The Blockchain technology is powering various businesses at an exponential pace. Thousands of the worlds’ sharpest minds are busy finding new ways to implement blockchain technology in their business.

Blockchain technology, which was previously known for cryptocurrency, has now spread its wings and flying on its own. Today, many companies are using distributed ledger systems of the blockchain, that has no connections with cryptocurrency.

The demand for blockchain solutions is now out-stepping the supply. The acceptance of cryptocurrency has created the need for blockchain solutions in various sectors. Blockchain is now viewed as the new frontier for doing fast, secure and authentic transactions across the globe.

In this article, we will explore how blockchain is going to change our world in coming years.

Let’s know more about “BLOCKCHAIN”

What is BLOCKCHAIN?

Blockchain technology came into the world when Satoshi Nakamoto introduced Bitcoin as a digital currency in 2008. At that time, blockchain was considered as a part of cryptocurrency. But eventually, blockchain found its other applications and entered into various other industries, where this technology can make a great difference.

“Blockchain takes care of business with trust and guaranteed integrity.”The algorithms and hashing makes blockchain virtually impenetrable to any kind of malicious attacks. The distributed public ledger is immutable. Blockchain’s peer-to-peer system is encompassed in its own self-secure and self-contained environment, without taking any support from third parties to control the transactions.

What makes Blockchain so compelling

Decentralization

Blockchain primarily focuses on decentralizing an entire network. This means there is no single owner of the network.

Due to decentralization, blockchain enables everyone to do transactions easily on the same network and gives freedom to view every transaction very easily.

Transparency

Blockchain enhances the transparency of transactions, by giving the copy of the ledger to everybody who is on the network.

People can make transactions from any part of the world, just by registering themselves on blockchain ledgers.

Privacy & Reliability

Blockchain also maintains the privacy of people by keeping their transactions and identity private. You can publish your required data, and still rest assured that your data will not be misused by anyone.

All the records of the ledger are stored in a distributed, peer-to-peer fashion, which is independent of any central authority.

Security

Every record on blockchain is encrypted and time-stamped. Blockchain uses public and private key to secure the blocks created on the ledger.

Users can only access and edit their own block through a private key which they get during registration on the blockchain. This feature makes blockchain technology more secure and protects data from getting manipulated or tempered.

Immutability

As every block is linked to one before and one after it, any changes made will change the entire chain.

All these changes get automatically updated in the network without requiring any intermediaries to manage the process.

It can also track and document every single change made in the transaction or record in the network.

Blockchain- opening up a world of possibilities

Considering the above-mentioned features -(speed, resiliency, trust and security,etc.), blockchain technology can do a lot more than just giving us secured transaction system, i.e. cryptocurrency. Developers are trying to get more from blockchain’s features.

Security is paramount in financial sectors, and leaders of major financial institutions are willing to invest millions in blockchain technology to get best out of this technology implement. And, not only financial institutions but other business are also trying to find the legitimate use of blockchain.

Healthcare

Data security is of utmost importance in the healthcare industry. Multiple parties have access to the large volume of data and maintaining those data error-free and without any tempering is a huge task.

Blockchain can maintain and secure that information by creating the log of events that can not be changed, hence, preserving data integrity and security as it moves to different touch-points. Many healthcare startups have started to use blockchain solutions to healthcare facilities, medical research labs, disease management programs etc.

Few examples:

Guardtime partnered with Estonian e-Health Foundation to deploy blockchain based solution, which will secure more than 1 million patient healthcare records.

Brontech — Australian startup created healthcare platform-Cyph to secure digital identities for healthcare providers, by using blockchain technology.

Gem launched Gem Health to promote collaboration in the healthcare industry with Philips.

Blockchain Health Co. uses blockchain solutions to develop a direct connection between medical research and users and allows users to share information directly with the researchers.

MedRec develops a system based on Ethereum blockchain that manages medical records.

Banking and Insurance

Blockchain technology has the potential to transform the 4,000-year-old banking system. Blockchain can revolutionize this sector by providing a secure, digitized and tamper-proof solution for making transactions without any involvement of centralized authority.

Blockchain for insurance industry can be characterized as disruptive. Blockchain’s underlying ability to send, receive and store information without any tempering has the power to disrupt the way most of the businesses do digital transactions.

Digital trust is now growing at a greater pace. Specific to the insurance industry, blockchain technology has the power to alleviate high premiums, simplify the claims process, help the insurers to create niche coverage and also benefit people who live in catastrophe regions.

Gaming

Gaming might seem less important, as blockchain as a gaming platform is still in the fetal stage, but many companies have already used blockchain to develop new games. Blockchain makes it easier to incorporate purchasing features and powerful asset-sharing within a game.

Digital Identity

Imagine a world, where you don’t have to worry about your digital security. Digital security has now become a huge problem in the world.

Whether it is healthcare, banking, national security, online retailing or citizenship documentation, identity authentication and authorization is a must.

Implementing blockchain can make tracking and managing digital identities very easy by securing the data from getting leaked or manipulated, thus resulting in seamless sign-on and reduced fraud.

Agriculture

While agriculture is the most important sector in the world, contributing to 70% of the world’s poor section, it is also the industry which has the biggest disconnection between supplier and retailer.

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Blockchain technology can also vitalize agriculture sector, by offering transparent means to identify and record the source of production and its journey. Farmers can get fair payment, consumers can understand the origin of their food, and retailers can be sure of the legitimacy of their produce. This will help in building trust between producer and retailer.

Using blockchain technology in this sector, we can establish more direct link between farmers and retailers. This allows farmers to negotiate better price for their produce throughout the supply chain.

Government

People always use to question the security of the voting system. Hackers can hack the system and manipulate the votes. Blockchain will prevent this by encrypting the votes. People can confirm that their votes are being counted and can also know who they voted for. Blockchain can also provide data available to every citizen, maintaining the transparency between government and citizens.

Land and Property

Blockchain through smart contracts can effectively manage tangible or intangible properties of people in a very smart way. Registration of properties, along with the contractual details of ownership of the property can be stored on the ledger of the blockchain. Smart keys (provided by blockchain) could be used to get access to the permitted party.

For example — Zebi has started a unique project with Andhra Pradesh Government in India( APCRDA), by giving them blockchain technology-based solutions to safeguard their land and property records of the citizens.

Blockchain technology makes the property smart and decreases the risks of fraudulent activities, mediation fees, and other questionable business situations. Also, it increases the trust and efficiency of people in the system.

Education

Verifying a certificates today takes too much of time and to get the right information, employers required to request the concerned universities to get the confirmation of credentials.

Blockchain technology can revolutionize the education industry. Universities like MIT, have implemented blockchain technology to develop pilot programs, where graduates can get their diplomas on an app. This enables graduates to share their credentials with whomsoever they want, and the diplomas are secured with the indisputable blockchain technology.

Blockchain technology can be implemented within individual or group of educational institutions and to both national and international educational bodies. Anyone can secure their qualifications, badges and credits information and make these data available to others whenever they want. Sony Global Education, is using blockchain technology to do house assessment of scores.

Manufacturing Industry

While the majority of marketers are still stuck on the technology itself, the interest of manufacturers to exploit the blockchain technology in the manufacturing industry is continuously increasing. Especially its application for supply chain management.

Using the blockchain technology, we could create a public ledger that securely records and saves every transaction that occurs. Blockchain can restores traceability and transparency to supply chain management. All activities can be updated in real-time on a distributed ledger, where all individuals can identify the status of an asset.

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A sample example showcasing an elevator manufacturer using blockchain technology.

According to a report of Bloomberg, South Korean electronics giant Samsung also intends to use Blockchain for its global supply chain.

Implementing blockchain will reduce the need for manual input, (which often leads to errors) and make the entire chain more fast and efficient.