CompTIA has released a new educational infographic on blockchain that dispels myths and misunderstandings about a technology that has the potential to transform the way businesses and industries operate.

CompTIA’s Blockchain Advisory Council has identified seven popular myths about blockchain and analyzed the truth behind each one. Among the council’s conclusions: blockchain isn’t bitcoin; it’s cost-effective and efficient (not costly and cumbersome); and enterprises of all sizes can implement solutions leveraging the technology.

Click on the image below to see CompTIA's Blockchain resource.

“As blockchain and distributed ledger technologies mature, business leaders will need to understand the basics of what it is and dispel the myths of what it isn’t,” said Jason Sfaelos, director, strategic business development, blockchain and neural data systems for Equinix, and vice chair of the CompTIA Blockchain Advisory Council.

“Over time we may see blockchain functions and their inherent value move behind the scenes becoming application enablers,” he added. “Even then, a business should understand blockchain’s role as part of a given application, which in turn is integrated within their enterprise IT landscape. This is similar to today’s environment as businesses strive to efficiently integrate hybrid multi-cloud environments into a cohesive landscape.”

7 Myths About Blockchain—Busted is the latest in a selection of free educational materials on the technology available from CompTIA and its Blockchain Advisory Council. Other resources include:

• Blockchain Terminology: A Glossary for Beginners, a comprehensive list of blockchain technology terms—from address to zeppelin.
• Blockchain Decision Tree visually guides users down a number of paths to help determine if blockchain—or another solution—would work best.
• When is Blockchain or Another Database the Right Choice is a companion guide to help in decision making.
• Top 5 Accelerators and Barriers to Blockchain Adoption examines some of the factors that are accelerating – or delaying – broader use of the technology.
• Blockchain: Concept to Implementation, part of the CompTIA Learning Series of instructional videos, will help IT professionals, project managers and business advisors build their foundational understanding of blockchain.

Quick Bio

Name: Joseph Bradley

Position: Vice President & Global Head, IoT Services

Company: Cisco Systems

Top Priority: “From our standpoint at Cisco, it starts with connecting dark assets,” he says. “That’s by far one of our biggest core elements.”

SCN: How did your early professional experiences lead you to your current position at Cisco?

Joseph Bradley: The thing that helped me get to where I am with Cisco is not about technology—it’s about people. The first role I had at Pacific Bell was in an advanced management program, and I’ll never forget it. One day the CEO came in and he says to me, “I know you’re good, no doubt—look at your resume,” but then he opened up the blinds behind him, there was this huge center, all these employees. He said, “The issue isn’t whether you’re good. It’s can you make those who are behind you good? Can you make them better—can you make them great?” I got a lot of experience from managing folks at that tech center, from managing folks in customer-facing roles, to managing staff, people in finance, operations, really learning how to connect with and motivate people.

Combine that with a strong curiosity to pick up and learn new technologies. Education isn’t about the fact that you learned; it’s about the act of learning. What do you do each and every day to improve your knowledge? I learned very early on that if you’re going to be great at something, you better know who the best in the world are, and learn to listen to them. Most people wake up every day and they turn the news and go about what they do. If you ask someone in tech, or whatever field they’re in, who are the top people in their field, they don’t know. If you want to be the best, if you want to continue to learn, you have to identify and learn from those best people, whether inside or outside your organization. You have to have a formalized way of doing that. So from Pacific Bell to C3 Communications and then back to Cisco, where I had the opportunity to do things at a larger scale, then back to the startup world at a bigger scale with Uptake, then back to Cisco—in each of those cases, connecting with and motivating people, stressing creativity for the art of the possible, and having formalized listening infrastructure were key for my success.

SCN: What are some things that have made your approach to innovation successful?

JB: People make a common mistake—they think innovation is invention. I always tell folks, innovation is invention plus execution. You have to have both to be successful. The funny thing about the two, though, is you can go get inventions. There’s already a lot of stuff that’s been done, that is sitting around, but they haven’t been able to execute it. Whether it’s MySpace to FaceBook, or it was Borders coming up with digital books and selling it to Amazon. Ideation is everywhere. The hardest part is that execution point. I run emerging technologies and IoT [Internet of Things] for Cisco, and I always tell my team we want to be able to see the value first, say it best, and make it count. Meaning you don’t have to know it first, but you have to be the first one that sees value in it. Then you have to be able to articulate that value, you have to get people around you to be motivated with the power of our suggestion, you have to get buy-in. You have to make it count. At the end of the day, you have to bring it to market and get some success.

SCN: That human element seems to be a big part of your work. How does it impact your thinking about IoT?

JB: It requires us to take a step back to understand how is value realized in any IT or technology deployment. Value is realized when you have something that’s valuable, so you identify the act, but it’s multiplied times its adoption. Value times adoption equals the impact of the technology you’re trying to drive. The people element is hugely important in terms of how can you make the technology work without them knowing it even exists. How can you implement things without changing their workflow? If you change workflow, it becomes increasingly hard to execute adoption. Think about Dropbox. Before, you had to load a separate client on your machine: “Oh my god, nobody’s storing in the cloud.” As soon as you say, “All I’ve got to do is do like I regularly do: click file, click save.” Boom! Everybody’s storing stuff in the cloud. The human element around technology is really understanding that value is realized when a person does something that they would not have normally done. They adopt your recommendation, and if it’s not adopted, then there’s no value.

I call myself a digital humanist. I fundamentally believe that value is created not by replacing the human spirit, but by augmenting it. If you think about the power we have and the complexity of the human mind, the ability for us to be creative and see things that we didn’t know existed to begin with, whether you’re talking about art or science or politics, the power of the human mind and creativity and ingenuity is unsurpassed. You see that in our ability to adopt. I think of it as an Iron Man suit. Technology is not going to replace you, but it’s going to make you smarter, faster, be able to do things you never thought before. When you put on an Iron Man suit, now I’m one times 50. That’s the power of what IoT and technology can make happen.

That’s the biggest challenge—if you don’t understand or value the people element. If you think about IoT, all you have to do is keep asking yourself, “Where is value created?” You will see that value isn’t created when you connect the physical thing, it’s not when you capture the data, it’s not when you take analytics and you change process. it’s only when you connect to people and they do something they would not have normally done, they change or make a decision differently, that’s where value is created.

SCN: How do you see the role of blockchain in IoT growing over the next few years?

JB: It’s not about securing things anymore. Security isn’t enough; you have to talk about trust. The assumption behind whether or not I secure something, my assumption is it is valuable, that’s why I want to secure it from a digital standpoint. Why do you believe it’s valuable? I believe data information is valuable because it’s correct. How do you know it’s correct? Well, you don’t. Enter blockchain.

Blockchain technologies, from an IoT standpoint, will be used to ensure data integrity. If insight is a currency of the 21st century, then you damn sure better make sure the source of that insight is correct. Blockchain gives you an ability to be able to do so. To me, that is where you’re going to see the value of blockchain really take off and be used, around establishing data integrity, ensuring that the data element I’m using has that the data as it moves from point to point to point, has not been changed or altered in any way.

SCN: What are some lessons you’ve learned that have had an impact on your career?

JB: One is to forget failing fast and slow, that’s a bunch of crap. Failing fast is having to tell someone every quarter, “You missed your numbers so we’re going to have to lay you off.” Failing slow is having that conversation every year. Both of them suck! What you want to do is improve your rate of learning. That’s number one. Focus on improving your rate of learning.

Number two: All things are important, but they are not equal. It’s very important to understand the importance and prioritize in the moment. As an example, most people talk about shareholder value, then they talk about the customers, then maybe they’ll talk about employees. You have to reverse the corporate value flow in the age of digital age. Value increases exponentially as data and decision-making moves closer and closer to the customer. So, the order of priority is employees first, they then take care of your customers, and as an output, you drive good financials. You can’t manage financials as an input. Financials is an output, it’s a result of ensuring my employees understand what I’m asking, give them the tools of success, and they then have to be trusted to proper decision making to drive value to the customer. If I’m successful at that, then I win the championship, and then it shows up on the financial side.

The third thing: Diversity is not enough. As a leader, it’s not enough that you simply have a diverse workforce. Having 10 people in a room and saying they’re diverse is great. But there’s no value created unless they have a voice, unless there is a level of high inclusion. Putting 10 people in a room and not listening to anybody and having one person talk all the time, that’s not an inclusive environment. Diversity is the potential to create value. The realization of value happens through full participation of that employee base. When you actually hear and listen, and you understand and you engage those ideas, that’s where value is created.

In its Q1 2018 Skills Index, Upwork reported that blockchain is its fastest growing skill (out of more than 5,000 skills). Intel forecasts that there will be more than 20 billion connected devices by 2020.

With its potential to create a common standard for secure AVoIP and IoT solutions, it's time for integrators, consultants, and end users to get hip to the blockchain movement.

I spoke with the team at BusinessStudent.com and they put together a list of courses that can help you better understand the technology.

1. Cryptoeconomics 101: Introduces you to the major principles that give blockchain its value. Focuses on core topics in cryptography and economics, and how they work together to creative systems of incentives for blockchain.
2. Blockchain 101 Intro – Non-Technical: This is an introductory course to blockchain technology. It will show you how transactions are stored in blockchain, how mining works via consensus, and the difference between permissioned and permissionless blockchain.
3. Build a Decentralized Blockchain App: This introductory course will teach you how to build a decentralized blockchain app with Ethereum.
4. Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies: This is an introductory course from Coursera that will teach you how Bitcoin works, how secure Bitcoin is, and how anonymous Bitcoin users are.
5. Blockchain Application Development for Microsoft .NET: This class teaches how to develop a decentralized application for blockchain on Microsoft Windows using Visual Studio or Visual Studio Code.

Want to learn more about Blockchain?

Click here to view our Blockchain Need to Know Series.

One of the biggest challenges marketers face today is customer acquisition and retention. The key to both acquiring new customers and retaining current customers is possessing the critical data that can help you, one, communicate effectively with the highest qualified contact possible and, two, further identify the needs of your current customers to foster long-term loyalty.

Unfortunately, today’s data industry is both far too complicated and highly fragmented, offering a confusing glut of choices that are overwhelming marketers, who are in desperate need of this mission-critical information. The existing data marketing ecosystem of data and direct marketing list owners, managers, and brokers is wildly inefficient and often ineffective, costing businesses untold millions in unnecessary time and money, and untold more in opportunity loss.

Even so, given the fundamental truth that data is the backbone of both digital advertising and marketing and traditional direct marketing, marketers have struggled along with what the market has been able to provide, for better or for worse. Global advertising revenue for 2017 was $591 billion with $209 billion of it dedicated to digital advertising. A conundrum as effective data sources are becoming even rarer as the need for—and actual dependency on—data becomes more essential. The escalating demand for big data sources that provide quality and complete data has skyrocketed in today’s digital age.

It’s the fundamental big data sources that have been the very crux of the problem for marketers. Today, an individual, entity, or brand looking to acquire a specific data set will have to spend extensive time and resources locating sources that meet its target audience, negotiate costs, and establish privacy standards for the transferring of the data. This leads to a decrease in quality and data record duplication. These three challenges not only make it extremely cost prohibitive to identify and acquire the various parameters required to compile the exact dataset that is needed but, for small and medium sized businesses, it creates a barrier to enter the data marketplace.

As problematic, attempting to generate revenue today from existing datasets brings its own unique set of challenges. The first is the time and money it takes to create data cards and collateral for the data owner to monetize. At the same time, they need to identify the right organization or marketplace with the widest reach—one that represents the highest demand for their data. The second major challenge is integrity and accountability. Data owners do not trust outside organizations to properly store, manage, and monetize their data. The last major concern surrounds the security of the storage environment. Data abuse and lack of transparency in the revenue share business model are underlying fears that will ultimately prevent a list owner from making his/her unique data set available for purchase.

So with all of the problems running rampant in the big data industry, what is needed to put this key facet on course? Below are five reasons why merging big data, artificial intelligence, and blockchain technology will revolutionize data-driven marketing worldwide, across all industries:

1. Empowerment. A blockchain-based system empowers data source providers to monetize their data and better capitalize demand, allowing data source providers to access the large global marketplace. In the same way that eBay provides a marketplace for vendors of physical products, a blockchain-based digital marketplace can create growth potential for data source providers of all sizes, while also reducing barriers to entry into the industry.
2. Transparency. A blockchain approach provides data providers with full transparency, traceability, and auditability, overcoming many of the hurdles data providers currently face in the existing marketplace. Anyone who has operated in the big data space knows that duplicate data, false data, and questionable sourcing are unfortunate industry truths. However, a blockchain-based approach provides complete transparency, allowing buyers to see where the data has been and where it came from prior to purchasing.
3. Confidence. A more transparent vetting and grading system for data will improve confidence building between the end user and data sources. Currently, most data purchases are practically blind transactions, whereby buyers won’t really know what kind of data they’re receiving until they actually buy it, because no vendor would ever reveal the data prior to money changing hands. Once you have the data, it’s then up to you to determine its quality but by then the money has been spent. Rather than this archaic process leaving much to be desired, having a three-party scoring system improves quality and increases trust in the marketplace, facilitating more transactions and leading to overall higher levels of confidence in the industry as a whole. Giving businesses and consumers quality and verified data that’s vetted and scored externally allows for the reduction, if not elimination, of false or outdated data—a significant problem currently plaguing the industry.
4. Simplification. By simplifying and aggregating world data transactions into a single point of sale, the result will be an “Amazon” like marketplace, where economies of scale and data aggregation will facilitate a smoother, cleaner, and simply better checkout process, creating more data trade worldwide. Giving end users a simplified, easy-to-use and robust interface with a quick and secure payment system between the business or individual and data sources is a requisite means toward this end.
5. Artificial Intelligence. “Smart Indexing” engines are now utilizing predictive analytics (a type of artificial intelligence using data analysis and machine learning) for “Confidence Scoring” to provide continual real-time accurate data. Based on immediate business conditions, this will allow for record sets that can be a single individual that matches all parameters or millions of records that match desired parameters.

Ultimately, democratizing big data levels the data playing field by providing the most comprehensive marketing data solution to all businesses and individuals. It will provide a robust interface between the business or individual and the data sources. The backend systems will ensure full confidence in data quality for the end user as well as transactional finality for the data providers.

Blockchain is here to stay. But how can you make a career out of it?

I talked to the team at BusinessStudent.com and they told me where they'd hedge their bets for the The Best Blockchain Careers for the Future. Here's their picks for the top five:

1. Blockchain Developer: This is currently the most in-demand job in the industry. Companies across all industries want to develop blockchain platforms to optimize business processes but those programs must be created by developers.
2. Blockchain Engineer: Last year there were 14 jobs for every one blockchain developer or engineer. Engineers are required to study the technology needs of the companies they work for and create the applications that meet blockchain business needs.
3. Blockchain Legal Consultant or Attorney: Lawyers are already overloaded with calls from clients seeking legal advice on how to structure and govern ICOs, and how to launch their blockchain projects. The billable hours will be limitless in the years to come
4. Blockchain Project Manager: Companies that work with an outside blockchain development firm will need an in-house project manager to be a liaison between the company’s business needs and the technology jargon. An MBA in project management will pop on a resume.
5. Blockchain Designer: With all of the new blockchain startups and businesses that want to use cryptocurrency, there will be more need for websites and pages to inform customers, clients and platforms of what the company offers in the blockchain space.

Want to learn more about Blockchain?

Click here to view our Blockchain Need to Know Series.

Editor’s Note: Welcome to NewBay’s inaugural edition of Need to Know, where we explain complex topics and how they apply to each industry we serve, on our websites and in our magazines. Keep coming back for future topics, to include 5G, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and more.

We often think of blockchain vis-à-vis Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, but this shared ledger technology also carries disruptive potential for audiovisual (AV) applications such as AV-over-IP, the Internet of Things (IoT), and installations where all AV assets are purely digital

See our full Need to Know for more facts about blockchain.

The promise of IoT is that machine-to-machine communication can be programmed and streamlined, and connected devices can be automated. IoT devices can also be programmed to send, receive, and record data. For example, on a connected university or enterprise campus, an IoT system could link network-connected digital signage, smart lighting, HVAC, occupancy sensors, laser projectors, motorized screens, and huddle space technologies. The data harnessed by this IoT system can be a valuable tool to better understand AV usage and design efficacy. An installer or tech manager, armed with insights gleaned from her IoT, can make cogent RFPs or capital requests for AV. IoT can also help economize logistics by distributing data to displays in real-time.

Intel forecasts that there will be more than 20 billion connected devices by 2020, so it’s safe bet that, going forward, there will be more IoT/AV integrations, not less.

But, where the IoT offers advantages for AV applications, there are also threats. One of the most notable issues with IoT is security: one bad actor can compromise the entire chain. If even one smart lightbulb gets targeted in a vulnerable system, perhaps via botnet attack, it could bring the entire system down. Or a device itself can go rogue. Many experts see security as the biggest impediment to widespread adoption of IoT technologies. Enter blockchain, the decentralized method of protecting data with its built-in, adaptable safeguards. If digital information is the heart of the new AV over IP system, and blockchain protects the integrity of digital systems, perhaps blockchain can be the missing link to reliable security.

Phil Hippensteel, PhD, instructor of information systems at Penn State Harrisburg, said that for securing AV content, "I think we need something [like blockchain]. Each AV vendor seems to have their own vision about the best way to accomplish anything. If blockchain is a common method to store transactional data, and it can be made to work, then I think it would be extremely useful.”

The process has already begun: Samsung and IBM are using blockchain to create a better solution for IoT management. Who will be next?

See our full Need to Know for more facts about blockchain.

Need to Know More?

Have a burning question about blockchain — or maybe request for a different topic you’d like to see us tackle? Email us at needtoknow@nbmedia.com and we’ll put our top minds on it!

Need to Know Blockchain: Other Industries:

• Blockchain and Media [Multichannel News]
• Blockchain and Video Production [Creative Planet Network]
• Blockchain and Television [TV Technology]
• Blockchain and Radio [Radio World]
• Blockchain as a Platform [Sound & Video Contractor]
• Blockchain and Residential Integration [Residential Systems]
• Blockchain and Pro Audio [Pro Sound News]
• Blockchain and Retail [TWICE]
• Blockchain and Education [Tech & Learning]