As an important resource, data has received increasing attention. In the process of data resource development and utilisation, sharing is always a difficult problem: the government is restrained and worried about leaking secrets; individuals also have concerns and fear that their privacy will be exposed; companies are even tightly shutting the gates. However, modern trade has greatly promoted global production and consumption and promoted the rapid development of the economy and society. Data also needs to flow to reflect value and play a role. Data without circulation has little impact – effectively just a bunch of numbers. Just as the driving force of economic activity is value realisation, as equally valuable data, it needs to have an equivalent value flow in the flow process. This is exactly what the traditional big data industry tends to overlook, and it has also prevented the big data industry from developing well. The blockchain with the digital cryptocurrency gene is born for value and has the ability to make up for the shortboard of big data value circulation. Only big data that fully realises value can truly have a future!
In the era of big data, all walks of life are actively using data thinking to transform and innovate. The production model, delivery method, life experience, and management decision-making capabilities of the entire society are evolving to “data socialisation”. Data can be used equally by all levels of society, breaking physical boundaries, and permeating every corner of social life. In turn, it drives the realisation of ecological interaction between the virtual world and the real society, so that social resources can be reintegrated, shared, and used on the same platform and ultimately realise all social application values.
Therefore, the new economic model in the future will centre on the information economy, knowledge economy, and smart economy. All of these need to be based on socialised big data, fully integrated and sublimate to conditions, and operated on the commercialisation of big data resources. And paid use as a sign. Only by making big data an effective resource, guided by economic laws and serving the economy and society, can the full use of big data at a higher level be truly realised and the foundation of a data society can be truly laid.
The most attractive part of big data lies in the “data externality”, that is, the same set of data can produce different values and utility in different dimensions, and it will also exert different utilities to different users. Therefore, as the dimensions of use increase, the energy and value of data will be magnified. At the same time, data can be “replicated” at a very low marginal cost, which is inherently surplus, so it can be reused to a greater extent across time and space, thereby forming greater social utility.
In the Internet age, the most famous network effect evaluation method is Metcalfe’s law. The law states that the value of an Internet is proportional to the square of the number of nodes, and a key assumption is that the relationship between these nodes is of equal value. This law has also become the cornerstone of the Internet economy.
So, what is the cornerstone of the data economy? Data circulation can bring great value. The data circulation here includes not only the transaction and exchange of data but also the openness and sharing of data. The smooth flow of data will effectively lower the threshold for innovation, drive the development of emerging industries, such as the mobile Internet, big data, and data services, and become the engine of the data economy. In the context of the rise of big data as a national strategy, the development of data circulation has even more opportunities for market and policy.
In the past few years, blockchain may be the most important development in the IT field. It has the potential to change the way the world approaches big data and enhance security and data quality. For example, on a blockchain supply chain financial service platform, central enterprises, suppliers, and banks are all involved. Central enterprises and financial institutions can intuitively observe various real-time business data of suppliers through the system to provide a basis for future market forecasts.
Furthermore, with the development of business, a large number of data increases. If combined with big data technology, the system will be given huge computing and analysis capabilities. At this time, central enterprises, banks, etc. can directly gain insight into market trends through data. The possible changes brought by the combination of blockchain and big data are as follows: improve data quality through the structured collection of data; improve data security through distributed networks; protect data privacy and simplify data access through cryptography; and algorithm verification to prevent fraudulent activities and achieve reliable real-time data insights.
From the current development of blockchain and big data, we are likely to see further development in this field. As the blockchain technology matures, we may see its innovations in various industries and innovations in business models.
The book consists of seven parts:
This Preface introduces the background and the structure of the book, including the current state of the big data economy and the value interconnectedness of blockchain technology.
Chapter 1 presents big data technology, including the history of big data and the key technologies of big data.
Chapter 2 provides an introduction and interpretation of blockchain technology, starting with Bitcoin, including some basic concepts of blockchain technology as well as the history of its development and key technologies.
Chapter 3 talks about the symbiotic evolution of the two technologies, big data and blockchain, and how the two technologies intersect and develop. It also explains the similarities and differences between the two technologies.
Chapter 4 focuses on some of the advantages and possible challenges of combining blockchain technology and big data technology.
Chapter 5 addresses some possible application scenarios of the two technologies in real life and some scenarios that have already been grounded.
In Chapter 6, we discuss the possible future direction of the combination of the two technologies.