Despite the popular belief that blockchain technology is only meant for making cryptocurrency transactions and earning bitcoins, blockchain continues to make inroads into many areas of life: social media, gaming, healthcare, real estate, and more. Technology aims to improve operational efficiency, reduce business costs and improve customer experience.
Blockchain can be explained as a digitized database and belongs to digital ledger technology (DLT), which implies no central data storage or administrative functionality. Why is it an advantage for an enterprise? Decentralization, along with transparency, enables each individual participant to review all recorded data, ensure its security, and track important information.
Here are areas where blockchain has already entered and proven that it is worth relying on this technology.
Supply chain management, for example, is a fundamental but vulnerable part of many companies’ workflow. The parties involved in the process often do not interact directly with each other and still use paper-based methods of gathering and storing information. Blockchain offers a complete elimination of paperwork: document circulation becomes automated, digital certification is also used. More importantly, any authorized member of the supply chain can trace the product from the manufacturer to the consumer and prevent the spread of counterfeits.
Several US retail giants that have faced foodborne illness outbreaks and subsequent food recalls have implemented blockchain technology into their food supply chains. It used to take a minimum of about 7 days to trace a product, but nowadays the origin of a food product can be identified in a matter of seconds.
Thus, blockchain solutions have made the withdrawal process faster, more efficient and cost-saving. Meanwhile, customers also experienced blockchain adoption in their hypermarkets. In Chinese Walmart stores, for example, they can scan the QR code and get all the information about the product: from the location of the farm to the certificates of inspection.
Healthcare is the field where blockchain-based solutions have established themselves as a highly secure and transparent way to maintain electronic health records (EHR). Both doctors and patients are given permission to access and use the records when needed. At the same time, blockchain solutions are powered by smart contracts that enable privacy protection of EHR data. Health device and clinical research data is encrypted, insurance can also be executed and stored. Another use case is prescription drugs and equipment supply chain control.
E-commerce increasingly requires blockchain technology. Again, the supply chain is a crucial aspect here: tracking goods and managing supplies are often challenging tasks, but 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 with the development of blockchain. Even slight changes in a transaction are obvious on 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, short for decentralized finance, does not just involve the simple transfer of assets, but also refers to more complex financial use cases. The implementation of blockchain contributes to the exclusion of middlemen and therefore reduces costs. All transactions are encrypted and immutable, multi-step authentication mechanisms make the system difficult for unauthorized members to access. Among the latest innovations is the possibility to turn to P2P lending services and digital banking.
Social media also has the potential to be impacted by blockchain. Along with its global popularity and ability to connect people around the world, social media is still vulnerable to account hacking, identity leaks, and copyright infringement. To address these issues, blockchain offers copyright protection, digital identity verification, and impartial licensing.
Real estate, e-governance, gaming industries and many more have joined the wave of blockchain adoption. Once your business chooses to innovate, delegate the implementation of the technology to one of the enterprise blockchain companies that will develop a future-proof enterprise DLT for you. With blockchain, your business will be a game changer in your field.