Last year it didn’t look like Amazon would ever venture into the world of blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT), but at AWS re:invent the firm announced its new Quantum Ledger Database (QLDB). QLDB feels like it could be the next big thing in the DLT space, but it’s still remarkably centralized with no plans of becoming decentralized in the near future – how distributed can it be in this case? QLDB is essentially a version of Google Sheet on steroids, but it does have a raft of useful features that you might want to check out.
Immutable Records
Despite the fact QLDB isn’t decentralized, it still offers an immutable ledger that’s cryptographically secured, with all changes are trackable via entries in the ledger itself. This could be great for firms that have been scrutinized in the past for not keeping an accurate balance of accounts or goods in the warehouse – yes Tether, we’re looking at you. In addition to this, accountants could use this feature to prevent the books from being cooked.
Saving Time and Money
Amazon has designed QLDB in a way that it’s quick and easy to implement, meaning firms can save huge amounts of money building their own immutable ledger technology. This could help firms looking to get off the ground in the DLT space, and will give them a better chance at building an MVP in order to excite during the ICO phase.
Analyzing Your Blockchain Trends
One really cool feature of QLDB is the fact that you can import your entire blockchain into it, giving you the freedom to analyze trends and statistics off-chain. You can roam free without the fear of disturbing your ecosystem and gain valuable insight into users – giving you the power to fine tune your blockchain and subsequently offer customers what they really want.
AWS Outages Causing Havoc
Given the fact the same team behind Amazon Web Services (AWS) is working on QLDB, people are right to be fearful. Earlier this week, AWS suffered an outage in South Korea, which caused a number of crypto exchanges to be offline for a short period of time. Similar issues could occur in the new QLDB and disrupt entire industries. Hopefully Amazon has learned its lesson and has backups in place should a system failure occur.
QLDB is essentially a giant ledger whereby you can segment your blockchain analytics and delve into the finer details. This will help give firms a greater insight into their users to create more tailored and specific blockchain applications. This doesn’t mean that Amazon will be accepting Bitcoin anytime soon, but we can all hope.
