1. BANKING
Banking is just the beginning. From a macro perspective, banks serve as the critical storehouses and transfer hubs of value. As a digitized, secure, and tamper-proof ledger, blockchain could serve the same function, injecting enhanced accuracy and information-sharing into the financial services ecosystem.
Swiss bank UBS and UK-based Barclays are both experimenting with blockchain as a way to expedite back office functions and settlement, which some in the banking industry say could cut up to $20B in middleman costs.
2. MESSAGING APPS
Encrypted messaging app Telegram raised 1.7B in Private investors before canceling the public sale of its planned $1.2B initial coin offering (ICO). Around a year later, the company launched the test client for its blockchain-based TON (Telegram Open Network). Telegraph’s TON Labs has also partnered with Wirecard, a European financial services entity, to build a digital banking platform.
3.HEDGE FUNDS
Backed by names including First Round Capital and Union Square Ventures, Numeral is taking the hedge fund model employing a bunch of traders and quants and decentralizing it. Numerai sends its thousands of disparately located quants encrypted datasets and asks them to build predictive models, and the best contributors are rewarded with Numerai’s token called Numeraire. Then, Numerai takes the strategy and creates a meta-model to make trades. In some ways it’s a blockchain-based spin on model for rewarding data scientists, except it’s less a competition and more an invisible collaboration.
4.VOTING
Elections require authentication of voters’ identity, secure record keeping to track votes, and trusted tallies to determine the winner. In the future, blockchain tools could serve as a foundational infrastructure for casting, tracking, and counting votes potentially eliminating the need for recounts by taking voter fraud and foul play off the table.
5.INTERNET ADVERTISING
The internet as we know it emerged with ad hoc solutions for advertising. In aggregate, ads add tons of mobile data usage to loading web pages, and both advertisers and consumers suffer from any lack of protocols.
6.CAR LEASING AND SALES
The experience of leasing, buying, or selling a vehicle is a notoriously fragmented process for stakeholders on all sides of a transaction, but the blockchain could change that.
In 2015, Visa partnered with transaction management startup Docusign on a proof-of-concept project that used blockchain to streamline car leasing transforming it into a “click, sign, and drive” process.
7.CLOUD STORAGE
Enterprises that offer cloud storage often secure customers’ data in a centralized server, which can mean increased network vulnerability from attacks by hackers. Blockchain cloud storage solutions allow storage to be decentralized and therefore less prone to attacks that can cause systemic damage and widespread data loss.
8.ENERGY MANAGEMENT
Energy management is another industry that has historically been highly centralized. In the US and UK, to transact in energy one must go through an established power holding company like Duke Energy or National Grid, or deal with a re-seller that buys from a big electricity company.
9.GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC RECORDS
The management of public services is yet another area where blockchain can help lessen paper-based processes, minimize fraud, and increase accountability between authorities and those they serve.
Some US states are taking it upon themselves to realize the benefits of blockchain: the Delaware Blockchain Initiative, launched in 2016, aims to create an appropriate legal infrastructure for distributed ledger shares, to increase efficiency and speed of incorporation services.
10.HUMAN RESOURCES
Conducting background checks and verifying employment histories can be time-consuming, highly manual tasks for human resources professionals.
If employment and criminal records were stored in a blockchain ledger (and thus free from the possibility of falsification), HR professionals could streamline the vetting process and move hiring processes forward more quickly.
11.CREDIT HISTORIES
Lenders minimize the risk posed by loans or lines of credit to small businesses by evaluating their histories using business credit reports. These third-party reports issued companies such as Dun & Bradstreet are inaccessible to the small business owners (beyond the basic profile information they provide to the credit bureau).
This can make business owners feel like credit bureaus have all the power over loan terms, even though the credit bureau may be assessing outdated or inaccurate information to determine their reports.
12.WASTE MANAGEMENT
Recycling is one of the best ways to reduce landfill waste but it can be a confusing and laborious practice that doesn’t have much reward. A blockchain-based solution could help optimize recycling systems that are already in place.
Many companies are popping up to incentivize recycling. The Plastic Bank offers money or digital tokens in exchange for used plastic, and is working with IBM to expand its recycling solution globally. Recereum is a more localized platform that allows communities to reward people who properly sort their recycling with coins.
13.CANNABIS
After legalization of marijuana in Canada, and growing support for legalization across the US, the cannabis industry is reaping big investments in tech and research.
The legalized cannabis industry is likely to be tightly regulated and could benefit from a transparent and secure system for tracking production and distribution. Blockchain technology could provide a record of product movement from farm to dispensary, helping to boost safety and regulatory compliance.
Mile High Labs, a producer and supplier of CBD products, partnered with Chain.io to create a blockchain-tracked supply chain for the cannabis industry. Beyond supply chains, Mile High Labs is also interested in using the ledger technology for regulation and compliance.