Blockchain is a buzz word everywhere in the past 5 years and is generating exuberant enthusiasm among global enterprises and public bodies. New initiatives and cooperation agreements on blockchain is being announced in the news on a nearly daily basis. This technology is changing the world in the same way as ‘Internet’, reshaping practically any data-based industry and changing many systems that encounter in our day-today life.
As the global investments in blockchain solutions start to yield results in the way of innovative blockchain-enabled products and services, we continue to see the practical applications of the technology exponentially expand.
The Growing List of Applications and Use Cases Of Blockchain Technology
Blockchain in Banking & Finance
Efficient and Secure Payments
Blockchain provides more secure and efficient way that create a tamper-proof log of sensitive activity. This makes it excellent for international payments and money transfers.
Lower Cost and Less Intermediaries
By automating the entire transaction process on blockchain could reduce the number of intermediaries typically required, making the process more efficient. Blockchain technology can be used to decrease the cost of these transfers by reducing the need for banks to manually settle transactions and fees paid to intermediaries.
Capital Markets
Blockchain-based systems also have the potential to improve capital markets, including:
• Faster clearing and settlement
• Consolidated audit trail
• Operational improvements
Trade Finance
Blockchain has the ability to streamline trade finance deals and simplify the process across borders. It enables enterprises to more easily transact with each other beyond regional or geographic boundaries.
Regulatory Compliance and Audit
The extremely secure nature of blockchain makes it rather useful for accounting and auditing because it significantly decreases the possibility of human error and ensures the integrity of the records. On top of this, no one can alter the account records once they are locked in using blockchain tech, not even the record owners.
Money Laundering Protection
The encryption that is so integral to blockchain makes it exceedingly helpful in combating money laundering. The underlying technology empowers record keeping, which supports "Know Your Customer (KYC)," the process through which a business identifies and verifies the identities of its clients.
Insurance
The greatest blockchain application for insurance is through smart contracts. These contracts allow customers and insurers to manage claims in a transparent and secure manner. All contracts and claims can be recorded on the blockchain and validated by the network, which would eliminate invalid claims, since the blockchain would reject multiple claims on the same accident.
Blockchain in Supply Chain Management
Blockchain is widely used in real-time tracking of goods as they move and change hands throughout the supply chain. Entries on a blockchain can be used to alocate goods, provides a new and dynamic means of organizing tracking data and putting it to use.
Blockchain in Healthcare
Health data and medical history data like immunization history or vital signs of specifically identify patient, in which allows it to be stored on a shared blockchain that could be accessed by numerous individuals without undue privacy concerns.
As specialized connected medical devices become more common and increasingly linked to a person's health record, blockchain can connect those devices with that record. Devices will be able to store the data generated on a healthcare blockchain and append it to personal medical records.
Blockchain in Real Estate
Blockchain would expedite home sales by quickly verifying finances, reduce fraud thanks to its encryption, and offer transparency throughout the entire selling and purchasing process.
Blockchain in Media
Media companies have already started to adopt blockchain technology to eliminate fraud, reduce costs, and even protect Intellectual Property (IP) rights of content – like music records. According to MarketWatch, the global market for blockchain in media and entertainment is estimated to reach $1.54 billion by 2024.
Blockchain in Energy
Blockchain technology is used to execute energy supply transactions, provide the basis for metering, billing, and clearing processes. Other potential applications include documenting ownership, asset management, origin guarantees, emission allowances, and renewable energy certificates.
Blockchain Applications in Government
Record Management
National, state, and local governments are responsible for maintaining individuals' records such as birth and death dates, marital status, or property transfers. Blockchain technology could simplify this recordkeeping and make the data far more secure.
Identity Management
Proponents of blockchain tech for identity management claim that with enough information on the blockchain, people would only need to provide the bare minimum (date of birth, for example) to prove their identities.
Voting
Blockchain technology has the ability to make the voting process more easily accessible while improving security. Hackers would be no match to blockchain technology, because even if someone were to access the terminal, they wouldn't be able to affect other nodes. Each vote would be attributed to one ID, and with the ability to create a fake ID being impossible, government officials could tally votes more efficiently and effectively.
Taxes
Blockchain tech could make the cumbersome process of filing taxes, which is prone to human error, much more efficient with enough information stored on the blockchain.
Non-Profit Agencies
Blockchain could solve the anti-trust problems charities are increasingly facing through greater transparency; the technology has the ability to show donors that NPOs are in fact using their money as intended. Furthermore, blockchain tech could help those NPOs tribute those funds more efficiently, manage their resources better, and enhance their tracking capabilities.
Compliance/Regulatory Oversight
Blockchain can make record updates available to regulators and businesses in real time, in turn reducing time lags and allowing red flags and inconsistencies to be spotted sooner.
Blockchain Applications in Other Industries
Record Management
The encryption that is central to blockchain makes it useful for record management because it prevents duplicates, fraudulent entries, and the like.
Cybersecurity
The biggest advantage for blockchain in cybersecurity is that it removes the risk of a single point of failure. Blockchain tech also provides end-to-end encryption and privacy.
Big Data and Data Storage
The immutable nature of blockchain, and the fact that every computer on the network is continually verifying the information stored on it, makes blockchain an excellent tool for storing big data.