​Security and time stamping are intrinsic properties of blockchain technology – helping to reduce fraud, increase transparency and prevent monetary losses. Our Head of Product – Platform, Natasha Boyton-West, explores what these benefits are, how they work and the methods we have built to ensure access to blockchains remain secure.

​​According to a 2024 report by OMFIF, the share of survey participants who are considering adopting DLT and/or blockchain increased by 9% between 2023 and 2024. As attitudes shift and adoption of this technology increases, staying ahead of blockchain-specific cyber threats is more imperative than ever. The first step in safeguarding your organisation’s operations is understanding blockchain security.

​What is blockchain security?
​Security in blockchain focuses on the frameworks and best practices used to prevent cyber attacks and fraud. By design, blockchains are meant to be more secure. Their decentralised nature makes it more difficult to hack or alter data, which in turn, helps to bolster security and limit fraud.

However, blockchain technology can still be exposed to vulnerabilities if not implemented correctly. This is why it’s so crucial that enterprises adopting blockchain security develop a comprehensive plan that encompasses not just the technicalities – they must consider how it will fit into their current infrastructure, if there is a need for employee training and how to identify specific use cases.

​Understanding time stamps in blockchain
​A time stamp is a piece of data that’s stored in each block as a unique serial. Its main function is to determine the moment in which the block has been mined and validated by the network.

Blockchain provides greater transparency as all transactions are immutably recorded and time stamped. Time stamping enables individuals to view the entire history of a transaction and helps to reduce or eradicate any opportunity for fraud. It also gives users a full proof audit log that shows how something has changed over a particular period.

Why do these benefits matter?
​Security is an intrinsic property of blockchain and it is one of its leading benefits. By creating an unalterable record of transactions with end-to-end encryption, blockchain can significantly reduce fraud and unauthorised activity.

​For an organisation, security is not only important for preventing monetary losses, but it can also protect a company’s non-monetary assets, such as the data stored on a blockchain. Time stamps in blockchain offer another layer of security by providing a record that pinpoints when a specific transaction or event occurred, giving an organisation the confidence that it knows if and when something has been tampered with.

How does it work?
​Blockchain resolves security issues and offers greater transparency for businesses in several ways:

  • ​Decentralisation: Blockchain is a decentralised technology, which means that there is no central authority controlling the network. This makes it difficult for hackers to launch a cyber attack, as there is no single point of failure that they can target.
  • Cryptography: Through cryptographic hashing and consensus mechanisms, any alteration of blockchain is easily identified which helps to enable the security of the network. Only those who have the appropriate permissions can access the data.
  • Transparency: While the data on the blockchain is encrypted, the transactions themselves are transparent. This means all network participants can see the transactions taking place on the network. This transparency helps to ensure that all transactions are legitimate and reduces the risk of fraud.
  • Immutability: Once a block is added to the blockchain, it cannot be altered or deleted. This ensures that the data stored on the blockchain is secure and tamper-proof.
  • Smart contracts: Smart contracts are self-executing contracts that are stored on the blockchain. They automate the process of verifying and executing transactions, which reduces the risk of human error and ensures that all transactions are processed accurately and securely.
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How industries benefit from blockchain’s security
​Any industry that handles sensitive or confidential information would benefit from both additional security and the ability to time stamp data. Financial services is an obvious sector that stand to benefit but there are others, including:

  • Supply chain: As each transaction in a supply chain is added as a block in the blockchain, it makes it difficult to counterfeit a transaction. Blockchain leaves a tamper-proof, trustworthy, and sequential audit trail of transactions.
  • Law: Time stamping documentation can help in proving the date of creation and ownership. This is especially beneficial in copyright cases where establishing timelines is essential.
  • ​Insurance: Blockchain time stamping can help in eliminating fraudulent activity by increasing the security of data at the point of origin.

Realising the benefits
​While blockchain technology has the potential to be transformative, it requires specialist knowledge and can also be complex and costly to implement.

At Quant, we understand the challenges associated with blockchain security, which is why we have built and deployed several measures to ensure access to blockchains, both private and public, are appropriately managed and can remain secure.

We have incorporated industry standard security methods across all of our APIs by implementing OAuth2 authentication, providing an additional layer of security to give customers confidence that accessing public and private blockchain timestamped data is simple and secure.

Whether working with us on a project or using our Overledger Platform, we make blockchain simple, trusted, and future-proof.

How Quant can help

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“By creating an unalterable record of transactions with end-to-end encryption, blockchain can significantly reduce fraud and unauthorised activity.”

Natasha Boyton-West
Head of Product - Platform
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