Ten Blockchain Uses for Government and Business
By Matheus Darós Pagani
CEO of 4CADIA Foundation
Blockchain is one of the most revolutionary technologies out there today. Many are already investing on or using it — heaping huge amounts of profit on it. And this is your chance to profit on it too, if you just learn how you can use it in your business.
Even though many know that Blockchain is one of the most outstanding technologies in the digital world, shortsightedness prevents them from seeing the full scope of the power that Blockchain has to transform the world around us. Just think about the current uses of this technology: It was thanks to Blockchain that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that today provide security and reliability to millions of users around the globe.
That is not, though, the only use of blockchain; blockchain also enables small publishers and recording labels to safely receive their royalties, public administrators and the people to correctly assess the counting of electoral ballots, and insurance companies to correctly evaluate premiums.
There are so many possibilities of using blockchain. So much so that we made this list of ten cases of successful uses of blockchain. After reading this, you will see the richness and the versatility of this technology, and surely will want to employ it to your own business.
Ready?
How blockchain can build an entire real estate area — and a city
Virtually all construction projects are governed by systems that rely on a lot of paperwork, contractual processes, and lengthy negotiations. All these hurdles can be mitigated through the use of blockchain.
This is the case with HerenBouw, an Amsterdam-based construction company, which uses a blockchain-based project management system to increase the efficiency of the life cycle of building development. Operating in the commercial real estate area, they are using the technology in a large-scale development project at the city’s port. The focus of the blockchain application is to record transactions at legally binding times, providing accuracy and an audit trail.
There’s another initiative, even more impressive. It’s Akon City, a city to be founded in Kenya entirely based on blockchain. The daring project is backed by DLT, owned by singer Akon.
Against cyber-attacks
How to harness all security measures, aligning it with blockchain? This is what the EOSIO protocol is. This protocol allows the user to handle the authorization and authentication processes thoroughly. It is edge-based, so it means that all data is kept in the custody of the user itself, decentralizing the process. One of the most promising cases is NuCypher’s protocol, the largest blockchain security project in Ethereum.
Making artists get what’s due
One of the most controversial aspects of the arts and music industry in modern times is the protection of the artist’s right and the due receipt of profits for the execution or exhibition of his work, the so-called royalty. The use of Blockchain can correct the obsolete nature of our notions about copyright. This can be done through smart contracts, records of property transactions, values, information and assets in a digital way, encrypted and stored within Blockchain systems. $OUND, Ujo, and Open Music are using blockchain-based frameworks to create an instant catalog of artist identification
Blockchain to crush fake medicine
The global market for falsified medicines currently stands at 200 billion dollars, with an average annual growth of 20%, twice the rate of the legitimate pharmaceutical market. To prevent the spreading of fake medicines, blockchain can be used to great results.
This is the initiative behind FarmaTrust, a UK-based data company that traces the origin of a medicine through the supply chain via blockchain. Raja Sharif, the founder of FarmaTrust, explains that fake medicines usually get their entrance in the market in the middle of the supply chain. This is why recording the journey of the medicine to the client using blockchain is essential. Sharif got the idea of founding FarmaTrust after ingesting fake medicines, which nearly killed him.
The same principle applies to national health systems: Estonia is the first country in the world to operate with a national health registration system using blockchain. 95% of medical data have been uploaded since its implementation in 2005.
How blockchain can prevent thousands of food poisoning deaths by bringing good meat to the table
Health is certainly one of the greatest sources of concern for consumers who care about the origin of their food. This demand might grow, especially in light of the effects of COVID-19.
As a side effect, companies are using seals and stamps of authenticity as a means to charge high prices on the food they sell. Want real food? Pay more.
Blockchain can solve this predicament. Real food at reasonable prices. Peer to peer networks, protected by cryptography, allow each of the parties involved in the supply chain of a given product to have access to data points that tell exactly where and for how long each of them has passed.
Packages or boxes with hash slots inserted in a secure network can allow real-time access to the location of the food, allowing at any point in the chain to know by whose hands and for how long it remained with each intermediary. The unique identity of each package guarantees its inviolability and provides security for those who produce, sell and consume.
This is the solution that many companies around the world are reaching, spearheaded by IBM Trust Food, the most famous application in this market. The solutions are based on the creation of a digital record book of transactions or interactions, from the date of packaging, temperature of the product at the time of transport, until the time it is placed on the shelf. Network members are looking for ways to leverage the use of blockchain to improve supply chain performance in areas such as efficiency, freshness, waste reduction and certification verification.
Part of this trust are companies like Carrefour, Nestlé, Dole Food, Kroger, and Unilever.
Blockchain to pave the way for a cleaner future with recycling
Blockchain can solve this problem, making recycling more accessible and widespread. Bounties Network and Coins.ph, who made the collecting of millions of tons of garbage in the beaches of the Philippines possible, thoroughly changing the dynamics of the locals with the trash and the financial system.
These companies work by engaging the locals with a web-, mobile-, or computer-accessed web. The locals involved in the recycling process must submit proofs of their participation in the collecting on the web. These proofs can be their photos in collecting task forces, by the side of garbage bags, and the like, and are then validated in the blockchain. The validated proofs are converted in a reward paid in Ethereum, which can be accessed by the partner institutions; these institutions can also collect donations to world-wide campaigns in cryptocurrencies. The collected plastic garbage is sent to recycling centers based in the community itself.
There is also the case of Vancouver-based Plastic Bank, funded by IBM, now also operative in the Philippines, that has placed its bet in involving other commercial partners, which are stimulated to accept payments in cryptocurrencies.
Privacy protection
The passing of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) wrote a new chapter to the story of privacy protection in the digital age. Only the GDPR demands cannot be properly attended to without blockchain architecture. For instance, the GPRD stresses the need to identify a central controller that might answer to the legal authorities in relation to the wishes of the legal holders of information. In blockchain, the decentralized nature of the network makes every participant of the chain subject to this responsibility. Another good use of blockchain within the GDPR scope is with smart contracts. The use of this tool, with cryptography at the time of making transactions involving personal data and with functions that change the access to these data as time goes on, would prove itself compatible with the GDPR.
Solving land ownership claims for 70% of the world population
Land ownership registration systems are a problem in several countries around the world. From otarial regulation and delimitation of limits to the acquisition of lines of credit and new machinery, it is one of the most delicate issues. In fact, seventy percent of the world population has no access to formal land ownership registration services.
Blockchain can put an end to this issue. It offers a wide range of possibilities to remedy the problems caused by the need for intermediaries in land registration. In a decentralized ledger, a hash is given and permanently stored for each land transaction. This allows for the traceability of the entire history of the property, without the possibility of manipulation of the titles. The public ledger may be consulted at any time to ascertain the validity of any property claim. In this model, governments or regulation bodies can operate as network administrators, which mitigates the need for intermediaries who might disrupt the transaction or limit access to the registration of properties.
Georgia, in Eastern Europe, is a prime example of troubleshooting land ownership rights with blockchain. The National Land Administration in partnership with startup Bitfury and with institutional support from GIZ. In their model, implemented in the country in 2016, the transfer of ownership takes place without a government mandate, in the form of smart contracts between the parties. This means that what is signed in the public ledger, signed digitally between the parties. This signature has public faith — and therefore legal authority — upon on-chain payment in cryptocurrencies, or even off-chain payments as it is usually done.
Several international bodies now consider it a successful experience. The system helped increase government efficiency and restore credibility in government agencies. Two years later, 1.5 million ownership titles had already been published in blockchain.
Eliminating paperwork and frond in the insurance business with blockchain
The insurance industry is today one of the most centralized, protected, and conservative in the world. Part of this is due to the very nature of the business, which deals with risks on a much larger scale than most of the market. With Blockchain, encrypted medical records can be shared between hospitals and insurance companies, crossing local and international borders. Thus, duplicate and erroneous records can be cut, reducing claim processing time, claim denials, and checkups.
In this environment, smart contracts appear as a great alternative to traditional paperwork. Used in combination with connected devices, customers, insurers and vendors automatically learn about the validity of a policy or attempted duplication fraud. In addition, it is possible to think of the system in an interconnected way, with the automatic triggering of claims directly connected to anti-theft sensors in cars, for example.
Probably the most successful case is the German Etherisc, a company that develops decentralized and open source insurance applications based on smart contracts. An Etherisc smart contract can check insurance claims using multiple data sources — or “oracles,” as the company calls them. For example, one of Etherisc’s customers is an aviation company. In the event of the company’s claiming insurance for the loss of an aircraft, the Etherisc smart contract can verify the loss or damage suffered by the insured by means of satellite images. This is done in a fully automated manner, within the blockchain’s ledgers, even before any human investigation.
Why blockchain is a prime tool to prevent the rise authoritarianism
Blockchain technology has been used to ensure transparency, completeness, traceability and anonymity of digital transactions of all kinds. Specially designed applications can change the way we organize electoral processes, moving to a more horizontal type of governance, where citizens become proper watchmen of the democratic process.
This is especially true in the case of elections. Companies like Agora, in Sierra Leone, and Active Citizen, in Russia, are two watchdogs against election muddling. Their initiatives have been at play in other countries, like Switzerland, Japan, and South Korea. Part of their appeal is that the blockchain-backed safety tools include the expatriates in the decision-making process and also adds tools focused on collective decision-making processes in community intervention projects.
These initiatives show how important blockchain is in making this world a freer and safer place for everyone, in different ways and markets, either public or private. It is important to make blockchain even more accessible for everyone. This has been the work we’ve been doing here at 4CADIA.
