Emerging Trends in Blockchain Use Cases in 2020
If you know how to read and are interested in technology, then by now, you must’ve heard about bitcoins and blockchain technology. People have been talking about it since its introduction in the last decade and the hype continues about bitcoins and it’s effects even today. People are still wondering whether it’s a new online currency or just a bubble which will never take off. Most people who haven’t read about the topic usually take bitcoins and blockchains as synonyms for a new kind of technology but they are way apart from each other when it comes to their application.
Let’s get the basics clear once again and jog our memories a bit here.
Bitcoin — a type of digital currency in which a record of transactions is maintained and new units of currency are generated by the computational solution of mathematical problems, and which operates independently of a central bank.
According to the Oxford Dictionary
Blockchain — A blockchain is, in the simplest of terms, a time-stamped series of an immutable record of data that is managed by a cluster of computers not owned by any single entity. Each of these blocks of data (i.e. block) are secured and bound to each other using cryptographic principles (i.e. chain).
According to Blockgeeks.com
Now, understand that bitcoins may have been banned in certain countries like China, Russia and India but its use in the US, Canada and a few countries in the European Union is actively increasing. Microsoft Store, Subway and DISH network in the US accept payments in bitcoins and it has also made its way in the derivatives market in the US making its presence stronger than ever.
A survey conducted by Deloitte in 2019, suggests that there will be a substantial increase in the use of blockchains in organizations. 53% of the organizations and people surveyed, stated that use of blockchain will be critical and would be included in the organizations top 5 strategic priorities.
Considering the basics mentioned above let’s look at some use case studies of blockchain and how it’s making a huge difference in the way industries and organizations function. It has the power to disrupt the middleman business model and can prove to be fatal for the likes of Uber, Airbnb, Visa, MasterCard and more. Its use is making waves in almost all major industries ranging from Banking & Finance to Healthcare, Energy & Sustainability, Real Estate and even Govt. and Public Sector Undertakings.
It’s advantageous for industries to integrate blockchain technologies in several ways but the major reasons can be summarized in the points listed here:
- Reduces costs of trust and coordination with external parties
- Unlock new business models through multi-sided markets and digital assets
- Improve business network accountability and operational efficiency
- Future-proof businesses against antiquated process models
According to Consensys, a company which partners with organizations like Microsoft, AWS and P&G in order to bring blockchain technology closer to people and businesses.
We did some research about the use-case studies of blockchain technology and we were overwhelmed with the results we got. Apart from the big players, there are several independent startups which are making it in the news for the way they are making new things possible using blockchain technology.
There are numerous examples out there and we are sure that by the time you’re reading this article there’s one for your business too, which can help you answer questions that you have regarding its integration to your current business model.
Here are a few of our favourites from the big players:
IBM
- How the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is exploring blockchain technology for public health
Askari Rizvi, CTO, National Center for Health Statistics Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that at CDC you are always looking for innovative and powerful technologies to better improve the health of the American people, the division of healthcare settle stakes, we do a lot of data collection from those data collection a lot of the response rates for the service throughout the united states have been dropping so we are looking for innovative ways to kind of compensate for that issue.
The proof of concept that we created it’s basically for data collection so we have where we are simulating the data that we are getting from the providers come through a blockchain, we house it and then the provider will have the capability of giving us consent for the different types of data that we’ve extracted versus EHR(Electronic Health Records) etc. We can see the audit trail on it so there’s traceability in terms of who has access to it, who’s had access to it so there’s a lot of value there. So cybersecurity is always a challenge right so we’re looking into blockchain to see how it can further enhance the security of cybersecurity.
- Food Safety and Traceability
A group of the world’s leading retailers and food companies are working with IBM to explore how blockchain technology can be used to make the food supply chain safer. Blockchain technology can be used to improve food traceability by providing trusted information on the origin and state of food. The consortium includes companies like Dole, Driscoll’s, Golden State Foods, Kroger, McCormick and Company, McLane Company, Nestlé, Tyson Foods, Unilever and Walmart.
Every year, one-in-ten people fall ill — and 400,000 die — due to contaminated food. Many of the critical issues impacting food safety such as cross-contamination, the spread of food-borne illness, unnecessary waste and the economic burden of recalls are magnified by lack of access to information and traceability. It can take weeks to identify the precise point of contamination, causing further illness, lost revenue and wasted product. For example, it took more than two months to identify the farm source of contamination in a recent incidence of salmonella in papayas.
Blockchain is ideally suited to help address these challenges because it establishes a trusted environment for all transactions. In the case of the global food supply chain, all participants — growers, suppliers, processors, distributors, retailers, regulators and consumers — can gain permissioned access to known and trusted information regarding the origin and state of food for their transactions. This can enable food providers and other members of the ecosystem to use a blockchain network to trace contaminated product to its source in a short amount of time to ensure safe removal from store shelves and stem the spread of illnesses.
According to IBM Press Release
Microsoft Azure
- Xbox game publishers access royalties statements even faster now that Microsoft uses Azure Blockchain Service
A 2017 Forbes article put the contribution of the video game industry to the United States GDP at $11.7 billion. This economic powerhouse employs nearly 70,000 workers across more than 500 publishing companies. And as of early 2019, the industry has surged to more than $18.4 billion, according to Statista.
Video games evolve at warp speed, revolutionizing the way players play. But the financial reporting systems used for compensating game publishers were based on an accounting model created when quill on parchment was still in vogue. Although spreadsheets hasten financial processing, using them to calculate and reconcile game royalties — which often cascade out to musicians, special effects houses, and a widening pool of other providers — gobbled time and kept finance teams from more strategic work.
The Xbox Finance team adopted blockchain technology in 2018, seeking to eliminate the need for time-consuming reconciliation and shorten the access time to royalties information for its game publishers from 45 days to minutes. “Reconciliation is a symptom of disjointed systems and disparate sources of truth,” explains Rohit Amberker, Finance Director for Royalties and Content Operations at Microsoft. “Traditionally, accounting relied on books and offline ledgers, creating a foundational need for reconciliation. With blockchain technology, we have interconnected self-balancing digital ledgers. Manual reconciliation becomes irrelevant.”
The tamper-proof nature of the digital ledger provides an immutable record of transactions, enhancing transparency and the user experience. The blockchain-based solution codifies the logic of complex royalty agreements, making it possible to have “smart” digital contracts that self-execute as transactions occur. That embedded logic boosts confidence for everyone that payments are fair and accurate, says Tim Stuart, Xbox Chief Financial Officer at Microsoft. “It largely eliminates disputes over terms and payments,” he asserts.
- Ground-breaking insurance blockchain solution runs in Microsoft Azure
Marine insurance has a notoriously complex premium-setting process, which made it a great prospect for a blockchain-based overhaul. Global professional services firm EY worked with Microsoft, network security expert Guardtime, blockchain technology provider R3, and global shipping giant A.P. Moller — Maersk to create Insurwave, the world’s first blockchain platform for marine insurance. Insurwave runs in Microsoft Azure, because EY felt it provided the security, scalability, and credibility needed to make a global, enterprise blockchain solution successful.
Insurwave takes clients, brokers, insurers, and third parties and connects them to distributed common ledgers that capture data about identities, risk, and exposures, integrating this information with insurance contracts. The solution includes the ability to create and maintain asset data from multiple parties; to link data to policy contracts; to receive and act on information that results in a pricing or a business process change; to connect client assets, transactions, and payments; and to capture and validate up-to-date first notification or loss data.
Maersk is using Insurwave to conduct the 2018 insurance renewals of its entire fleet of 800 container ships. “With Insurwave, we can send our portfolio to multiple brokers so that we have better access to insurance markets,” says Lars Henneberg, Head of Risk Management at A.P. Moller — Maersk. “A simple dashboard gives us a live overview of how our assets are insured, and our brokers and insurers have access to the same overview. If the location, cargo, or other data about our ships changes, everyone is notified — no delays, no paperwork, no mistakes.”
Insurwave provides three big benefits: reduced costs, revenue uplift, and streamlined compliance. All parties have real-time visibility into the location, condition, and safety of high-value assets moving around the world, which leads to accurate, dynamic, and fair underwriting and pricing.
According to Microsoft Customer Stories
AWS Blockchain Service
- Healthdirect Australia is a national, government-owned, not-for-profit organization that has been helping Australians manage their health and wellbeing for over a decade
“Healthdirect Australia operates in a heavily regulated industry, and it is critical that our compliance data is correct and auditable. With Amazon QLDB we look forward to having a complete and verifiable history of every change in our system, making it simple to audit when and how we arrived at our current state. Regulatory compliance is a fact of life for healthcare companies, and Amazon QLDB enables us to easily track the controls we have in place and understand how they have changed over time.”
- Bruce Haefele — General Manager, Technology, Healthdirect Australia
- The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) provides industry-leading solutions that promote the stability and certainty of global financial markets.
“As a critical financial market infrastructure, the industry relies on us to provide innovative solutions that reduce risk, increase transparency and evolve with market and regulatory needs. We believe that blockchain technology represents a generational opportunity to re-imagine post-trade infrastructure. We are pleased to be using Amazon Managed Blockchain to explore possibilities with Hyperledger Fabric, where we can continue to lead industry initiatives around the exploration and adoption of Blockchain. Amazon Managed Blockchain automates the deployment of blockchain infrastructure, bringing high availability and durability in a fully managed package, accelerating the adoption of distributed ledger technology.”
- Rob Palatnick — Managing Director, Chief Technology Architect, DTCC
According to AWS Blockchain Customers
To sum it all up, we can say that blockchain has made its way into our daily lives and are already changing the way we interact and do business. From Smart Supply Chain Management to Smart Contracts, from Data Simulation to Data accessibility and transparency, from royalties management to digital identities, everything is becoming more transparent and easily accesible through blockchain technology.
Believe it or not, in 2020, we will see some major changes that each of us will identify with as growing at another level and speed with the help of blockchain technology. Watch out and try to incorporate blockchain technology to ease your processes and make them more valuable.
