Bitcoin has been aroundlong enough to get noticed. It has evolved so much as a currency, considering its volatile nature. Amazon, Target, Namecheap, and Dell accept Bitcoins as payment. Bitcoin has evolved beyond its value both as ane-currency and in its abilityfor instant transfer. The technology and mathematical concepts around it also make it an interesting application for common, everyday problems, such as storingbig data.
Big data is abuzzword for the ever-growing,unstructured nature of data. Many databases are being built to handlelarge-sized data using techniques such as scaling and replication. A common problem in big data is governance '”the ability to verify the authenticity of data and to tell whetherit has been modified. This is very importantfor industrieslike healthcare andfinance, which rely more and more on big data.
The Blockchain as a Datastore
The blockchain is the public ledger of Bitcoin. It holdsall bitcoin transactions and can be viewed by anyone who has access. Each transaction is collected in a block that contains information such asa timestamp,a reference to the parent block, anda SHA-256 hash.
How can this help big data and governance? The following are some of the unique properties that make blockchains ideal for big data:
- To the imagination, the blockchain isunlimited in size, and large data can be saved in hashing, instead of in its original format.
- Different data cannot have same thehash,and thishelpsverify any change in data.
- All the data stored in blockchains comes with atimestamp.
- Transactions in blockchains cannot be changed, which makes tampering of data impossible.
Meet Tierion
Tierion allows you to collect and store big data on theblockchain. It can support any type of unstructured data in the form of JSON,along with preset data names for elements such as phone numbers andemails. It also has aREST API to insert and retrieve data. Tierion provides a blockchain receiptusing a system called chainpointto make sure all the data can be verified by receipts and timestamps.
At the time of this writing, Tierion provides afree account with up to 100 records per month with two data stores. Registering is an easy process of signing up and providing a few details.
Creating Your First Data Store
After you sign up, you are prompted to create a data store. A Tierion data store is similar to any NoSQL data store and does not follow any strict schema. You can store data with any flexible schema using JSON, as with any other NoSQL database. You can also group data sources for easy accessing.
Inserting Your First Data Record
You can insert your data into the blockchain in multiple ways. Tierion provides a simple REST API and easy-to-use web formsby which you can insert records into the data store.
HTML Forms
One of the advantages of having a schemaless design is to collect web data. Tierion gives the necessary form action to insert records directly from regular HTML web forms. You can collect surveys, feedback, or register users to your site directly using any custom web forms.
The data section contains the HTML form code. The form submits the POST action directly to your data store using your unique datastore key.
REST API
The REST API can be used to post data and retrieveit from your data stores. Refer to the REST API docto learn how. You would need to use your API key and your datastore key to insert records intoa particular data source. Find your API key information under the API section.
Analysing the Data
Tierion also provides good external integrationthat lets you integrateit with other apps such as Google spreadsheets. Using this, you can integrate the data to an external source for analysis. You can also use the REST API to build your own connector to Tierion. The "extras" section gives you integration options that are easy to use.
Slingshot
Slingshot is a POST query hookthat you can use to publish your new records and blockchain receipts. If you are running any systemthat needs to return the receipts or process the records, use this.
Zapier
Zapier lets you integrate Tierion to thousands of services, such as Salesforce, Mailchimp, Google Sheets, etc. You can easily export the data to other services and configure triggers for automatic provisioning. You would need a Zapier account. An invite for accessing the integrationcan befound inthe "extras" menu.
Easy Insights
Tierion provides insights on the web through aneasy-to-download and integrate Javascript library. Live insights can be brought into a webpage simply by embedding code. You can access Insights within the "extras" section.
Dozens of services already store data on the blockchain and use its features to address legal signing of documents. Tierion is one such servicethat includes awide range of applications in domainssuch asfinance, healthcare, and legal services.With the blockchain, your big data is no longer big.
via The Let's Talk Bitcoin Network http://ift.tt/1QCfndH
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