Despite the popular belief that blockchain technology is only intended for cryptocurrency transactions and bitcoin earnings, blockchain continues to enter many areas of life: social media, games, healthcare, real estate and more. The technology aims to improve work efficiency, reduce business costs and improve the customer experience.
The blockchain can be explained as a digitized database and belongs to the digital book technology (DLT), which does not involve central data storage or administrative functionality. Why is it an advantage for a company? Decentralization, together with transparency, enables each individual participant to review all recorded data, ensure their security and keep track of important information.
Here are the areas that blockchain has already entered and proved that this technology is worth relying on.
Supply chain management, for example, is a key but vulnerable part of many companies’ workflows. The parties involved in the process often do not interact directly with each other and still apply paper-based methods to collect and store information. Blockchain offers complete paper removal: document management becomes automated, and digital certification is used. More importantly, any authorized member of the supply chain can trace the product from manufacturer to consumer and prevent the spread of counterfeits.
Several US retail giants, which have faced outbreaks of foodborne illness and further food withdrawals, have implemented blockchain technology in their food supply chains. It took about 7 days at least before tracking a product, and these days the origin of a food item can be identified in a matter of seconds.
In this way, blockchain solutions have made the download process faster, more efficient and cost-saving. Meanwhile, customers have also experienced the acceptance of blockchain in their hypermarkets. In Walmart’s Chinese stores, for example, they can scan the QR code and get all the product information: from the location of the farm to the verification certificates.
Healthcare is an area in which blockchain-based solutions have established themselves as an extremely secure and transparent way of keeping electronic health records (EHR). Both doctors and patients are allowed to access the records and use them when needed. At the same time, blockchain solutions are fueled by smart contracts that protect the confidentiality of EHR data. Data from health devices and clinical trials are encrypted, insurance can also be performed and stored. Another use case is the control of the supply chain of medicines and prescription equipment.
E-commerce increasingly requires blockchain technology. Again, the supply chain is crucial here: product monitoring and supply management are often challenging tasks, but the blockchain helps businesses manage their inventory more efficiently. Consumers who entrust their money and data to e-commerce organizations are concerned about data security and transparency, but this problem can be solved by developing a blockchain. Even slight changes in transactions are obvious in the blockchain, and tracking who made a mistake is no longer a problem. It is also possible to make crypto payments.
The next area is actually related to cryptocurrency transactions. DeFi, abbreviated from decentralized financing, not only involves a simple transfer of assets, but also more complex cases of financial use. The implementation of a blockchain contributes to the exclusion of intermediaries and therefore reduces costs. All transactions are encrypted and immutable, multi-stage authentication mechanisms make the system difficult to access for unauthorized members. Among the latest innovations is the opportunity to turn to P2P lending services and digital banking.
Social media also has the potential to be affected by the blockchain. Along with its global popularity and ability to connect people around the world, social media is still vulnerable to account hacking, identity expiration and copyright infringement. To address these issues, the blockchain offers copyright protection, digital identity verification and impartial licensing.
Real estate, e-government, the gaming industry and many more have joined the wave of blockchain adoption. Once your business chooses an innovation, delegate the implementation of the technology to one of the corporate blockchain companies, which will develop a reliable for the future corporate DLT for you. With blockchain, your business will change the rules of the game in your area.