for IoT environments:<ol><li>Enhanced Device Authentication and Authorization: Traditional authentication methods are often inadequate for IoT devices. Advanced techniques, such as multi-factor authentication and biometric verification, are being employed to ensure that only authorized devices and users can access IoT networks.</li><li>End-to-End Encryption: To protect data transmitted between IoT devices and central systems, end-to-end encryption is becoming a standard practice. This ensures that even if data is intercepted, it remains unreadable without the appropriate decryption keys.</li><li>Zero Trust Architecture: The zero-trust model operates on the principle that no device or user, whether inside or outside the network, should be trusted by default. This approach requires continuous verification of each device and user trying to access network resources, significantly reducing the risk of unauthorized access.</li><li>Machine Learning and AI for Threat Detection: Machine learning and artificial intelligence are increasingly being integrated into cybersecurity solutions to identify and respond to threats in real-time. These technologies can analyze patterns of normal device behaviour and detect anomalies that may indicate a cyberattack.</li><li>Custom IoT Development Services with Built-in Security: Companies specializing in custom IoT development services are now incorporating security features directly into the design and development process. By prioritizing security from the outset, these companies ensure that their IoT solutions are resilient to potential threats.</li></ol><h2>The Role of Custom IoT Development Companies in Enhancing Cybersecurity</h2>Custom IoT development companies play a crucial role in the evolution of cybersecurity within the IoT ecosystem. By offering tailored solutions, these companies can address the specific security needs of different industries and applications. Here’s how:<ol><li>IoT Solution Development with a Security-First Approach: Custom IoT development companies design and build IoT solutions with security as a foundational element. This proactive approach helps mitigate risks by integrating security measures such as secure boot processes, firmware updates, and device lifecycle management from the beginning.</li><li>Hiring Skilled IoT Developers: The demand for skilled IoT developers who understand the intricacies of both IoT technology and cybersecurity is on the rise. When you hire IoT developers with a strong background in cybersecurity, you can be confident that your IoT solutions will be robust against potential threats.</li><li>Ongoing Security Management and Updates: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.darkbears.com/expertise/advanced-computing/iot">Custom IoT development services</a> often include ongoing security management, monitoring, and regular updates to address new vulnerabilities. This continuous approach ensures that IoT solutions remain secure over time, even as new threats emerge.</li><li>Compliance with Industry Standards: By adhering to industry standards and regulations, custom IoT development companies help businesses avoid legal and financial repercussions associated with data breaches. Ensuring compliance with standards such as GDPR, HIPAA, and others is critical in maintaining trust and protecting sensitive data.</li></ol><h2>Best Practices for Securing IoT Devices</h2>To safeguard IoT devices and networks, businesses and individuals should adopt the following best practices:<ol><li>Conduct Regular Security Audits: Regularly assess the security posture of your IoT devices and networks to identify and address vulnerabilities.</li><li>Implement Strong Password Policies: Ensure all IoT devices use strong, unique passwords, and consider enabling multi-factor authentication where possible.</li><li>Keep Firmware and Software Updated: Regularly update device firmware and software to protect against known vulnerabilities and exploits.</li><li>Segment IoT Networks: Separate IoT devices from critical business systems and sensitive data to limit the impact of a potential breach.</li><li>Hire IoT Developers with Security Expertise: When developing custom IoT solutions, hire IoT developers who are well-versed in cybersecurity best practices to ensure robust protection against threats.</li></ol><h3>Conclusion</h3>The evolution of cybersecurity in the age of IoT is a dynamic process that requires continuous adaptation and vigilance. As IoT devices become more prevalent, the need for robust security measures becomes even more critical. Custom IoT development companies, with their expertise in secure IoT solution development, play a vital role in safeguarding our interconnected world. By understanding the unique challenges of IoT cybersecurity and adopting best practices, businesses and individuals can protect themselves against the ever-evolving landscape of cyber threats.If you're looking to develop <a target="_blank" href="https://www.darkbears.com/expertise/advanced-computing/iot">secure IoT solutions</a>, consider hiring skilled IoT developers or partnering with a <a href="https://www.darkbears.com/company/contact">custom IoT development company</a> that prioritizes cybersecurity. This proactive approach will help ensure the security and reliability of your IoT deployments, allowing you to leverage the full potential of IoT technology with confidence.

The Evolution of Cybersecurity in the Age of IoT

In today’s digital age, businesses need to leverage the power of the internet to reach their target audiences effectively. Digital marketing encompasses all online marketing efforts, using digital channels such as search engines, social media, email, and websites to connect with current and prospective customers. This comprehensive guide will walk you through the essentials of&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://admin.darkbears.com/blog/post/add/Discover the comprehensive guide to digital marketing, covering SEO, content marketing, social media, PPC, email marketing, and more. Learn the latest trends and best practices to boost your online presence and drive business growth.">digital marketing,</a> its various components, and how to create a successful digital marketing strategy for your business. <h2>What is Digital Marketing?</h2>Digital marketing refers to all marketing activities that use digital devices or the internet. It’s an umbrella term that includes various online marketing strategies, such as content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, email marketing, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, and more. Unlike traditional marketing, digital marketing offers real-time data and insights, enabling businesses to adapt and improve their marketing strategies continuously.<h2>Why Digital Marketing is Important</h2><ol><li>Increased Reach: Digital marketing allows businesses to reach a global audience at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing methods.</li><li>Targeted Marketing: With digital marketing, you can target specific demographics, geographic locations, and even customer behaviors, ensuring your marketing efforts are reaching the right people.</li><li>Measurable Results: Digital marketing provides valuable metrics and analytics that help businesses measure the effectiveness of their campaigns and adjust strategies as needed.</li><li>Cost-Effective: Compared to traditional advertising channels like TV, radio, and print, digital marketing offers a more affordable alternative with a potentially higher ROI.</li><li>Enhanced Customer Engagement: Digital channels provide various touchpoints to engage with customers and build stronger relationships.</li></ol><h2>Core Components of Digital Marketing</h2><h4>1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)</h4>SEO is the process of optimizing your website and its content to rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). A higher ranking increases visibility and attracts more organic traffic to your website. Key elements of SEO include:<ul><li>Keyword Research: Identifying the right keywords and phrases that your target audience is searching for.</li><li>On-Page SEO: Optimizing individual web pages to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. This includes optimizing title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, and content.</li><li>Off-Page SEO: Building backlinks from reputable websites to increase your site’s authority and trustworthiness.</li><li>Technical SEO: Ensuring your website is technically sound with proper indexing, mobile optimization, fast load times, and secure connections (HTTPS).</li></ul><h4>2. Content Marketing</h4>Content marketing involves creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience. The goal is to drive profitable customer action by providing content that educates, entertains, or inspires. Common content marketing formats include:<ul><li>Blogs: Regularly updated articles that provide information or insights on specific topics.</li><li>Ebooks and Whitepapers: In-depth resources that offer more detailed information on a subject, often used to capture leads.</li><li>Infographics: Visual representations of data or information, making complex topics easier to understand.</li><li>Videos: Engaging visual content that can explain concepts, demonstrate products, or tell stories.</li></ul><h4>3. Social Media Marketing</h4>​<a target="_blank" href="https://www.darkbears.com/expertise/digital-marketing/ppc-social-media-ads">Social media marketing</a> uses platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok to promote your brand, products, or services. It helps in building brand awareness, engaging with customers, and driving traffic to your website. Key strategies include:<ul><li>Creating Engaging Content: Share posts, videos, stories, and other media that resonate with your audience.</li><li>Community Management: Actively engaging with followers, responding to comments, and fostering a sense of community.</li><li>Social Advertising: Running paid campaigns to target specific demographics and achieve business goals like increasing website traffic or generating leads.</li></ul><h4>4. Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)</h4>PPC is a digital advertising model where advertisers pay a fee each time their ad is clicked. It’s a way of buying visits to your site rather than earning them organically. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.darkbears.com/expertise/digital-marketing/ppc-social-media-ads">Google Ads and social media ads</a> are popular PPC platforms. PPC strategies include:<ul><li>Keyword Targeting: Using relevant keywords to ensure your ads appear in search results when potential customers are searching for related products or services.</li><li>Ad Copywriting: Crafting compelling ad copy that encourages clicks and conversions.</li><li>Bid Management: Adjusting your bids to ensure you get the most value for your budget.</li></ul><h4>5. Email Marketing</h4>Email marketing involves sending targeted messages to a group of people via email. It’s one of the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.darkbears.com/expertise/digital-marketing/email-marketing">most cost-effective ways to reach and engage your audience, nurture leads, and convert them into customers.</a> Effective email marketing tactics include:<ul><li>Personalization: Tailoring emails to individual preferences and behaviors to increase engagement.</li><li>Segmentation: Dividing your email list into smaller segments based on demographics, behavior, or other criteria to send more relevant messages.</li><li>Automation: Using automated email sequences to nurture leads and guide them through the sales funnel.</li></ul><h4>6. Affiliate Marketing</h4>Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing strategy where businesses reward affiliates (partners) for driving traffic or sales to their site through the affiliate’s marketing efforts. Affiliates can be bloggers, influencers, or other businesses.<ul><li>Affiliate Networks: Platforms that connect businesses with potential affiliates, manage payments, and track performance.</li><li>Commission Structures: Defining how affiliates will be compensated, such as a percentage of sales or a fixed fee per lead.</li></ul><h4>7. Influencer Marketing</h4>Influencer marketing leverages individuals with a significant following on social media or other online platforms to promote your products or services. This strategy builds trust and authenticity because recommendations come from trusted figures.<ul><li>Identifying Influencers: Finding influencers whose audience aligns with your target market.</li><li>Building Relationships: Developing long-term partnerships with influencers to foster genuine endorsements.</li><li>Tracking ROI: Measuring the impact of influencer campaigns on brand awareness, traffic, and sales.</li></ul><h2>How to Create a Digital Marketing Strategy</h2><ol><li>Define Your Goals: Clearly outline what you want to achieve with your digital marketing efforts. Goals could include increasing website traffic, generating leads, boosting sales, or enhancing brand awareness.</li><li>Understand Your Audience: Conduct market research to understand your audience’s demographics, preferences, behaviors, and pain points. Create buyer personas to represent your ideal customers.</li><li>Choose the Right Channels: Based on your audience’s preferences, select the most effective digital marketing channels to reach them. This might include SEO, social media, email marketing, PPC, or content marketing.</li><li>Create a Content Plan: Develop a content strategy that aligns with your audience’s needs and your business goals. This includes planning the types of content you will create, the topics you will cover, and the frequency of publication.</li><li>Implement and Optimize: Launch your digital marketing campaigns and continuously monitor their performance. Use analytics tools to track key metrics, identify areas for improvement, and optimize your strategies accordingly.</li><li>Measure Success: Evaluate the success of your digital marketing efforts against your defined goals. Adjust your strategy as needed to improve results and achieve your objectives.</li></ol><h2>Trends in Digital Marketing</h2><ol><li>Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: AI and machine learning are transforming digital marketing by enabling more personalized and automated customer experiences.</li><li>Video Marketing: The popularity of video content continues to rise, making it an essential component of any digital marketing strategy.</li><li>Voice Search Optimization: With the growing use of voice assistants like Alexa and Siri, optimizing for voice search is becoming increasingly important.</li><li>Data Privacy and Security: As data privacy concerns grow, marketers must prioritize transparent data practices and comply with regulations like GDPR and CCPA.</li><li>Omni-Channel Marketing: Providing a seamless experience across all channels (online and offline) is crucial for engaging modern consumers.</li></ol><h3>Conclusion</h3>Digital marketing is an ever-evolving field that offers businesses endless opportunities to connect with their audiences and achieve their goals. By understanding the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.darkbears.com/services/digital-marketing">core components of digital marketing</a> and staying up-to-date with the latest trends, you can create a successful strategy that drives growth and delivers measurable results.

The Ultimate Guide to Digital Marketing

What’s the first step in setting up an online business? – Building an online storefront. Today, there are innumerable website builders for DIY eCommerce website development; still, people are more inclined towards WordPress development.Why?Because 40% of the online eCommerce websites are empowered on this open-source content management system, however, a few features seem more like a necessity rather than an alternative.&nbsp;The ability to list down products, inventory tracking, order shipment and fulfillment, payment system, and many more is a pre-requisite of a business owner, which a default WordPress installation cannot do. And that’s where WooCommerce – An eCommerce plugin for WordPress comes into play. This blog post talks about a few WooCommerce alternatives that can be a better option for specific use cases. It also explains why there’s a need for such alternatives, how they’re better, and some of the downsides compared to WooCommerce. But before listing down the alternatives, let’s get the basics clear. <h2>WooCommerce -The Basics</h2><h4>1.It’s a WordPress Plugin</h4>For beginners, it isn’t a standalone DIY Site builder. Instead, it’s an open-source WordPress plugin. This means that WooCommerce works as a third-party integration within WordPress.It means:<ol><li>Customer needs to acquire hosting services from a web hosting provider.</li><li>Later they install and configure WordPress CMS.</li><li>Once they build the web design using a theme, they can install and configure WooCommerce to handle the eCommerce functions.</li></ol><div class="se-component se-video-container __se__float-"><figure style="width: 100%; height: 56.25%;"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1KahlicghaE?feature=oembed" data-percentage="100%,56.25%" data-size="100%,56.25%" data-align="" data-file-name="1KahlicghaE?feature=oembed" data-file-size="0" data-origin="100%,56.25%" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.5em; width: 100%; height: 100%;"></iframe></figure></div>The above is a short promo video to give you an overview of the WooCommerce platform. <h4>2.It’s versatile</h4>WooCommerce works with both physical and digital goods.Here, you can sell products with innumerable variants and configurations. It also allows instant access to download digital items. When it comes to marketing, WooCommerce website developers can use it for the affiliate marketing model. <h4>3.It’s free to use: But, I’m sure you’d always prefer opting for paid ones!</h4>To date, the basic WooCommerce plugin is free to use.If users want to integrate additional features and flexibility, they can install plugins and other multiple add-ons that are not free. Yes, they’re PAID.So, as the online store expands and the user base increases, it’s essential to improve the customer experience for seamless shopping. In such cases, it becomes necessary for store owners to buy those plugins, and those additional costs are worth every penny. <h2>Why and who needs WooCommerce alternatives?</h2>Since WooCommerce allows the quick launch of an online store, it is the first choice of businesses and enterprises to build a quick online store. Moreover, due to its popularity and ease of use, technically advanced people store.Though it is highly popular, there might be some scenarios where it may not have the specific features you need for your business. WooCommerce lacks seamless integration with other third-party tools and plugins that can grow your business. Apart from this, choosing WooCommerce will let you figure out web hosting on your own. It has no backend integrated and synchronized.&nbsp; Moreover, it does not come with support for payment gateway, printable invoices, and shipping solutions which makes it even harder to manage an online store. That’s where businesses often need to pick an alternative to WooCommerce to leverage better solutions. This blog post focuses on WooCommerce alternatives which include both plugins for WordPress and entirely new platforms that offer variant features and options best-suited for business. So, let’s discuss a few top WooCommerce alternatives and what it offers to expand online business opportunities. <h2>Which are the top WooCommerce alternatives? </h2><h4>1.Shopify – An easy and simpler approach for Ecommerce Development</h4>Both the e-commerce giants, WooCommerce and WordPress are open source and self-hosted platforms. It simply means that finding hosting to maintain the website is on your shoulders. Though it’s quite convenient for developers web design beginners might find it a bit difficult.And that’s where Shopify wins the race.Offering a comprehensive package of online store builders, Shopify has everything that a business might need – hosting, domain name, design, themes, marketing all together in the dashboard.Let’s talk about the main thing now,<h5>PRICE STRUCTURE:</h5><ul><li>Shopify Lite&nbsp;– $9 per month.</li><li>Basic Shopify&nbsp;– $29 per month.</li><li>Shopify&nbsp;– $79 per month.</li><li>Advanced Shopify&nbsp;– $299 per month.</li><li>Shopify Plus&nbsp;– If you want to avail yourself of Shopify Plus, get in touch with our eCommerce experts and discuss how they can customize Shopify’s web development service for your business needs.</li></ul><h5>WHAT IT DOES BETTER THAN WOOCOMMERCE?</h5>Shopify eases building an online store less since it has a comprehensive range of tools in a single dashboard. With Shopify, you do not need to worry about things like security, hosting, or updates – Shopify does it all for you. <h5>DOWNSIDES COMPARED TO WOOCOMMERCE</h5>You can find a wide variety of themes for WooCommerce. It’s quite easier to scale your website with WooCommerce since it deliberated full control of your website.&nbsp;Since Shopify uses the liquid coding language, its advanced chances are tougher. <h5>WHO SHOULD USE IT?</h5>Shopify is a good choice for absolute beginners who still want a great-looking, fully functional store. <h4>2. Magento – A high powered fully functional eCommerce-focused CMS</h4>Missing some features in WooCommerce?In that case, an extension might overcome the problem. However, there are people who would want each and every e-commerce feature integrated into their store. Such configuration not only scales your business but also expands your selling opportunities. And that’s where Magento plays its colors. Magento is a solid and strong WooCommerce alternative for people who are technically advanced and looking for solutions apart from WordPress. <h5>PRICING</h5><ul><li>Starter plan: $2000 per month</li><li>Pro plan: $3147 per month.</li></ul>There’s also a free, limited open-source version available for novice developers.<h5>WHAT IT DOES BETTER THAN WOOCOMMERCE</h5>Magento eCommerce website development is highly beneficial for a larger business. It’s a unique content management system with every little feature an online eCommerce store might ever need and thus eliminates the need to find plugins or add-ons.<h5>DOWNSIDES COMPARED TO WOOCOMMERCE.</h5>When it comes to setup, Magento is not a tough nut to crack. But its designing and configuration usually demand an experienced eCommerce developer, whereas WooCommerce is relatively easy for beginners.Honestly, the paid version of Magento Commerce is relatively heavier on budget.<h5>WHO SHOULD USE IT?</h5>Choosing Magento can be the best option for growing a business with advanced eCommerce needs. It’s quite rare to find a need for customization in Magento. But you’ll need an experienced developer or spare some good budget to hire the one.<h4>3. MemberPress for selling membership subscriptions</h4>MemberPress is a WordPress plugin with every membership feature you can ever expect. Right from subscription management, drip content to awesome pricing pages, most of your subscription operations are all set.<h5>PRICING</h5><ul><li>Basic Plan&nbsp;– $129 per year.</li><li>Plus Plan&nbsp;– $249 per year.</li><li>Pro Plan&nbsp;– $369 per year.</li></ul><h5>WHAT IT DOES BETTER THAN WOOCOMMERCE</h5>The premium support of Membership is what makes it a standout amongst the crowd. These sites are completely different as compared to regular eCommerce stores. The WooCommerce documentation is fine for quick fixes, but sometimes you need something more than that. Apart from this, WooCommerce requires an extra extension for full membership, which is not the case with MemberPress.&nbsp; <h5>DOWNSIDES COMPARED TO WOOCOMMERCE.</h5>MemberPress lacks a regular eCommerce shop for fixed-price items. Also, WooCommerce has support for more payment gateways. <h5>WHO SHOULD USE IT?</h5>Anyone who needs an entire membership or subscription suite in one place. <h4>4.Easy Digital Downloads for selling digital downloads</h4>The name says it all. This platform will turn any WordPress site into a full-fledged digitized eCommerce store. You can purchase different add-ons for multiple extensions like software licensing, payment gateways, frontend submissions, and more. The essential plugin creates a store, manages marketing, and accepts payments. <h5>PRICING</h5>The core plugin is free, and the add-ons start at $15.20. You can also buy add-on packages starting at $108.50. <h5>WHAT IT DOES BETTER THAN WOOCOMMERCE</h5>When it comes to selling digital downloads, EDD is the best and the simplest option to be considered. Though WooCommerce supports digital sales, its configuration process is a bit confusing, and some of the free advanced features of EDD, like product bundles, need to pay extension in WooCommerce. On the other hand, EDD adds customer management, discount codes, shopping cart, and data reporting in a single go with one installation. Furthermore, if selling digital items is your goal, with EDD, your dashboard isn’t cluttered with physical product features.<h5>DOWNSIDES COMPARED TO WOOCOMMERCE.</h5>EDD is restricted to only virtual goods. So, if you plan to sell physical products alongside, WooCommerce is the best. The EDD Simple shipping add-on can help you with physical products, but it’s limited and does not have variables like shipping company integration, cost, reporting.<h5>WHO SHOULD USE IT?</h5>If you want to sell digital products like eBooks, photography, videos, and music, all works will start with EDD.<h3>WHICH OF THESE WOOCOMMERCE ALTERNATIVES IS BEST FOR YOU?</h3>Now the ball is in your court. WooCommerce works wonders with a majority of the eCommerce stores. However, there may be random situations when WooCommerce might not serve you better. In such a case, check out the above alternatives and select the best as per your business needs. If you’re thinking of going for a fully tailored eCommerce solution, I would suggest you&nbsp;hire the best eCommerce website development companyto get a responsive solution at a competitive price model. Have any other questions about choosing between these WooCommerce alternatives? Let us know in the comments!

WooCommerce Not Working Out? Here Are 4 the best Alternatives to Manage Your Online Store

​Cloud Storage, while established, has some challenges. It is seen as expensive and enterprises often need to plan and buy excess storage in advance. &nbsp;There can be latency involved in getting data, depending on the location of the cloud service provider.To address some of these challenges, Enterprises have been looking at adopting Blockchain technology to create&nbsp;distributed&nbsp;storage. Let’s understand more about the applicability, the challenges, and the benefits.<h2>Direct storage in BlockChain -challenges</h2><ul><li>Because of the “write once, read only” and immutable nature of Blockchain data, it is not suitable for storing large amount of enterprise data as that data would keep increasing. Blockchain may be more suitable to store transactional data.</li></ul><ul><li>Data protection regulations (GDPR) also add a major limitation in adopting blockchain in this context. This regulation demands that users must be able to control all personal data, including the “right to be forgotten”, whereas blockchain data can never be erased.</li></ul><ul><li>Transactions are slower on the blockchain. While this is acceptable for a single financial transaction, it is impractical for data from rich applications which run into thousands per second.</li></ul><ul><li>Forever more capacity is required if the data is stored directly, due to the fact that the data is immutable. The size of the blockchain will grow rapidly and demand excess capacity. Storing large files is, thus, not practical.</li></ul>However, other aspects of blockchain, like its distributed approach and security of data can be leveraged to form new kinds of storage models.<h2>Blockchain model</h2>Blockchain is decentralized in nature. It consists of nodes or blocks of encrypted information and uses a distributed consensus model. Each node has a copy of the same data and transaction history and has the same rights. All information is secured cryptographically.Nodes in a peer-to-peer network make a distributed ledger system. Nodes are independent of each other. If one node leaves the network, the others can still work. &nbsp;&nbsp;There are no intermediaries or third parties needed for authentication.Decentralized storage&nbsp;combines the best features of Blockchain technology and at the same time meets the practical demands of storing high volumes of data.<h2>Decentralized Storage</h2>When you store files on Google Drive or an enterprise puts its data on Amazon S3, the data is on a centralized server somewhere, making it vulnerable to attacks and expensive to store.This kind of cloud storage can be replaced by a decentralized data-storage model, which leverages Blockchain technology. &nbsp;In decentralized storage, data is no longer on a single server. It is distributed across a network of nodes, similar to the distributed&nbsp;<a href="https://darkbears.com/expertise/advanced-computing/blockchain">ledger of Blockchain</a>, with many similar features.<h2>Sharding</h2>In a distributed store, a file when added is broken into small pieces, encrypted, and sent to hard-drives (nodes) located all over the world, in a process called as sharding. Each shard is a part of the original and only the owner can access all the shards. &nbsp;The files are encrypted so no other node can read it.Sia, Storj and Ethereum Swarm&nbsp;are companies that have begun using this technology to create peer-to-peer enterprise storage solutions. This is a very efficient model in which the storage scales very easily and becomes cost effective.<h2>Advantages over traditional Cloud storage</h2><h4>Security</h4><ul><li>This distributed infrastructure scales in size efficiently and provides the inherent security present in Blockchain technology. Strong encryption is applied to this storage.</li></ul><ul><li>No single node controls the network and data. A correct copy is stored on multiple nodes, so data becomes immutable and is always guaranteed to be correct.</li></ul><ul><li>Since it is distributed, there is no single point of failure and there can be no data breaches. If one node is attacked, the others still function normally, and business goes on as usual.</li></ul><ul><li>Because a file is sharded and encrypted and spread over nodes, no one can get an entire copy of your data. A hacker would have to find and decrypt all the other shards on other nodes to get one file.</li></ul><h4>Costs</h4>If enterprises buy storage from a few dedicated providers, the providers decide the cost and it is not very competitive. Distributed&nbsp;storage is cheaper than server-based storage or cloud storage.There is no expensive server farm as in cloud storage. Individual nodes in the network offer up the extra space on their servers or devices to the distributed ledger storage. Customers looking for data-storage can buy from them, rather than the monolithic cloud vendors. &nbsp;This can make storage up to a tenth as cheap as that from players like AWS.<h2>The downsides and how to overcome them</h2>When large volumes of data are involved, syncing it over the storage chain of nodes can be very slow. If data is coming from real-time IoT devices, this situation is hardly ideal.After data is stored collectively as shards over the nodes, a technique known as&nbsp;warming&nbsp;is used in a distributed storage system, to speed up data transfer. This uses the same principle as torrents. Devices in a large group, or swarm, in a peer-to-peer network transfer data to and from the nearest nodes in parallel. &nbsp;This reduces latency.Also Read: <a target="_blank" href="https://darkbears.com/company/blog/7-real-world-applications-of-blockchain">7 Real World Applications of Blockchain</a>​An interesting solution now emerging is the marketplace. You can leverage a platform like Ethereum for such distributed storage and add features of ownership and contracts and create a storage marketplace which will be very cost effective.<h2>A storage marketplace</h2>Imagine a peer-to-peer storage marketplace (enterprise or individual). &nbsp;It is a community of storage providers and consumers in a network or grid. The providers sell their unused storage and buyers purchase it to upload their data. Files are broken into shards and distributed across multiple nodes spread geographically.The marketplace can identify unused resources from hosts and match them with large demand from consumers. &nbsp;When your storage needs go up, you buy more storage and relinquish it when no longer needed. Data is stored redundantly.If anyone needs to reclaim their storage capacity, the marketplace ensures this by moving data to another appropriate location, if that location also meets the SLAs and performance criteria. &nbsp;The buyers can buy storage from a nearby location rather than from a provider across the globe.In this marketplace, users can monetize their unused disk space. Pricing would be very competitive due to a large number of sellers. Costs would be low also because the marketplace is selling capacity that is already spare. No one needs to buy special infrastructure.The marketplace ensures that a contract exists between the storage owner and owner of the data and the data has been written to storage. It tracks all buying and selling and manages payments effectively for both parties.Similar to a cryptocurrency ledger of transactions, the storage marketplace creates records of data movement.Purchase and sale transactions are immutable records, and the marketplace is trustworthy. There is no need for a third party for authentication. Such a distributed storage marketplace can fundamentally transform the enterprise storage scenario.Blockchain is slated to make an impact on lives and business in ways as fundamental as the internet itself. From what is visible even now, it seems clear that it will have a pretty transformational impact on the world of data-storage too.

How Blockchain Will Change the Way We Store and Use Data?

If you have been following banking, investing, or cryptocurrency recently, you may be familiar with “Blockchain,” the record-keeping technology behind Bitcoin. What is Blockchain? Blockchain consists of chunks of a database distributed across multiple computers at the same time. It keeps on adding new sets of data, or ‘blocks’ regularly. Each block contains a timestamp and a link to the previous block hence they actually form a chain.So, what’s the purpose of Blockchain? What is it used for, and why is it needed? Blockchain has endless applications across various industries. The initial use-case was for provenance. It proves you own something digital. You own one Bitcoin. You own digital copies of your health records. Blockchain gives us the age of digital ownership. We live in a digital world. We order gifts and buy online from retailers. Hence, Blockchain is important as it allows us to own digital goods, assets, and data.Blockchain is a revolutionary technology. There is clear application in the field of&nbsp;cybersecurity. The safety of&nbsp;Blockchain&nbsp;technology for businesses lies in the fact that it is a distributed, rather than a centralized network. This means that&nbsp;to&nbsp;break into a data source, hackers need to break into&nbsp;all the&nbsp;computers in the distributed network at the same time. The computing power necessary to conduct such a hack has been compared by Collin Thompson to the equivalent of the&nbsp;“hashing power of a nation-state and all the tech companies therein to overcome&nbsp;more&nbsp;than 51% computational power of the network.”<blockquote>Read More –&nbsp;<a href="https://darkbears.com/company/blog/7-real-world-applications-of-blockchain">7 Real World Applications of Blockchain</a></blockquote>Of course, blockchain is transforming a variety of industries. Let us look at five instances where blockchain technology has transformed industries.Banking —&nbsp;Maintaining records efficiently has been a problem the banking and finance industry has been facing for years. Challenges have led to fraud, over-expenditure, and other problems.With blockchain, banks will no longer need a segregated database. Instead, there will be a shared ledger among the participants. This helps add more security. The financial transactions will be safer as any changes will need the approval of all the parties involved. It will reduce the time of the transaction, especially international transactions. Waves which is a Blockchain platform has managed to run 190 transactions/second using Blockchain.Another important application is in Smart Contracts. Smart contracts take into account set rules and penalties. They define who the asset will belong to under certain predefined conditions. This was a difficult task when done manually. With Blockchain, every part will be well-defined and well-coded, and the implementation will not require a third-party enforcement team. Trade becomes easier with Blockchain’s real-time reviewing abilities.Internet Identity and DNS –The problems spoken of with DNS, public-key infrastructure, and other custom identity systems emerged as a direct result of trusting intermediaries and remote services. In the era of the internet, users would do well to trust nothing other than their machines. Blockchain help to onboard an experience from an end-to-end design to a trust-to-trust design in the internet’s architecture. If applied correctly, this could change the way internet identity and DNS works.Industrial IoT and Mesh Networking&nbsp;the number of connected devices in use skyrockets, there are a number of growing concerns, the most important being identity management. If connected devices talk to each other all the time, they need protocols and sound rules and systems to ensure they aren’t interacting with fraudulent devices or hackers. Fortunately, blockchain is well-suited to solve this problem.Since Blockchain is designed to secure data and transactions through the use of public and private keys, it is well-suited to manage personal identity in the IoT ecosystem. It is also perfect for giving devices unique identities. For example, UniquID leverages Blockchain technology to automate device Identity Access Management (IAM). This helps protect business data while improving the efficiency of the access experience. They have created a protocol for Identity Access Management for secure machine-to-machine connection.Cloud storage and computing-&nbsp;Blockchain cloud storage solutions&nbsp;take the user’s data and break it up into small chunks in a process called sharding. They also add a layer of security and distribute it throughout the network. This is done using Blockchain features like the hashing function, public/private key encryption, and transaction ledgers. If intruders try to hack into it, firstly, they only get encrypted data. Secondly, they get only a chunk of the data and not the whole file. This secures the document in blockchain based cloud storage. Many new companies like&nbsp;Sia, Amazon, and&nbsp;Storj&nbsp;have jumped into this new Blockchain cloud storage market and the data storage market looks ripe for disruption.Stock Trading-Stock trades are often made in milliseconds by algorithms. Completing them involves coordinating payment and delivery among a mess of databases and then reconciling the records. Brokerages and financial companies take days to settle the entire transaction end-to-end. With blockchain’s distributed, tamper-proof ledgers, and immutable and transparent transaction records, the whole process could be sped up and simplified. For example, NASDAQ launched Linq, a&nbsp;blockchain-based&nbsp;private trading platform that lets private companies digitally represent their share ownership, even if they are not listed on a stock exchange. The system was successfully able to complete and record a private-securities transaction to a private investor recently.&nbsp;Blockchain&nbsp;has been featuring several other projects not only by&nbsp;NASDAQ&nbsp;but also on other stock exchanges across the world.Dark Bears is recognized as a top&nbsp;<a href="https://www.softwaredevelopmentcompany.co/healthcare-software-development-companies/">Best Healthcare Software Development Companies</a>There’s little doubt that blockchain will change the way of the business world. &nbsp;So many experts assert that&nbsp;blockchain&nbsp;is not a disruptive technology, but&nbsp;rather a foundational technology that will&nbsp;provide a real structure&nbsp;for all future transactions of any value.

Five Industries that Blockchain is Transforming

With&nbsp;reference&nbsp;to Bitcoin and&nbsp;cryptocurrencies, Blockchain is&nbsp;planned&nbsp;as a decentralized technology to&nbsp;keep&nbsp;the list of&nbsp;records.&nbsp;It&nbsp;all started in 1979 when&nbsp;it&nbsp;was primarily&nbsp;organized&nbsp;as a hash tree, for&nbsp;validating&nbsp;and handling data between two&nbsp;computer systems, by Ralph&nbsp;Merkle.&nbsp;Later in 1991, for a peer-to-peer&nbsp;(P2P)&nbsp;network system by&nbsp;joining&nbsp;a&nbsp;series&nbsp;of data&nbsp;records&nbsp;according&nbsp;to their&nbsp;occurrence&nbsp;with the newest&nbsp;record&nbsp;containing&nbsp;all the&nbsp;information,&nbsp;blockchain&nbsp;became a reality.In 2009, the&nbsp;blockchain&nbsp;technology emerged as a core component of cryptocurrency bitcoin for securing and verifying&nbsp;the history&nbsp;of encrypted transactions in a&nbsp;P2P&nbsp;system&nbsp;with a precise timestamp managed without a supreme authority.&nbsp;Since then, the bitcoin&nbsp;blockchain&nbsp;technology has&nbsp;reached&nbsp;to 100&nbsp;GB&nbsp;from 50&nbsp;GB&nbsp;during 2016-2017.Number&nbsp;of Blockchain wallet users worldwide from 1st&nbsp;quarter&nbsp;2015 to 1st&nbsp;quarter&nbsp;2018&nbsp;(Statista&nbsp;2018)The above statistics&nbsp;suggest&nbsp;the&nbsp;rise&nbsp;in the&nbsp;quantity&nbsp;of&nbsp;blockchain&nbsp;wallet users during 2015-2018.Underneath are the 10 things one should know about the blockchain technology:<ul><li>As&nbsp;the&nbsp;description&nbsp;proposes,&nbsp;blockchain&nbsp;is&nbsp;a decentralized database which&nbsp;allows&nbsp;everyone on the&nbsp;web&nbsp;to access and view the&nbsp;information.&nbsp;However, in order to&nbsp;modify&nbsp;the&nbsp;information, one needs to log in through the public and private keys to&nbsp;become&nbsp;the ‘owner’ of the&nbsp;data. The information will be&nbsp;updated and synced at all the&nbsp;nodes. </li><li>Its&nbsp;longevity&nbsp;can be&nbsp;recommended&nbsp;by the&nbsp;decentralization&nbsp;as there is&nbsp;no&nbsp;single&nbsp;entity&nbsp;control and&nbsp;no&nbsp;unique point of&nbsp;failure.</li><li>It&nbsp;is transparent and can’t be corrupted as it is public and there is a necessity of computing tendencies to override any information on the network.</li><li>The&nbsp;fact&nbsp;about being decentralized is&nbsp;explained&nbsp;by the&nbsp;usage&nbsp;of&nbsp;the peer-to-peer network&nbsp;where the&nbsp;information&nbsp;is&nbsp;stored&nbsp;at&nbsp;various&nbsp;‘nodes’ and it is next to impossible to trace all.</li><li>About&nbsp;90% of the major European and American banks are already exploring the&nbsp;blockchain&nbsp;technology&nbsp;which shows the&nbsp;utilization&nbsp;of the&nbsp;blockchain&nbsp;on other platforms apart from Bitcoin.</li><li>Although&nbsp;a&nbsp;study&nbsp;by World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council&nbsp;suggests&nbsp;that&nbsp;only 0.025&nbsp;%&nbsp;of the global GDP of around $80 trillion is&nbsp;linked&nbsp;to the&nbsp;blockchain&nbsp;technology, the&nbsp;developments&nbsp;in the&nbsp;technology&nbsp;assure&nbsp;that&nbsp;it will increase significantly over next few decades.</li><li>The&nbsp;blockchain&nbsp;technology&nbsp;is&nbsp;estimated&nbsp;to cut out the&nbsp;concept&nbsp;of middlemen which can ultimately save&nbsp;up to&nbsp;$12 billion US annually.</li><li>Approximately, 69 percent are interested in&nbsp;permission&nbsp;blockchains.</li><li>There&nbsp;are&nbsp;three&nbsp;types&nbsp;of&nbsp;blockchain-&nbsp;Pubic, Private and Consortium.</li></ul>Although the&nbsp;blockchain&nbsp;technology&nbsp;is able to&nbsp;attract&nbsp;many with its economic advantages but still a considerate chunk of the&nbsp;population&nbsp;is untouched and unaware of the&nbsp;theory&nbsp;of&nbsp;cryptocurrencies&nbsp;and&nbsp;blockchain.&nbsp;Keeping in mind the limitation of the technology, many corporate firms like&nbsp;<a href="https://expandedramblings.com/index.php/blockchain-statistics/">IBM</a>&nbsp;and others are investing in the improvements to make the popular technology reachable to everyone.Stay connected&nbsp;for more&nbsp;updates&nbsp;on innovative technology.

Blockchain Technology – Its Benefits and Challenges Everything You Need To Know

Blockchain is stealing the headlines. Literally! Besides Bitcoin as an “in the news” offering, Blockchain applications in various other spheres prove that it is as ground-breaking as was the advent of the internet itself. Predictions by Statista expecting the Blockchain market to soar to $2.3 Bn by 2021 are most likely to come true. Here are some great examples of Blockchain already making an impact across sectors!MedRec&nbsp;– Deloitte forecasts the colossal-scale deployment of Blockchain in Healthcare by 2018 and MedRec is one such initiative. Having tasted project success with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, MedRec is now employing smart contracts to build a decentralized CMS for “Data” crucial to healthcare.This open-source prototype controls the access to medical records. However, the options to audit, interoperability, and share the data still remain open. Medical researchers engage with MedRec and Blockchain plays a vital role in securing the authentication of the login.Maersk –A consortium of Maersk and IBM have built a Blockchain Shipping Solution known as TradeLens. This industry-wide collaboration created a reliable shipping platform to connect 90 organizations. These organizations would benefit from a, comparatively, more secure and efficient global supply chain through the open-standard platform.Through IBM Blockchain technology, shipping lines, shippers, freight forwarders, inland transportation, port and terminal operators, and customs authorities will efficiently interact through real-time shipping data and documents obtained from sensors and IoT. The TradeLens smart contracts let parties digitally collaborate in cross-organizational information exchange across business processes.TransActivGrid –LO3 Energy of Brooklyn has partnered with Siemens in piloting a microgrid project leveraging Blockchain technology. The project allows residents (who have solar panels installed at their homes) with excessive energy to sell it to their neighbors.Residents would get into a Blockchain-enabled peer-to-peer transaction. Estimates are that upwards of 5% electricity generated in the United States is lost during transmission. TransActivGrid thus employs microgrids which enjoy minimal energy loss during the transmission.The capability of Blockchain together with TransActivGrid has supported a green, clean, and reliable energy source. This excess energy is now being utilized by community centers, shelters, and hospitals whenever needed.Followmyvote.com –The Follow my Vote Platform allows checking of the real-time status of the progress of elections. With Follow My Vote, voters can securely and remotely login using a Government ID and a webcam to check for valuable information regarding their precious vote in real-time.The most important advantage of voting through this platform is that voters can even change their votes before the deadline date.This platform leverages&nbsp;<a href="https://darkbears.com/expertise/advanced-computing/blockchain">Blockchain technology</a>&nbsp;to prevent the digital ballot box from getting hacked. This offering has undoubtedly given the voters an opportunity to feel that their vote is imperative for democracy. Follow My Vote is not only reliable and secure; it is quite convenient and cost-effective as well.Govcoin –A Brainchild of a tech-startup from the UK, Govcoin is an attempt to disrupt how the government provides and manages welfare. It implements Blockchain technology for payments. It aims to work exactly like the Jam-jar method, a proven method intended for financial savings.The platform will use this method in the mobile phone environment offering instant benefits to claimants, avoiding any processing delays in payment.Arcade City –This is a decentralized global community web and mobile app that connects customers with drivers through Ethereum Blockchain. The community offers temporary home rentals of short duration and peer-to-peer logistics.Arcade City reshapes the system by exploiting the combined benefits of open-source development, the swarmwise principal, platform cooperativisim, and Blockchain technology. The capabilities of the app allow the user to schedule services and deliveries and call rides. These services can either be availed on-demand or scheduled beforehand. Arcade City is compatible with iOS and Android apps.<blockquote><h2>Also Read:&nbsp;<a href="https://darkbears.com/blog/blockchain-role-iot/">Does Blockchain have a Role in IoT?</a></h2></blockquote>Verisart –An intuitive solution that allows the creation of digital certificates offering Blockchain-enabled security for artwork. Verisart allows binding them securely to provenance.The solution provides a cryptography-secured, tamper-proof certificate that combines the three aspects of security, anonymity, and transparency to the artwork verifiable by a person. Users can avail this facility in two simple steps through a desktop or a mobile device.Blockchain is then used to encrypt and timestamp these records. With this solution, managing and sharing the certificates is quite an effortless task.Verisart’s solution offers the ease of:<ul><li>Documentation with standards as per the demands of museums, galleries, and cultural organizations</li><li>Tagging to let the user add tagging numbers to the generated certificates</li><li>Privacy settings to allow users to keep their crucial information and identity private</li><li>Access where the user can share the certificates of ownership and place of origin.</li></ul>ConclusionThese are only some of the examples among many many more that are already visible. Blockchain use cases now extend across Healthcare, Finance, Energy, Government, Charity, Retail, Transport, Real Estate, Media, and Manufacturing.Blockchain could well fulfill its promise of being a game-changing technology with a transformational impact on our life and world!