How Are Blockchains Used?
As we’ve talked about in our Blockchain Basics article, Blockchain technology came about due to its application in cryptocurrencies, where blocks store data of monetary transactions.
However, blockchain can be used as a reliable tool for data storage in a variety of ways beyond financial transactions. Companies such as Coca-Cola, Nike, Walmart, IBM, Pfizer, AIG, Siemens, and Unilever have already showcased this by adopting blockchain technology to run their data systems.
Source – Blockdata
Here are a couple of examples that summarize Blockchain Utility:
Insurance – using smart contracts on a blockchain can provide greater transparency for customers and insurance providers. Recording all claims on a blockchain would also help avoid duplicate claims and keep track of each customer’s status.
Real estate – doing business and finalizing transactions in real estate requires a lot of paperwork in order to verify financial information and ownership. Using blockchain technology to record real estate transactions can provide a more secure and accessible means of verifying and transferring ownership. That can speed up transactions, reduce paperwork, and save money.
Personal information – Blockchain technology can be used to secure access to identifying information such as your Social Security Number or DoB, while improving access for those who need it in industries such as travel, healthcare, finance, and education.
Voting – if personal information is held on a blockchain, that puts us just one step away from also being able to vote using blockchain technology. Using blockchain technology can make sure that nobody votes twice, only eligible voters are able to vote, and votes cannot be tampered with.
Artist royalties – using blockchain technology to track music and film files distributed over the internet can make sure that artists are paid for their work.
Benefits of blockchain
As we can see, there is a ton of utility potential for blockchain technology, and this is because it addresses the underlying necessities specific to all these different domains. Operations often waste effort on duplicate record keeping and third-party validations. Record-keeping systems can be vulnerable to fraud and cyberattacks, while limited transparency can slow data verification.
And with the arrival of IoT, transaction volumes have been on a continuous expansion. All of this slows down businesses and institutions and drains their workforce — thus making the argument that better technology is required.
Enter blockchain and its features.
Greater Trust
Users can operate at a much higher level due to the “trustless” nature of blockchain, meaning that individuals can transact without the need to trust or know each other.
Stronger Security
Consensus on data accuracy is required from all network members, and all validated transactions are immutable because they are recorded permanently. No one, not even a system administrator, can delete a transaction.
Higher Efficiency
With a distributed ledger that is shared among members of a network, time-wasting record reconciliations are eliminated. To speed transactions, a set of rules — called a smart contract — can be stored on the blockchain and executed automatically.
Transparency
Because of the decentralized nature of Bitcoin’s blockchain, all transactions can be transparently viewed by either having a personal node or using blockchain explorers that allow anyone to see transactions occurring live. Each node has its own copy of the chain that gets updated as fresh blocks are confirmed and added. This means that if you wanted to, you could track Bitcoin wherever it goes.
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