How to ensure Digital Trust in the world of Digitalization?
In a digital world, we are already functioning; those who are not developing and digitising their companies are just trying to catch up. And data-driven technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Intelligent Automation and Cognitive Computing are the main differentiators in this setting. Yet, as systems, computers and algorithms begin to play a greater role in financial institutions’ day-to-day decision-making, many CEOs and managers (not to mention regulators and boards) are beginning to doubt whether they can trust the observations and conclusions that the machines are generating.
Ways to Ensure Digital Trust
A solution is provided through technology. As part of their digital transformation efforts, many companies are now implementing tools-blockchain, cloud, data analytics, artificial intelligence, cyber security applications, the Internet of Things, and more-organizations should automate their value chain processes and remove the guesswork that undermines trust. In short, a digital trust infrastructure (DTI), can be developed that injects security, auditability, immutability, and robust governance into the processes and transactions flowing across their value chains.
DTI
Inside and beyond the pandemic of COVID-19, possible use cases prevail. DTIs may be used by government agencies to better educate and track the dispensation of loans and grants to companies affected by the pandemic. A DTI may be used by an ethically sourced sportswear manufacturer to create a verifiably green supply chain and ensure consumers can trust that the products of the brand comply with their values. A DTI may be used by an agency responsible for obtaining a COVID-19 vaccine, checking its provenance and delivering it to the right locations in the necessary amounts to base decisions on reliable, real-time data.
Blockchain
The cornerstone of a digital trust infrastructure is the blockchain. A blockchain is made up of “blocks” of data, each of which is assigned a unique digital identity, a distributed ledger accessed by several users over a peer-to-peer computer network. Each block is based on the one that preceded it and must be checked before it is posted by a majority of users, after which it can not be modified. This provides a trail that is highly transparent and auditable that allows all users to trust the record it generates. In short, it provides the elusive “single view of the truth” that organisations have long prized, and removes the need for knowledge to be constantly revisited and re-verified.
Internet of Things
But blockchain alone does not build a digital trust system that is enough to provide organisations with the speed, insight and versatility they need. To recognise and monitor physical products and components, such as tracking and tracing a serialised drug at the unit or pallet level from the point of commissioning to the point of dispensation, sensors and readers associated with Internet of Things technology are needed. Sophisticated data analytics, enabled by machine learning and other types of artificial intelligence, are needed to draw faster and better insights from the information reported on a blockchain in order to provide an aggregated view of all market inventory. For instance, to schedule supply and manufacturing to avoid shortages. And operating in a cloud computing environment may promote participation in a digital trust infrastructure built as a transparent, brand-agnostic ecosystem for all participants in the value chain, including retailers, suppliers and, in some cases, end users.
Digital Trust in the era of IoT
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