Innovation: A Natural Use Case for Blockchain
As a result of blockchain technology, business relationships have gained an easy-to-use, low-cost, and highly secure new platform. This could be a significant step towards simplifying and accelerating the economy since it establishes a new foundation for trust for business transactions.
Blockchain is a “method for storing continuously produced data in the form of blocks linked in chronological order of their validation, each block and its sequence being protected against any modification.”, according to public authorities.
Adding to this definition, it is also essential to point out that the blockchain operates in a decentralized manner without a central authority or control.
- Protects confidentiality and integrity of data
- Certainty on date
- Proof of existence/audibility
Innovation processes are an ideal use case for blockchain. Many innovation-related applications have been identified.
One of the key issues in innovation is to attribute intellectual property to ideas in a way that rewards those who originate them. It must therefore be possible to prove that a given person or organization is the originator of an idea, at a given date. Therefore the primary use case we are interested in concerns the blockchain to trace the evidence of various intellectual property rights such as copyright, know-how, and of course patents.
This guide explains the various categories of blockchain for users to determine the most suitable one for their businesses. The categories are:
– Public blockchain technologies where anyone can participate in the network
– Consortium blockchain technologies where only consortium members can participate, the data is usually limited to consortium members but can be publicly readable
– Private blockchain technologies where one entity controls the network, with a limited number of players. These private blockchains are more suited to product traceability issues than to intellectual property.
Blockchain implementation in innovation must be as transparent and easy for users to understand as possible to be effective. In other words, the user must be able to enter information or files on the blockchain with a few clicks, as innovation is developed.
