With the internet, everything we do online is public and anyone, if they start digging a little, is able to know a lot of confidential information about whoever they would like. This is one of the reasons why encryption and the blockchain started, because of the lack of privacy from the internet. But what is the blockchain?
To put it simply, the blockchain is a technology that allows information and transactions to be stored and transmitted in a safe and transparent way and most importantly, in a decentralized way. It is a secure system open to all users that can contain transactions. Each user can check the validity of a transaction in the blockchain, which can be considered as a kind of electronic ledger that is anonymous, public and non-falsifiable.
The blockchain allows a kind of privacy that attracts a lot of people but also a lot of different sectors such as the entertainment industry, healthcare or even governments.
At first, usually, when we speak about the blockchain, people only think about mining and trading cryptocurrencies. It is known as a means to create some income with the possibility of earning a lot of money unexpectedly. Even if mining and trading are a use of the blockchain, it is not the only one. There is way more to it. It is strongly believed that the blockchain has the power to transform our society in a positive way. There are a lot of areas that are concerned by it, the first one being of course cryptocurrency exchange as mentioned above, but not only. The blockchain has great assets that can allow a lot of different things. It could be useful for tracing items in the food industry, store confidential data such as medical records or even, benefit the entertainment industry.
Blockchain and cryptocurrencies
The blockchain is the technology that enables the existence of cryptocurrency. It allows people to make transactions on it such as buying, selling and exchanging cryptocurrencies. Moreover, those transactions made on the blockchain are well secured as every transaction made on it is registered and can be traced back. It proves how secure it can be as the blockchain system is encrypted into blocks and as it can be verified by anyone. Talking about transactions, cryptocurrencies and the blockchain, allow people from all over the world to use global cryptocurrencies and exchange with smaller fees than with FIAT (FIAT is the diminutive of fiduciary money. These are classic currencies such as euros and dollars.) Also, with the blockchain and cryptocurrency, when traveling, you wouldn’t have to change money or be impacted by any change fees. Go anywhere you want without the difficulties imposed by fiat money. Moreover, the ticketing system and booking would become much faster and more secure. It would be easier and 10x faster to get a refund with a smart contract when a transport is cancelled.
What is also important to know about cryptocurrency is that it does not have a physical form and it only exists in the network, it is not related to any central bank and it does not have an intrinsic value.
Blockchain and digital security and Identity
Imagine transforming all your ID’s into hash-coded numbers so as to make the identification and authorization process faster and more secure. This would lead to much less identity fraud, theft, and less data breaches.
It is a very secure environment, as everything is encrypted and duplicated, the information written first hand, would be indestructible and can’t be modified once it is put on the blockchain. No information can be changed once it is put on it as it is registered on multiple servers, the security is pretty high.There will always be a way to verify the information and trace back the original ones.
The different important identification documents that could be put on the blockchain could include: Passports, Birth Certificates, Wedding Certificate, Identity Cards, ID on the web.
This way of storing data allows more security but also no way to lose it. In the physical world, if you lose an important document such as an ID, the process to remake it is not as fast as connecting to the blockchain to check it.
Blockchain and traceability
Nowadays people are more and more interested in the details of the product they are buying. They want to know where it comes from, how it was made, where it was made… a lot of different information that is currently not always available for consumers. With the blockchain, one of the solutions could be to trace the different items used in a product from the beginning. Being in the blockchain, no one could change, lie or fraud on any information.
Tracing items could go from tracing the provenance of different types of leather in a purse or even the different ingredients used in a pasta box sold in a supermarket. There could be the details of each step in the provenance of the items that make a final product. Their provenance but also their transport information.
It would allow companies to be way more transparent towards their customers but also to monitor entirely their supply chain and their logistics. In case of a problem on one of their raw materials or even finished products, tracing it back would be better for everyone as it would allow a better flow of information.
Blockchain and healthcare
In the medical world, the blockchain could also be really useful. Currently, people are already talking about electronic medical records. An electronic medical record could gather all your medical data. Currently, the biggest concern on having an electronic medical record is privacy. A lot of questions about it are asked as medical records hold the most confidentials information on anyone. However with the blockchain, security would not be a problem so what could be interesting is to have this file directly inside the blockchain. It would allow people to track any operation, vaccine, treatments plus all the medical history of any patient. On the other hand, you could also manage all your healthcare contracts, private life insurances and data with such a system. Also, smart contracts could allow a faster refund from insurances.
Talking about insurance, the blockchain could also be a real plus. It could help to stand against fraud. Indeed with the automatisation of the process of KYC (Know Your Customer) it checks the identity of clients or companies.
Blockchain and the entertainment industry
Art, music, video games, cinema, sports, etc. the entertainment field is also concerned by blockchain technology. This field is usually found on this technology under NFT’s. An NFT is a Non-Fungible-Token that represents a digital such as an image, a video, a music, or anything of this kind that you could think of.
Blockchain and smart contracts could benefit all content creators from the entertainment field and create a fairer deal between creators and consumers.
In the music industry copyright management could be interested in this technology. It could allow better management and a dynamic repartition of rights in real time.
Also we could see the emergence of in-game crypto-economy. Imagine having some specific and unique items that nobody else could have except you. Its uniqueness would make you a proud owner of this digital asset, you could also see it as an investment and later exchange it for some cryptocurrencies if its value allows it.
Blockchain and governmental institutions
During each election, what has been observed is that less and less people come to vote. The abstention rate is getting higher and higher. This behavior is starting to have the government look for new ways to have people voting.
One of the solutions would be electronic voting. A lot of questions arise with electronic voting such as anonymity, security, fraud… There are real concerns about bringing new technologies in this field. As seen previously, it would appear that the blockchain could allow this procedure. With Blockchain, electronic voting could be done within minutes and with the assurance that it is secure and impossible to falsify.
On top of that, this could also be applied to all forms of elections, votes, referendums that usually cost a lot to governments. It could bring a new breath to voting, be more in tune with the evolution of our society and also get more people to participate in the event of its governments.
Talking about the government, the blockchain could also allow other types of actions. The main action that would be really interesting would be for the government to register governmental actions. It would favor transparency between the government and its citizens and place citizens at the core of the country. Allowing them to know what is happening and help them better understand the situation of their country to be able to then make choices on important matters as they will have more information.
The blockchain is a technology full of interest. It could actually benefit a lot of fields. Its level of transparency, fiability and decentralisation make it a useful tool for numerous businesses. It is still a new technology that has a lot of potential and could actually get a place in everyone’s life.
