If you are interested in technologies and try to stay up-to-date with the latest tech trends, you have definitely heard about blockchain. After the hype around cryptocurrencies that was observed in late 2017, practically everyone was talking about blockchain. But are crypto assets the only use case for blockchain? And is there any sense in considering this technology for your business if you are not going to launch your own token or crypto exchange?
Though right now you may have more questions than answers, this article will help you to get a better understanding of the nature of blockchain and its benefits for businesses. And you will see why every year blockchain solutions attract more and more investments.
What is blockchain: a quick overview
We are not going to dive deep into technical details right now but if you wish our experts are always ready to share their knowledge. Now let’s try to explain blockchain as simply as possible.
It is a technology that is able to record all the transactions to a digital ledger. It happens in such a way that doesn’t allow these transactions to be edited, changed or deleted. It is absolutely easy to verify all the recorded data and every user has access to it. As decentralization is one of the main characteristics of blockchains, the storage of all the data kept is shared between the computers.
The decentralized nature means that there is no single authority that makes decisions. For a transaction to be approved and conducted, it is important to be validated by all the parties involved, or nodes (it can be also said “to achieve consensus”).
The security of the blockchain is ensured by cryptography that makes it impossible to alter any data stored in the blocks.
Actually, it is quite challenging to cover all the possible use cases of blockchain for businesses in all spheres. There are many industry-specific cases that deserve your attention. Some of them are explained in our other posts.
But let’s have a closer look at the most popular cases when blockchain can be implemented in order to enhance your business productivity and even increase your earnings.
Blockchain for businesses: benefits and use cases
Below you can find a few ideas that you can apply to your activities:
- Revolutionize your supply chain management
Quite often dozens of components for one device are produced in different countries. How can a manufacturer know exactly where this or that component was made? Moreover, with expanding business relations and a growing supply chain, it usually becomes more and more difficult for a company to maintain records of its shipments and deliveries as well as to track the products that can get lost along their way.
Even the smallest mistakes in working with data related to your supply chain can result in serious delays. Blockchain can help you to digitize huge volumes of paperwork, solving the issues with the accuracy and correctness of your data. It will allow you to avoid problems with all the participants of your supply chain including logistic services providers, customs services, banks, ports, insurers (by the way, blockchain is widely applied by insurance companies today and you can read more about it following the link).
- Keep and share medical records securely on blockchain
As we’ve already mentioned, the records stored on the blockchain will be kept there forever without the possibility of being altered. Traditional data-sharing methods represent some serious risks for the safety and privacy of records. Data breaches that are not a very rare thing these days can lead to significant reputation damage and financial losses. But these risks can be eliminated thanks to the capacity of blockchain to keep data in secure blocks. Blockchain-powered solutions are quite often applied by healthcare institutions to ensure safe storage and sharing of medical records.
Blockchain can help not only to facilitate data exchange between medical institutions but also to avoid financial losses related to miscommunication and even save people’s lives. Such solutions can make the interaction between medical professionals faster and more efficient as well as ensure high-quality monitoring of drug shipments and tracking of disease spreading.
- Improve numerous processes in the media industry
Blockchain-powered solutions can be aimed at transforming ad buying and its efficiency tracking, changing online ticketing, rights management and many other things. The interest of the industry players in blockchain is explained by the main benefits that the technology brings, including full transparency, reduced costs and minimized risks of fraud.
In our practice, we’ve also had the experience of providing a reliable solution for the media sphere. The complex blockchain-based platform that we’ve built helps users to sell time for ads on a radio channel and to monitor the results. For learning more about this project, follow the link.
- Tokenize your physical assets
Have you heard that today you can tokenize practically everything that you want? And actually, what is tokenization? It presupposes a conversion of ownership rights over an asset into a digital form. So, tokenization lets you make some real-world items tradable on blockchain and transfer ownership rights either fully or partially. For example, one of our customers decided to tokenize power and to sell it to their clients. For these aims, they launched a token that is tied to 1 kWh.
Moreover, there is such an interesting phenomenon as Non-fungible tokens (NFTs). They are unique cryptographic tokens and can’t be replicated. Quite often they represent artworks.
- Revolutionize financial services
Probably one of the spheres in which blockchain has already changed a lot is the financial industry. Thousands of startups and serious financial institutions all over the world are closely studying the benefits of emerging technology in order to find the best application for it. Blockchain ensures fast, secure and cost-efficient payments, makes financial services available to a wide audience and significantly expands the range of peer-2-peer offerings. It brings decentralization to the world of finance and may determine the future of the industry.
And of course, it’s impossible not to mention cryptocurrencies that are gaining wider and wider adoption which explains a growing demand for reliable exchanges. If you are interested in launching your own platform, we offer you to take a look at the project that has been built by Omertex experts.
- Offer new experience for gamers
Blockchain makes it possible to play and to earn money at the same time (and here is a good example of such an app). And what is more, blockchain in gaming ensures absolute transparency and safety. Financial rewards, online casinos, bettings apps – all this is now accompanied by streamlined processes, fast deposits and withdrawals as well as low-cost payments.
Of course, this article contains just a couple of examples of how blockchain can be used for the needs of your business. Do you have other ideas?
It doesn’t matter whether at the moment you are not sure about the feasibility of implementing blockchain-powered solutions or you already have a full understanding of an app that you want to launch, we are always ready to help you!