The blockchain technology is expanding rapidly, winning the battle of attention from different sectors and people across the globe. It has surely created the foundation of a new form of internet and a modern approach of the way data is going to operate in the coming decades. Blockchain certainly has the potential to be highly disruptive and highly beneficial to a number of industries.

What is the secret of blockchain?

Think of blockchain as the open book of records and everyone having the same copy. Each entry in the book, references the record before it, making it obvious if any of them are changed after they are entered. Since everyone will have the same book, they can see if one or more of the books has been tampered with or edited as they won’t accurately match up. The technology behind blockchain might seem a little complicated but in short; each block of this chain takes an intentionally large amount of computing power to validate that it’s a legitimate block; so what you are left with is an extremely secure record that can’t be edited and is open for everyone to see.

In a nutshell, blockchain is a ledger which can be used to store information about transactions, the history of assets, any kind of digitised information and it is transparent, robust and secure. If you are using a private blockchain, it can be accessed only by those who have permission to do so.

How can various industries benefit from the blockchain technology?

Initially, the financial services are the most interested industry in the blockchain due to the technology underpinning two currencies. People will no longer need a bank to withdraw their currency and a complete record of their account balance will be easily accessible. Nobody will need to vouch that the money is available or the other side has received it, as it is all recorded and can not be changed. In any sort of transactions, you need transparency and you’ve got a huge dependency on paper-based legacy systems which are inefficient and subject to fraud. Blockchain can solve the trust issues with the opportunity of smart contracts by taking out the human involvement,thus reducing fraud as well as costs.

Another example for contracts in a different industry would be the real estate. For instance, when someone wants to lease an apartment, the blockchain record could be built in terms; such as price per month in exchange for an access code to the apartment. As a landlord, you will no longer need to worry about receiving your payment every month and as a tenant, you won’t have to think if your landlord will let you in the apartment. A blockchain smart contract would facilitate both sides of the transaction verifying that the actions are legitimate and leaving behind an immutable record. Think of how many companies you need to trust when you’re conducting your businesses or any kind of valuable transactions.

Manufacturing businesses can also use blockchain to make sure that their supply lines are all working together and in total transparency; as each step in the lines from manufacturing to distribution is linked together by a blockchain.

Your medical records can be implemented in a blockchain, allowing the doctors to see and share your history. It can even be designed to spot drug interactions or to make sure your prescriptions are written and filled.

In short, blockchain will cut out the middleman you would have to trust and allow faster, secure and transparent use of information. It will also show how that information is being used. Furthermore, provided you’ve got the requisite permissions so rather than having the permissions to write on the blockchain, you can still have the permissions to view the data within it. This ability of private blockchains to facilitate the different levels of permissions is absolutely key.

There are many research performed across a whole host of different verticals; anything from automotive, health care, land registry and use cases including authentication. So it can be said that the potential use cases are growing every single day and the variety of industries are trying to be early adopters of this beneficial technology.

How will the blockchain effect the Internet of Things (IoT) ?

There is no doubt that the IoT will be transformative with the help of the blockchain and artificial intelligence. Before long, we are going to live in a planet where our smartphones can ‘’speak’’ to our ovens and autopilot cars. Creating such a system is not difficult but the potential problems and questions arising such as security, scalability, lack of data standards, costs and transactional complications can be avoided by using the inventiveness of the blockchain technology. A distributed ledger with embedded smart contracts will enhance security and trust, and automate complete processes constituted of various business partners.

In fact, according to Waltonchain, putting together the RFID technology with blockchain and the IoT to form what they call the ‘’Value Internet of Things’’ will unfold the potential of logistics, manufacturing, retail and infrastructure to share their data securely. It is believed that the RFID technology will also feature product traceability and asset ownership. Multinational giants such as Samsung and IBM are already working on a blockchain initiative called ADEPT. The IBM Watson IoT Platform can be combined with IBM Cloud-based Blockchain services to provide a ready-to-deploy platform for blockchain-based (and open-standards-based) IoT applications.

With the evolvement of technology around blockchain, consumer awareness will also rise rapidly, particularly regarding the advantages of this brilliant technology. Ultimately, it will re-shape the consumer buying behaviour, forcing industries to adopt the blockchain technology with their businesses.