Now that you have a good understanding of what blockchain is and how it works, your mind may already be racing about how you could use this new technology in your business.
There are already real applications for blockchain being used right now. Learning about these should help you to come up with even more ideas on how to utilize blockchain technology.
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Financial Institutions are leading the way with Blockchain
It may not surprise you to know that financial institutions are leading the way when it comes to applications using blockchain. A number of finance companies have already invested in the technology because they know that it will enable them to manage their transactions and record keeping more efficiently and in a more secure manner.
A good example of where blockchain delivers better results than conventional technologies is in the money transfer sector. Abra is a company that provides a money transfer platform for people that work in another country to send money to their home countries. They support over 50 different currencies.
Using blockchain technology, Abra are able to provide their users with a cheaper and faster service. A well-known service such as Western Union cannot compete with Abra for speed or the cost of a transaction.
The reason that Abra has such an advantage is because they utilize blockchain technology.
Another blockchain application for the financial industry is the Australian stock exchange.
They announced that they will be using blockchain technology for all of their transactions. Blockchain will enable the Australian stock exchange to clear and settle equity transactions efficiently and also to keep safe records of all shareholdings.
Tuna Fishing in the Pacific Ocean
Tuna fishing in the Pacific Ocean has got its problems. The World Wildlife Fund is determined to use a sustainable process for tuna fishing in the Pacific so they have teamed up with Sea Quest Fiji which are a tuna fishing and processing company, ConsenSys which are a blockchain company and TraSeable which are an information tech company.
The plan is to use blockchain technology to monitor how tuna is fished and when and where this takes place in the Pacific Ocean.
All four organizations have agreed to work closely together to make this happen utilizing a blockchain platform.
Diamond Source Verification
A lot of people that want to purchase diamonds are concerned that a proportion of their purchases may go towards financing wars in some countries.
They want proof that they are not going to be purchasing “blood diamonds”.
In order to provide proof to customers that their diamonds are from a place which will not use the proceeds for war, a number of companies and organizations in the jewelry industry are looking to blockchain for a solution.
Cryptocurrencies are already using Blockchain
The level of interest in cryptocurrency has sky rocketed over the last few years. Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency and it has used blockchain right from the start. Many others have followed such as Ethereum and Litecoin.
Today you can trade cryptocurrencies easily thanks to blockchain technology. When you know that a cryptocurrency is underpinned by a blockchain network you can be confident that all transactions will be safe and secure.
Blockchain and Real Estate
Another great application for blockchain technology is real estate. Property records could be easily stored on a blockchain.
In addition to this, using blockchain for real estate transactions can also help to cut out some of the middlemen and reduce costs significantly.
Proof of property ownership would also be enhanced by using blockchain technology.
Blockchain and the Healthcare Industry
All too often there are stories about medical records being lost or being changed. Using blockchain for the storage and retrieval of medical records makes a lot of sense and the healthcare industry are already investigating this.
Why should your doctor have sole control over your medical records? This has been challenged for many years and now blockchain offers a solution to storing medical records securely and placing them under the control of individual patients.
Using blockchain technology to ensure tamper proof elections is something that a lot of governments across the world are currently looking at. Blockchain records are immutable and will provide a much higher level of security than current election systems.
Big Companies are Implementing Blockchain Projects
Right now, there are several major companies that have either invested, or plan to invest in blockchain technology.
Among these companies are giants such as Toyota, IBM, Unilever and Microsoft. IBM have already implemented over 400 blockchain projects across the globe.
In the next section we will discuss how your business can benefit from blockchain…