What Is Block Chain & Role of Records Management Using Blockchain

In today’s ever changing times, it is very essential to ensure the trustworthiness of records and it is indeed a necessary requirement given a range of different contexts.  

This is not only a requirement for companies traditionally in the business of document archives but also for many of those organizations that never though themselves of performing an archival function

Blockchain can be defined as a decentralized & distributed digital ledger where the intended use is to record transactions across computers in a way that the record cannot be altered retroactively without altering subsequent blocks & the collusion of the network.

Today there are a lot of companies in the Financial Domain & others who are experimenting with the distributed ledger. 

The continued enthusiasm amongst these companies is spreading fast and is being closely being reviewed by the traditional record archival companies too.

While there are numerous ways and various software solutions available to protect & verify the authenticity of paper documents (time stamping, water-marking), however they are not reliable.

These many documents in their digital format can be modified in turn making it difficult to trust the veracity of these documents. Blockchain as a technology that can definitely address the above problem to ensure and secure Records and it equally becomes important for records management professionals to understand the technology.

Cassie Findlay of the Recordkeeping Roundtable writes

“A decentralised archive utilising the blockchain as a storage mechanism could offer an uncontested space from which records could be accessed. Documents and other sets of data can be validated by the blockchain – even if an application you used to get it there is not working.

It is decentralized proof which can’t be erased or modified by anyone; competitors, third parties, governments. This is what distinguishes using the blockchain from other forms of data time-stamping and authentication.

The technology potentially offers a means for society – or at least groups within society – to keep their own records with some assurance about inviolability and longevity that was not possible before (Findlay, 2015).”

With the growing interest about blockchain technology as a solution for Records Management, there is an urgent need for professionals in the records management industry to understand the implications of relying on this technology.

Using Blockchain (A Digitial Mechanism) will enable users who don’t know each other to engage in trusted transactions at the same time ensuring integrity of the assets being exchanged.

It accomplishes this by embedding authentication into the document itself & by using a closed loop tracking system to protect against misuse or modification.