The term ‘blockchain’, originally called ‘blockchain’, is a list of ever-growing records, called as blocks, which are linked to one another by cryptography. Every block includes a signature of the earlier block, transaction data, and a timestamp. In earlier days, the internet allowed you to share emails, read, correspond on media, etc. This new technology of blockchain enables you to deal with your assets and your most valuable items, with a good amount of security. Using this technology will not only make your businesses safe but will also enable quickening the processes and reducing errors that will help you to prevent hiring a third-party expert for doing the work. The blockchain technology will completely change the way in which you manage your assets, transact business, rent a car, vote, etc. Thus, there are a plethora of applications of blockchain technology.
- Payment processing and transferring money: The ability to transfer money from one party to the other is one of the most obvious applications of blockchain technology. As opposed to banks, needing to validate transactions taking hours or even a day to complete validation, the transactions made using blockchain technology can be settled within just a few seconds. Thus, the technology is very useful when it comes to saving time for transactions.
- Retail loyalty rewards: Creating a token-based system allowing the customers to win rewards, and storing these tokens using the technology, will enable certain customers to revisit the particular shop, thus increasing the profit of the shop. In addition, using the technology will also help in eliminating the waste of paper and fraud associated with winning loyalty rewards.
- Monitor supply chains: Blockchain technology will help in removing paper-based trials and will help in indicating inefficiencies in the supply chain and enable quick item search in real time. The technology will also allow consumers to see from the quality control point of view, how the products have performed over time.
- Creating digital ID’s: According to the latest studies, it has been seen that more than about 1 billion people suffer from the problem of face identity. By making use of the technology, digital ID’s can be generated so that users belonging to penurious places can have complete access over their financial services, or can even start a new business.
- Digital voting: Voting is an aspect that has been entangled or closely related to fraud for many decades. By using the blockchain technology, however, this issue can now be solved. The technology offers to vote digitally and it ensures that the regulators will be able to find out if anything was altered on the network. Using this technology ensures the ease with which one can vote digitally, but in an unchanging nature, to make sure your vote is authentic.
- Protection of royalties and copyright: With the world of internet and the freely available information at hands, it is very important to have a technology protect your copyrights. The blockchain technology will ensure that the content from the author is being taken at the right fair. The technology will also give real-time royalty distribution information to the artists.
- Real estate and land affairs: The main purpose of implementing the blockchain technology is to eliminate the use of paper-based work, which plays the most vital role in confusing any buyer. In case you purchase or sell a commodity, you are required to transfer the title to the person selling or buying the commodity. As opposed to the traditional paperwork which can often be very cumbersome, the blockchain will store titles on its network, which will allow a transparent visualization of the transfer. This will enable in getting a clear picture of lawful ownership of the commodity.
- Safety of food: This might be one of the most unexpected applications of blockchain but has recently been used very widely. By using the technology, you are able to trace food from the place of its origin to your plate. The blockchain being immutable, you have the ability to find out the exact position of the products from where they came until the supermarket. In addition, if there is evidence of a source of contaminant, it can be much quickly recognized by using blockchain.
- Medical recordkeeping: This is the widest and most used application of blockchain. The medical sector for many years has been trying to keep the data in a more digital format than keeping paper records. Using blockchain offers a higher degree of security and the information is easily acquired when needed by the individual. The records that a person has are confidential and there is a provision of sharing these records with other people with due permission of the patient himself. This ensures a high level of security of personal information, which is the need of the hour.
Some other applications of blockchain technology include:
- Weapon tracking
- Equity trading
- Storing will or letters of inheritance
- Securing access to personal belongings and much more