Google Using Big Data to Make Blockchains Searchable

Amazon and Microsoft have already made it big in the blockchain development arena providing the developers with high-end capabilities along with the largest global infrastructure for developing end-to-end blockchain platforms. However, another well-known name in technology, Google, lagged somewhere behind in this regard.

That said, it’s not the case anymore as Google takes up with the trend adding up more and more advanced data and search algorithms to its kitty. And thus it combines the two in the form of big data development and blockchains to realize the idea of searchable blockchains. Let’s help you with some deeper insights into this.

Let’s know Blockchain, a bit better…

The first step to knowing blockchain better is to revise our understanding of the same.

You can refer to it as a transparent and verifiable system that aims to transform the exchange of values and assets while enforcing contracts, and sharing the data. In other words, technology is a shared, secured ledger of distributed transactions spread over a network.

The blockchain is a sequence of blocks, each containing information and is connected to the next block via the pointer.

Two most important aspects of blockchain technology include:

• Decentralization
• Immutability

Some of the industries that form an exciting area of opportunity for blockchains include:

• Financial services
• Government
• Healthcare
• Identity
• Internet of Things
• Insurance
• Music and real estate
• Supply chain
• Contracts

Various Types of Blockchain Systems/ Solutions

Categories of blockchain systems/olutions include the following:

1. Permissionless Blockchain

Blockchain networks that offer public access to the information are termed as permissionless blockchain. Thus, anyone who is a part of the network can initiate network interaction and verify transactions anonymously. Bitcoin and Ethereum are some of the well-known examples of such types.

2. Permission Blockchain

As the name suggests, these are blockchain networks confined within an ecosystem. Transactions within such networks adhere to a specific set of rules that define the flow (for e.g., for database management, for auditing, etc.). Multichain are categorized under permission blockchain. The systems are more driven towards the delivery of efficient and data-driven business models.

They enable the following core functionalities:

• Automated data synchronization
• Immutability
• Ability to deal with permissions
• Process automation
• Stringent privacy
• Security features

Google’s Endeavor to Make Blockchains Searchable

The endeavor to make blockchains searchable takes up a big data approach. The project was pursued as a part of Blockchain ETL (Extract, Transform, Load). According to Allen Dey, who works as Senior Developer for Google Cloud advocates that customer demands initiate even before the product’s launch. He also added that he envisions turning blockchain into accessible entities for the users. Thus, for that reason, he started feeding the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains into BigQuery (Google’s Big Data Platform).

This was followed by developing dedicated software tools to explore the data.

Data-Driven Search Algorithm

As the news spread like wildfire among the crypto-coders, it has already added 500 projects under its suite. The functions extend by predicting bitcoin price to the difference in wealth among the Ether wallets. The results obtained from this stage serve as robust use cases for implementing blockchain search engines. Allen also advocates the presence of crypto-currency bots to stimulate wash-trading. He supported his statement by adding.

“In the future, moving more economic activities into the chain does not only require a unified level of trust. It requires having some confidence in knowing about who you really are in contact with.”

Knowledge Leads the Show

In the beginning, undertaking to make blockchain searchable was majorly lead by block-explorers. They are assigned with the responsibility to enable data recovery on a known individual transaction number. Additionally, it is supported by the Blockchain ETL that allows general search on the entire blockchain.

Sun team played a huge role here by adding up Litecoin, Zcash, Dash, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum Classic, and Dogecoin to BigQuery, following Bitcoin and Ethereum. This was followed by Wietse Wind, a Dutch developer, who augmented the database with expansive Ripple Blockchain. The data, in this case, was enriched by a Danish designer who unleashed the transaction flow, to the individual wallet.

It was followed by a close analysis of the poor fork of 2017 that lead to the creation of Bitcoin cash blockchain. The inference here clearly stated that rather than increasing the number of micro-transactions, a major part of the money was placed in the large holders.

This is how he explained the concept:

“I’m interested in counting what’s going on to see where legitimate use cases are for the blockchain. Then we can move to the next use case and develop what technologies it is really suitable for.”

Google believes that the range of software tools to enable blockchain search engines will definitely help them to fill in the gap in the blockchain realm.

Featured image source: Freepik