Blockchain, the technology behind cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, is our best chance of promoting collaboration and the fair use of each other’s services. It provides a solution for aligning all parties’ interests.

In blockchain, a dispersed network of stakeholders takes over the previous owners of such services. These providers and users not only own but maintain the services that are powered by the blockchain. They also get to share the profits that are produced by the services.

Several companies are trying to learn more about this concept and how they can use it to develop platforms that value everyone’s interests.

Digital advertising is one area that's benefiting. New companies are seeking to reshape the landscape of digital advertising, which is best known for the endemic animosity between all parties. The company uses smart contracts to create a fair and transparent environment where users, publishers and the advertisers can do business.

As mentioned, all parties can benefit from this kind of digital advertising platform. As it eliminates intermediary costs, advertisers don’t have to spend a lot and publishers get to earn more. The transparency of the blockchain also ensures that both publishers and advertisers can determine all the ads that are displayed and how the dividends must be distributed.

Similar strides are being made in other sectors, one of which is health care. Blockchain-based solutions can ensure seamless and secure transactions between all market participants. Apart from using the infrastructure itself, patients and providers can also earn from this platform. By providing feedback, answering surveys and maintaining proper dental care (through a dedicated mobile application), patients can collect tokens, which they can eventually use to pay for treatments.

Providers can use the tokens collected from payments and rewards to pay for laboratory services, supplies and equipment within a growing global network.

Video distribution platforms can also use blockchain technology. It provides clear incentives for users who share and monetize content on the blockchain. Flixxo doesn’t host its videos on centralized servers. Instead, its users share their free disk space to host the videos, using BitTorrent to store the content and share it with others.

When a video stored in a user’s computer is consumed, that user earns a share of revenue in cryptocurrency. This is another example of how both service providers and users can profit from using the same platform.

As blockchain technology continues to develop, new domains and industries will emerge with the very principles that this tech seeks to promote. When we see more companies embracing community and cooperation, we should have a more productive economy, one that values collaboration. Centralized systems are unable to create an environment that upholds honesty and cooperation, but blockchain might one day make these values mainstream. Eventually, it should reshape the entire economy and even challenge long-standing structures of capitalism.