Explained: How DLT is Useful for Data Sharing

By Rajat Gaur

On an interview held by The Banker, a subsidiary of the Financial Times, Pēteris Zilgalvis head of the digital innovation and blockchain unit at the European Commission (EC), told that there are benefits of distributed ledger technology (DLT) and he explained the benefits in the interview that was published on 3rd April he also talked about the challenges and benefits the technology has to face.

Zilgalvis says that the normal databases cannot provide the framework which is very powerful for data sharing which is done smoothly by the blockchain.

He also states that according to him, for the situations where there is a need for different stakeholders to collaborate the blockchain provides us with excellent technology. But there are certain legal reasons or competitiveness which keeps them from sharing or they don’t want to share the single database.

He also said that blockchain is not a solution to anything and everything but many such applications have got more efficiency with the use of DLT. The efficiency of applications like regulatory reporting, self-sovereign identities, and document certification has efficiency up to 30% to 80% more than the regular practice.

Data Sharing In a group

The nature of the blockchain is distributed which is very useful in many contexts such as the EU. There is a provider of a way that helps in the coordination of data among member countries without the need of sending it to Brussels or Luxembourg which is a central location.

The rationale that is behind the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure has an aim to bring the services which are public into a pan-European context. There are potential uses of EBSI which involves connecting European banks in terms of their regulatory reporting. An example of such use is the sharing of important data of the client which has been gathered in their anti-money laundering efforts.

Zilgalvis stated that as the banks are reluctant to do so due to various concerns involving the competition and user privacy regulations this is a big challenge for them. He also revealed that efforts are being made by the European blockchain to find issues that have the political aspect rather than technological.

He also revealed that a big challenge in front of them is governance and it is the most important as the use cases which are certainly best for blockchain are where it is not one enterprise or entity but rather many. Efforts are being made that are an improvement of scaling, maintaining privacy and consensus mechanisms.