Businesses are exploring blockchain networks applications beyond digital finance, using them in many areas for competitive edge purposes. Here are a few ways this technology could benefit businesses.
How Can Blockchain Be Used?
Emerging blockchain uses have long been associated with cryptocurrency transactions, but its scope extends further. Used effectively, it could enable anyone to buy, sell, and trade any asset, digital or physical. The financial services industry is adopting this technology to increase trust during transactions.
Blockchain solutions are widely employed by healthcare providers for patient immutable record management (e.g., vaccination passports). At the same time, companies use them to streamline supply chains and deal with potential disruptions or breakdowns.
Applications of Blockchain can also benefit small businesses. People worldwide can safely send funds without going through third parties. This feature is especially advantageous in countries without easy access to banks or financial services sector institutions, and blockchain use cases could become an integral component in sustainable global development.
When To Use Blockchain
According to an IEEE 2024 report, private blockchain can offer significant potential. Still, it cannot meet all data exchange and product needs and requirements. Businesses adopting this technology must assess its requirements and transaction costs before proceeding with implementation plans.
Traditional databases may benefit organizations looking for faster transaction processing speeds or private networks. At the same time, blockchain's energy usage raises questions regarding the sustainability of crypto assets.
Blockchain can provide organizations looking for increased transparency, accurate transaction tracking, and the ability to create unalterable hyperledger, public ledgers with benefits such as decentralization. The National Archives released a white paper detailing blockchain's uses and implications in record of transaction management.
What Are Some Diverse Uses For Blockchain Technology?
Audits
Enterprise blockchain uses provide an indelible record of all transactions. This provides a convenient paper trail that makes auditing both internally and by governments simpler while guaranteeing accuracy by eliminating multiple record retrievals from different sources.
Antonis Papatsaras, Chief Technology Officer for HootSuite, states: The more blockchain data stored, the more accessible history and audit can become.
Quality assurance
Blockchain-Based Systems plays an essential role in quality control. This is particularly evident when things go awry; permissioned blockchain allows businesses to link all aspects of supply chains seamlessly together while offering an indisputable, definitive digital ledger, enabling instant identification and recall notice in case problems arise.
Mike Almeida, owner of Empire ATM Group, explained how events such as salmonella scares can be quickly traced back to their source within seconds, and all bags within the batch are identified for removal immediately. With such an innovative system, all parties involved would be informed quickly rather than waiting several days or longer for notifications.
Researchers in Hong Kong also use blockchain-Based platform technology to ensure product quality. HerBChain, an herb manufacturing blockchain system, allows researchers and manufacturers to track production process records to guarantee authentic products are traced. Furthermore, this blockchain-Based application ensures companies with products don't tamper with data easily to meet quality and safety standards for all products sold within its reach.Benefits of Blockchain technology development and engineering skills have become highly desired career capabilities across shipping, healthcare, and finance industries.
Trading Of Securities And Commodities
Blockchain implementation allows for faster trading in commodities or securities; its distributed technology makes for efficient processing that takes only minutes rather than months or years to finish.Nick Spanos demonstrated how blockchain-based settlements can be completed 'automatically,' in just minutes rather than being processed manually over several days by several validators.
Smart Contracts
Smart contracts are used by businesses to automate large transaction amounts that span supply chains and integrate services without divulging sensitive or proprietary information.Nelson Petracek, Chief Technology Officer for Board International, explained how "smart contracts" allow organizations to embed code logic onto a consortium blockchain to automate transaction processing.
Example: SEB and Credit Agricole have launched a Blockchain in healthcare industry platform that enables their users to raise capital efficiently, manage it securely, and automatically initiate transactions based on specific terms - creating an efficient financial ecosystem where transactions occur quickly in an open manner.
Every entrepreneur needs to know about smart contracts as an emerging concept in business. Additionally, familiarizing oneself with blockchain, cryptocurrency, and augmented reality will be helpful.
Supply Chain Management
Blockchain allows organizations to monitor materials and goods throughout their supply chains more accurately than ever before; for instance, this technology enables an organization to track products as soon as they leave production facilities for storage facilities as soon as they arrive in retail outlets or retailers.
Diamond mining company that has created a blockchain tech platform to track production and distribution. The technology can be seen everywhere, from mining operations up to jewelry store purchases; The platform is available to other diamond industry participants as a way for retailers and customers alike to verify the authenticity of diamonds purchased this way.
Igor Barinov, Technical Manager of Blockscout Technologies, stated that using blockchain to manage supply chains gives business owners more visibility into their processes. He believes it can also increase transparency while aligning its interests with stakeholders within its ecosystem.
Transactions And Reimbursements
Blockchain technology offers businesses a way to manage supply chains efficiently. Companies using this tool are able to track products accurately from inception through manufacture, as well as make transactions and receive reimbursements automatically.
Blockchain technology is used widely for transactions and reimbursements, including backing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum. Furthermore, companies have even begun developing initial coin offering (ICO) platforms dedicated to their blockchain-backed platforms or currencies.
Bitcoin has experienced numerous price surges over time. National central banks are beginning to experiment with blockchain-backed currencies - Japan recently introduced J Coin as one example - while multiple financial sector institutions are experimenting with and exploring its use and potential in America.
Voting
Blockchain can facilitate impartial and precise voting processes that could fundamentally transform democracy today while strengthening election results.
Spanos noted that voting on blockchain presents an exciting prospect, as immutability and transparency are necessary for effective elections. Regarding the accuracy of votes cast via this means, as long as one trusts how the blockchain operates, they can rest easy knowing their records have not been altered after an event took place.
Top Blockchain Use Cases
Christos Makridis is an Arizona State University research professor and digital Fellow for the MIT Initiative on Digital Economy. Blockchain has numerous uses. Financial services industry could use it for creating smart contracts between customers and blockchain uses in banking or insurers. In contrast, the healthcare sector can use it between hospitals/providers/insurers/patients and providers - the list goes on. "Blockchain presents endless possibilities."
Smart Contracts
Smart contracts are programs created to automate contract terms if specific criteria are fulfilled, using software code with simple logic that ensures all parties involved receive benefits or penalties specified within their agreement and which records every transaction through blockchain ledger technology.
Cybersecurity
Adoption of Blockchain security, lauded for decades, is often touted by advocates as providing unparalleled protection. Criminals find it challenging to breach it because there's no central entity they can attack directly and no central database to breach. Makridis says an intruder would need access to multiple locations, making computing requirements exponentially greater.
Intelligent contract vulnerabilities and high-profile security breaches have disproved any notion that blockchains are secure. In 2024 alone, the Solana blockchain platform and Ethereum experienced significant losses after Wormhole (an interlink) hacks caused $320M; DODO DEX lost $3.8M through another hack of one of their smart contracts that same year. Overall, blockchains pose many security threats, one being Sybil attacks where hackers create duplicate users on networks, 51% attacks, phishing attempts, or any number of other forms of aggression; other attacks include 51% attacks, 51% attacks as well as 51% attacks (but more on those later).
IoT
Blockchain can help supply chains track asset tracking and inventory management; IoT devices can record measurements from sensors from Arctic tundra or Amazon jungle environments to manufacturing facilities or NASA drones - including in polar manufacturing plants.Aaron Rafferty is the creator of cryptocurrency investment firms RF Capital and Standard DAO; both operate as community-owned treasuries on blockchain technology.
Cryptocurrency
Blockchain was initially created to manage cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. Blockchain provides a method to protect privacy and accuracy during transactions using anonymized coins like cryptocurrency, providing more privacy protection while making transactions quicker than before. Since 2022 and what has come to be known as "The Crypto Winter," cryptocurrency has seen allegations of fraud, bankruptcy filings, and an abrupt decrease in value, prompting calls for regulation to restore confidence among traders and users alike.
NFTs (Nautical Tokens Or Units Of Data)
Often referred to as virtual assets or units of data, they are certified unique and non-interchangeable digital assets or units of data Rafferty considers revolutionary for the world of digital art and collectibles. We're using Ethereum Blockchain and Decentralization technology to develop our livestream music network so artists and streamers can directly engage their fans by selling NFTs at auction with contributions coming now from them, then trading these rewards and donations back for crypto tokens," stated Shantal Anderson who founded and CEO Reel Mood for music streaming of both music and popular culture content streaming service.
NFTs, much like cryptocurrency, have faced significant difficulties between perceived and real value. At the same time, China has not issued a ban for NFTs yet as they have for cryptocurrency, a warning citing NFTs having "crypto-like characteristics," perhaps signaling future prohibition of their usage.
Also Read: Exploring the Limitless Possibilities: The Top Applications of Blockchain Technology
Real-World Uses Of Blockchain Applications
Agarwal noted that most industries can utilize blockchain. He explained that applications of permissioned blockchain with the highest return on investment tend to focus on optimizing and streamlining routine business processes for optimal efficiency and friction reduction.
Apps can help business operations run more efficiently. One such benefit was highlighted by more than half of respondents: the need to maintain data integrity and create new revenue models or business models.
Here are a few notable public blockchain decentralized applications in public and private sectors, such as government, healthcare, supply chains, media outlets, and financial system institutions like banking sector services.
Healthcare On Blockchain
Blockchain's potential in healthcare appears limitless. David Brown, Director of Science and Program at Qatar Precision Medicine Institute, has noted its wide array of uses within medicine:
- Electronic medical records management.
- Safeguarding healthcare data storage and dissemination.
- Disease outbreak tracking.
- Tracking genomics data is a few examples that come to mind when discussing its uses in medicine.
Precision medicine refers to using drugs explicitly customized to each person's genomic composition to maximize results while decreasing or eliminating side effects. Precision medicines also address an increasingly resistant infection population, with genomic-based drugs being increasingly utilized as medicine of this sort becomes less effective at combating infection.Brown explained how blockchain allows blockchain uses in healthcare providers and researchers "to develop revolutionary medications based on genome profiles."
The Government
Government Blockchain applications include voting and personal identity protection services. Rafferty highlighted how blockchains' impossibility of alteration makes them ideal storage tools for digital IDs, certificates, and passports; data can be easily accessible at any time efficiently and further promotes international travel industries.
Voting on the blockchain provides a practical, transparent, and safe method without the middleman or concerns over voting fraud or manipulation.
Financial Services
Blockchain can be utilized in numerous blockchain uses in financial services applications. Agarwal explained how blockchain makes trade finance transactions more straightforward: A bidirectional data stream streamlines trade finance transactions for all participants involved and dramatically shortens transaction timelines from 10-12 weeks to only one week or less.
After-Sales Service
Blockchain Practice Leader, Chen Zur, noted that his expectations included business-to-business enterprises utilizing multiparty cash flow distribution contracts for contractually driven cash distribution using blockchain for contract calculations.
Kapur believes blockchain has many applications for real-world banking industry systems that remain far from fully mature, such as contract management, real-time transparency calculations and reporting, stock management procurements, funds traceability lending, borrowing digitizing assets, cryptocurrency reconciliatory settlements, settlements security commodities trades, secure land registers, etc.
Supply Chain Management
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chains were blockchain applications' most prevalent use case.Nir Kshetri is a professor and research fellow at Kobe University and University of North Carolina Greensboro. Blockchain was an appropriate solution because global supply chains are complex structures without one central authority figure determining them all.
Kshetri noted that companies involved with supply chains could leverage blockchain for increased data transparency, commercial confidentiality, and immutable transaction records. Blockdata's Dutch market intelligence platform revealed that traceability/provenance use cases were amongst the world's largest brands, as using this form of cryptocurrency was increasingly common during 2023.
Media And Entertainment
Media and entertainment provide an ideal setting for blockchain applications to flourish; their applications reflect its creativity as much as any industry does.
Rafferty explained how a company could mint tickets for concerts, football games, or tours by significant artists and set parameters so that when these tickets resell on secondary markets, they receive royalties calculated during the minting procedure - typically charged as a percentage negotiated before the minting process.
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Conclusion
Blockchain technology enables a decentralized database that relies on peer-to-peer (P2P) technology for maximum trust, reliability, and availability - without needing third parties as intermediaries.
