Despite the popular belief that blockchain technology is only designed for cryptocurrency transactions and bitcoin monetization, blockchain continues to enter many areas of life: social media, gaming, healthcare, real estate and more. The technology seeks to enhance work efficiency, reduce costs for businesses and improve the customer experience.
Blockchain can be defined as a digitized database and belongs to the digital laser technology (DLT), which does not imply any central data store or administrative functionality. Why is this an advantage for an enterprise? Decentralization with transparency allows each individual participant to view all recorded data, ensure its security, and track important information.
Here the blockchain has already entered and proved that it is worth relying on this technology.
Supply chain management, for example, is a major but weak part of the workflow of many companies. The parties involved in the process often do not communicate directly with each other and still apply paper-based methods of data collection and storage. Blockchain proposes to eliminate paperwork altogether: document flow is automated, and digital certification is employed. More importantly, each authorized member of the supply chain can track the product from the manufacturer to the consumer and prevent counterfeit delivery.
Several American retail giants who have experienced an outbreak of foodborne illness and have withdrawn more food have applied blockchain technology to their food supply chains. Previously, it took a minimum of 7 days to track a product, and these days a food item can be marked for a few seconds.
Thus, blockchain solutions have made the withdrawal process faster, more efficient and cost-effective. Meanwhile, customers have also gained the experience of adopting blockchain in their hypermarkets. In Walmart’s Chinese stores, for example, they can scan the QR code and get all the information about the product: from the location of the farm to the inspection certificate.
Healthcare is an area where blockchain-based solutions have established themselves as a highly secure and transparent way to keep electronic health records (EHRs). Both the doctor and the patient get permission to access the records and use them if necessary. At the same time, blockchain solutions are powered by smart contracts that enable EHR data privacy protection. Healthcare device data and clinical research are encrypted, insurance can be executed and stored, too. Another use is prescription drug and equipment supply chain control.
E-commerce needs increasingly blockchain technology. Again, the supply chain is an important aspect here: monitoring products and managing supplies is often a challenging task but helps blockchain businesses manage their inventory more efficiently. Consumers who trust their money and data to e-commerce companies are concerned about data security and transparency but blockchain development can solve this problem. Even the slightest change in a blockchain transaction is obvious, and tracking who did wrong is no longer a problem. Crypto payments are also possible.
The next field is actually related to cryptocurrency transactions. DeFi, abbreviated for decentralized money, refers not only to the transfer of common assets, but also to the more complex financial use. Implementing blockchain contributes to the elimination of intermediaries and, consequently, reduces costs. Encrypting all transactions and unchanging, multi-step authentication methods make the system difficult for unauthorized members to access. Recent innovations include P2P loan services and access to digital banking.
Social media is likely to be affected by the blockchain. In addition to its global popularity and ability to connect people around the world, social media is still vulnerable to account hacking, identity leaks and copyright infringement. To address these issues, blockchain authors provide rights protection, digital identity verification, and neutral licensing.
Real estate, e-governance, the gaming industry and many more have joined the wave of blockchain adoption. Once you’ve chosen to innovate your business, assign the responsibility of implementing technology to one of the enterprise blockchain companies that will develop a future-proof enterprise DLT for you. Through blockchain, your business will change the rules of the game in your field.