Tosay that the blockchain technology is one of the most outstanding innovative developments of this century is to say nothing. Associations with cryptocurrency, mainly with BTC, arise automatically when talking about blockchain use cases. But this concept of technology quickly becomes obsolete. More and more people see that the decentralization and transparency that accompany it have every chance to turn many industries upside down. In this article, we will look at the different blockchain benefits.
- Food Industry
Unexpectedly, right? But, yes, this is the industry that has been using blockchain successfully for several years already!
But the fact is that a lot of large Walmart-like retailers are joining forces with IBM to integrate the blockchain into their food management system.
What is the purpose?
One of the most important questions we should ask when eating food is: “What is its source?”.
On October 6, 2006, many US states suffered a massive outbreak of E. coli. The source? Spinach!
Source: https://princebalto.fandom.com/wiki/Popeye
About 199 people were infected, 22 of them are children under 5 years old. As a result, 3 people died; one of them was a child of 2 years.
One supplier. One farm. One lot.
So, what happens when the blockchain is used to keep all food data reporting? Recall that the data in the blockchain is available to everyone; there is no centralized power controlling them.
According to Frank Yiannas, the advantages of transparent management of the food products system are diverse:
Strongly increases food safety. Guarantees the availability of more fresh food, because no one will risk sending stale food to an open system. Reduces the amount of food waste, because absolutely all food products are recorded. Eliminates fraud in the food industry because the system is publicly available. Stimulates a responsible attitude among food producers, because they know that their machinations will not go unpunished.
- Voting
I believe, if there is no voting, then the concept of “democracy” doesn’t even exist.
Countries around the world have used paper bulletins for a long time. However simple the concept may be, many problems can arise — human factor is the first.
To fight against them, developed countries as Estonia applied the digital voting system.
However, several possible problems were identified as well:
The user’s computer may be infected with malicious code that reads every single vote and changes the vote in favor of another candidate. An attacker can directly infect servers with the help of malicious code on the DVD for installing servers and transferring votes.
As long as the Estonian Information Systems Authority criticizes and fights against these problems, the fact remains that a centralized server that monitors voting can be exposed to numerous attacks and hacks.
So, there are companies such as “Follow My Vote” that use blockchain benefits in full to bring voting to the 21st-century level.
Each potential voter can safely log in using a webcam and a state-issued ID.
You’re welcome to read more about the project and its technical side: asymmetric cryptography and 2 types of keys — followmyvote.com.
A recent example is the first municipal elections on the blockchain held in West Virginia, USA. It was possible to vote from anywhere without any absentee ballots. The authorities also considered the use of technology during the big congressional elections.
In March 2018, with the support of the blockchain company, the presidential elections in Sierra Leone also took place. The head of the company involved in the counting of votes hurried to please his Telegram subscribers that his specialists turned out to be more agile and published the results two hours before the local CEC.
- Taxes, Public Services, and Document Flow
Transparency and immutability again come handy what expands blockchain use cases.
The public sector is a complex and inert mechanism while remaining a centralized system. From the development of this system depends on the effectiveness of public administration as such, uniform coverage of public services needs of the population and entrepreneurs.
The main benefits of technology implementation are expected to reduce operating costs.
reduction of settlement time risk reduction increase in the possibility of obtaining additional income.
Estonia, which is the leader in the implementation of e-government services, together with the blockchain-startup Guardtime, is introducing the creation of a single database of medical books for the population, which will be available for the exchange of information to clinics, as well as to insurance companies.
In Ghana, in early 2016, Bitland project received official permission from the Ghanaian government to compile a land registry based on the Bitshares blockchain and released CADASTRAL, basic tokens. With their help, it will be possible to register land rights, resolve disputed land tenure issues, sell and buy land.
The Florida State Taxation Authority announced a partnership with BitPay processing service to start accepting taxes and fees for property, driver’s licenses, identification cards, car plates, and other documents in Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.
India has studied the blockchain technology as a possible solution to its problems with the registration of real estate. In 2013, New Delhi alone reported 181 registered cases of real estate fraud, Mumbai is close to this figure with its 173 cases. To combat this problem, the governments of the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana entered into a partnership with the Swedish startup ChromaWay to transfer the registration of real estate to the blockchain. The system will have a back-end on the blockchain and a front-end in a web application.
- Finances and Business
The use of technology in banking operations is illustrated by a transactionconducted by HSBC and the Dutch ING Bank. To deliver the goods from Argentina to Malaysia, they issued a letter of credit through the blockchain-platform R3 Corda and completely avoided any paper documents. Just think for a second, two large banks preferred to use blockchain to conduct a transaction! Unbelievable!
Instant network updates is a virtue that will make financial transactions faster, easier, and more reliable.
Of course, there is no business aside. Such a giant as Microsoft has let the blockchain enter its corporate networks. Having replenished your account, you can now buy software, movies, games, and applications for Xbox for BTC.
Another pillar of commerce — the online platform for retailers and online stores Shopify — has added bitcoin payments to its functionality. Thousands of platform-using stores are already accepting them, using speed and, again, a low transaction fee.
Fundraising. If ICOs are already a relic of the past, the blockchain industry makes a step ahead to introduce a new form of crowdfunding — STO (Security Token Offering) on Securities Exchange Platforms. A new fundraising method combines the simplicity of ICO and reliability of IPO. Any project from any industry can now start STO program to raise funds for further development.
As you can see, blockchain use cases are not limited to finances. We consciously tried to indicate the areas of application as far as possible from the cryptocurrency :). We hope that this guide about the possibilities of the wonderful revolutionary technology of the blockchain will enlighten and inspire you.
So, while regulators write laws and try to fit distributed registries into the legislative framework, many organizations in different countries of the world boldly use blockchain benefits, bringing the day when the word “blockchain” will cease to be something vague and gray, and this technology will change the lives and work of people for the better.
https://medium.com/altcoin-magazine/blockchain-use-cases-cryptocurrency-is-not-all-that-blockchain-is-for-155468af881b
