What Is Blockchain? Why Is It So Much More Than Just Cryptocurrencies?

10846
42567
What Is Blockchain? Why Is It So Much More Than Just Cryptocurrencies?
What Is Blockchain? Why Is It So Much More Than Just Cryptocurrencies?

The two major objectives making the use of the blockchain, a type of the distributed ledger technology (DLT) implementation, very attractive for both individuals and companies are the safe and cheap transfer of funds anywhere in the world in minutes. However, these are not the only advantages and possibilities of the blockchain.

A public blockchain can be managed by a peer-to-peer network of computers autonomously without having to rely on a centralized party for authorization. This presents a new decentralized form of governance allowing to control the issuance and the distribution of digital assets in an extremely cost-efficient way: the blockchain system sustains itself by compensating for the consumed energy and the network’s resources.

Although the network is managed collectively there’s very low risk of fraud due to its transparency allowing every participant (node) to see the moves of everybody else. In case one of the computers in the network gets attacked the others will be able to retain the data protecting it from being lost or forged. The same is true about replicating data such as digital assets and attempting to assign its ownership to different people in a malicious way. On the blockchain, these acts can be easily detected and revealed to the entire network. We can go on and on about the advantages of the technology forever, instead, let’s just look at the actual use cases of the blockchain across industries:

 

Cross-border payments

Applied to cryptocurrencies, e.g. to Bitcoin at first has proven blockchain a good and much cheaper alternative to services like PayPal, Western Union and international bank transfers with extremely high charges, slow speed, and cumbersome verification process carried out by a financial institution.

 

Trade settling

Having removed the middleman from the trading process, the blockchain allowed to speed up the settlement process. This wouldn’t be possible without the transparency and security ensured by the network’s computational resources and vigilance. The good use-case example here would be not only cryptocurrencies but also banks (e.g. Citi) and stock exchanges (e.g. Nasdaq).

 

Automation

The emergence of smart contracts, decentralized applications (dAPPs), decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and the Internet of Things (IoT) concept have presented an exciting curve for the implementation of the blockchain in science- and the technology-driven markets where automation is needed. Bitcoin and Ethereum are not the only examples of the successful implementation of the blockchain for the sake of automation as they have inspired an array of decentralized platforms for dAPPs and decentralized organizations to appear and take shape.

 

Visibility

IBM and Maersk lately started exploring the possibilities of the blockchain in the shipping industry and the supply chains, where the due visibility and traceability has been lacking before. Digitizing the supply chain as such will inevitably lead to the wider implementation of the blockchain due to its transparency and efficiency.

 

Fraud prevention

Introducing the blockchain technology to the banking system especially when it comes to compliance, anti-money laundering (AML), Know Your Customer (KYC) and other security procedures such as anti-terrorist financing is an extremely cost-saving alternative already put to test by Goldman Sachs, Rabobank and BNY Mellon Treasury Services among others, as well as a number of fintech startups (e.g. CoinFirm).

 

Voting

Denmark, Estonia, and Norway have already put the e-voting on the blockchain to test. Without compromising the anonymity of the voters, their votes can now be collected, stored, analyzed and retrieved safely. This makes the blockchain suitable for prediction markets that are growing in number and popularity these days.  

What’s more?

It would be very naive to presume that all the possible blockchain implementations can be listed and systematized, however at this point of the technology’s development creating such a summary is impossible.

As you may have guessed from the examples above the blockchain is too big to ignore, and your bank, company and government all have plans to digitize their data and move it to the blockchain. It offers a better, cheaper, faster, safer and more efficient alternative for the majority of the industries’ needs, therefore embracing it in the early stage of development is vital for companies.

10846 COMMENTS

  1. I’ve been exploring for a bit for any high quality articles or weblog posts in this sort of area . Exploring in Yahoo I finally stumbled upon this website. Reading this information So i’m satisfied to convey that I’ve a very good uncanny feeling I found out just what I needed. I such a lot indisputably will make certain to don’t disregard this web site and provides it a glance regularly.

  2. Hi, Neat post. There is a problem along with your site in internet explorer, might check this?K IE still is the marketplace leader and a large component of other folks will miss your fantastic writing due to this problem.

  3. An impressive share, I just given this onto a colleague who was doing a little analysis on this. And he in fact bought me breakfast because I found it for him.. smile. So let me reword that: Thnx for the treat! But yeah Thnkx for spending the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love reading more on this topic. If possible, as you become expertise, would you mind updating your blog with more details? It is highly helpful for me. Big thumb up for this blog post!

  4. Nice post. I was checking constantly this weblog and I’m impressed! Very helpful info specifically the closing part 🙂 I deal with such information much. I was looking for this particular info for a long time. Thank you and best of luck.

  5. Woah! I’m really enjoying the template/theme of this site. It’s simple, yet effective. A lot of times it’s very hard to get that “perfect balance” between user friendliness and visual appearance. I must say you have done a very good job with this. In addition, the blog loads very fast for me on Firefox. Exceptional Blog!

  6. Hi, Neat post. There’s a problem with your site in internet explorer, would test this… IE still is the market leader and a large portion of people will miss your great writing due to this problem.

  7. I am not sure where you’re getting your information, but good topic. I needs to spend some time learning much more or understanding more. Thanks for great information I was looking for this info for my mission.

  8. I’ve been surfing on-line more than 3 hours as of late, but I never found any attention-grabbing article like yours. It’s pretty value enough for me. In my opinion, if all site owners and bloggers made good content material as you probably did, the net can be a lot more helpful than ever before.

  9. Hi there! This is kind of off topic but I need some guidance from an established blog. Is it very hard to set up your own blog? I’m not very techincal but I can figure things out pretty fast. I’m thinking about making my own but I’m not sure where to start. Do you have any points or suggestions? Cheers

  10. Woah! I’m really loving the template/theme of this site. It’s simple, yet effective. A lot of times it’s tough to get that “perfect balance” between superb usability and visual appearance. I must say that you’ve done a excellent job with this. Also, the blog loads very quick for me on Firefox. Excellent Blog!

  11. I’ve been browsing on-line more than three hours these days, but I never discovered any attention-grabbing article like yours. It’s lovely price enough for me. In my opinion, if all webmasters and bloggers made excellent content material as you did, the internet can be a lot more helpful than ever before. “Revolution is not a onetime event.” by Audre Lorde.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here