Blockchain technology will go down in history as the technological breakthrough that forms the basis for cryptocurrencies, but the technology has emerged as a highly effective one with different uses across industries. Due to decentralization, transparency, and immutability, it can be employed effectively to improve the level of confidence, security and optimization in many business transactions. In this article, there are various examples discussed to explain the impact of the blockchain technology other than digital currencies and such examples make people realize how this technology can revolutionize business domains.
Among all, supply chain management is one of the most progressive fields that can benefit from blockchain. Most supply chain management systems have a major problem or even deficiency in terms of traceability and transparency for restoring supply chains after frauds and other mala profitos have taken place. Blockchain helps to solve these problems by creating a structuralized, immutable database that stores every transaction that connects to the supply chain process.
For example, giants such as IBM and Walmart are using blockchain to monitor the food produce from producers to consumers. They can track the background of the products, ensure the suppliers’ identity, and instantly determine a delivery that is at the center of food poisoning outbreaks when using blockchain. Beyond this, it will be effective in increasing consumers’ confidence in the products they are buying in the market as well as increasing accountability on the side of the businesses.
Storing or sharing patient data in the healthcare sector is one of the most promising application of block chain technologies among several fields. In reference to the current systems, what we have are isolated databases usually hard to access and are even vulnerable to hacking. Blockchain technology
presents a safer, more integrated approach as the patients’ records are owned by the patients while at the same time, the healthcare givers are in a position to access the most reliable data.
For instance, MedRec is a project that was developed by researchers at MIT and employs the use of blockchain technology in management of records in the health sector. This enables the patient to provide access to his or her records selectively so as guarantee privacy and at the same time increase efficiency of treatment. Also, by decoding the process of drug distribution, blockchain minimizes the threat of fake drugs by checking the product’s legitimacy at each point in the supply cycle.
Cryptocurrencies may be the best-known example of applying blockchain in finance, but the technology is much more promising for the financial sector. Blockchain have great potential to increase speed and decrease cost and risk where such transaction occur.
Smart contract, digital contracts which automatically execute based on the details of the agreement are considered the big advancement in this sphere. They can facilitate direct transactions with the use of an intermediary, hence causing a decrease in the transaction time base on the costs. There are organizations like Chainlink that are building the interfaces that enable smart contracts to interface with external data, which augment their uses in finance and otherwise.
Additionally, blockchain also makes cross border payments possible and these are usually time consuming and costly. In particular, Ripple, based on a distributed database and supporting fast cross-border payments for banks and other financial institutions, is already actively used to perform almost instant payments at lower cost to access the global markets.
The real estate business involves long procedures, enormous paperwork, and most of the time, there is unclear information. Blockchain can faster up the transactions, minimize the probabilities of fraudulent activities and increase the trust of the stakeholders. In case transactions of properties are conducted through a blockchain platform, all the parties gain a transparent and secure ledger which helps to avoid title challenges.
Also, through tokenization, the utilization of blockchain will allow for fractional ownership of physical assets such as real estates. This process enable more than one investor to have ownership of shares of a particular property hence enhancing the liquidity position and access to real estates. Companies such as Propy are already using blockchain for international real estate transactions so that they can make them easier and cheaper.
Intellectual property (IP) is particularly a hard asset to safeguard due to the current generation’s advancement in information sharing technologies. Blockchain can offer a reliable approach because the authors can register their works in the blockchain, providing that they own the copyright to such works.
It shall also allow artists, musicians, and writers to timestamp their creations on the blockchain, which help them assert their rights much easier. Companies like Myco are looking into blockchain mechanisms that would create a pathway for copyrights in identifying compensation for their efforts.
Blockchain is not only the technology connected to cryptocurrencies anymore but a revolution that can redefine many sectors. In logistics, pharmaceutics and any demanding supply chain management, healthcare, financing, real estate, voting, and even protecting intellectual property rights, blockchain provides definitive solutions to traditional problems. Since more companies start realizing its potential for them, more businesses will implement it and thus introducing new ideas to maximize the effectiveness of blockchain for the benefit of gaining the trust of stakeholders in the future. By adopting this technology, it can be seen that the uncertainty component gives organisations the competitive advantage over other players thus placing blockchain at the centre of business in the future.
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