ADN Report: 7 Industries Most Impacted by Blockchain
ADN believes that blockchain technology is helping many industries to provide better services to users. Read how blockchain is doing so in this blog.
With the introduction of various technologies, we have come to witness various industries transform in their overall processes. Blockchain technology, a decade-old innovation introduced through cryptocurrencies, is helping these industries with their quest for improved functions and systems.
In fact, it has already revolutionized various sectors aside from banking and P2P payments. In this ADN blog, we will share seven popular industries that have successfully integrated blockchain into their systems and have proven to be a good match with the technology.
Healthcare
Many professionals working in the healthcare sector say that it needs a number of updates to catch up with the other industries. We believe their concerns are legitimate, even though the industry itself is set apart from the others for the plain fact that lives are directly at stake for any potential malpractice — hence the hesitation.
Blockchain can be used for a number of important practices within the industry. First is the storage of correct and adequate patient information. This will help medical practitioners administer the appropriate treatment for their patients regardless of whether it’s their first time treating the patient.
Currently, individuals who need special medical attention cannot travel from place to place because of the threat of not being given the proper treatment. This is because patient data is centralized, and only the patient’s designated doctor has access to the medical history. With blockchain, every doctor within a network can administer the correct treatment.
Second is the verification of medicine integrity. There are many counterfeit medicines that are circulating around many parts of the world, and people are paying for fake medicines at fatal costs. Through blockchain, anyone can check vital information on any medicine such as the manufacturer and the expiry date, to name a couple.
In mid-2018, China was distressed by a pharmaceutical scandal, wherein a certain vaccine supplier was investigated by the authorities and have been found out to have been producing substandard medicine. Many people suggested turning to blockchain technology to assure the integrity of vaccines before they are distributed to the public.
Finally, insurance companies can do away with fraud claimers. Since information can be stored securely on the blockchain, their database will detect any false claimers and thus provide services only to the legitimate ones, thus saving them both time and effort.
Supply Chain
Blockchain syncs well with supply chain management not just because they have a similar ring, but because the former can solve practically most of the latter’s challenges.
One solution is the better tracking of product progress. Depending on the industry, a supply chain can have hundreds of entities that are involved just to make sure the quality and desired product reaches the end-user at the expected time and condition.
Each of these players needs to coordinate properly, be it to pay the right person, deliver the goods at the right time, document the number of items being shipped at a particular moment, and more.
Given that central databases are prone to hacking and discrepancies, blockchain technology can prove useful because it enables every member of the chain to retrieve tamper-proof data whenever they need it.
Second is the verification of product quality and integrity. All consumers need to be assured that the product they have in hand is of the best quality as promised by the manufacturers. As in every supply chain, the final product has been passed on from one link in the chain to another, and there’s always a possibility of error in its handling or transferring, one way or another.
For example, the vaccine scandal mentioned above could have been prevented had each link in the chain verified the veracity of the vaccine production data. Since all data entries on the blockchain are tamper-proof, they will be able to maintain the data’s integrity. Moreover, those who provide false information can be detected easily.
Currently, major production companies like Walmart, Unilever, Nestle, and Dole are using blockchain to keep track of their food information such as the point of origin, place where the product was stored and processed, the sell-by date.
Education
Students from different campuses across many countries suffer in terms of sluggish processes and discrepancies in student information. Even the HR personnel of companies have to contact the registrars of learning institutions just to make sure that a certain applicant really did graduate there.
On top of these, the staff needs to maintain the students’ physical credentials and their other records. These issues have been haunting schools and universities for years on end.
But with blockchain, educational institutions can have an easier time performing the above tasks.
Since student information can be cryptographically stored on digital ledgers, schools won’t have any trouble looking up any information that their alumni will request. Students can rest easy knowing that no one will be able to alter their credentials on the blockchain, not even the school administrators.
Moreover, these data can be retrieved by anyone, including potential employers, depending on how the blockchain is configured.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) exemplified such innovation in 2017 when it issued digital diplomas through a blockchain-based application called the Blockcerts Wallet. Over a hundred graduates were given the option to receive the digital document in the said app.
Energy
The energy sector can also be revolutionized by blockchain in a similar fashion as Amazon when it redefined online retail.
According to ConsenSys, blockchain has at least 8 use cases for the energy sector. These are wholesale electricity distribution, peer-to-peer energy trading, electricity data management, commodity trading, utility providers, oil and gas resource exploration, oil and gas resource storage and transportation, and refined resource management and sale.
One popular use case that is being explored by many today is the peer-to-peer energy trading. Most of us are familiar with the traditional model, wherein an energy producer would contact a middleman to sell to the end consumer.
However, the middleman gets a considerable commission from doing so, which results in the consumer having to pay more for energy consumption.
Blockchain technology can solve this issue as it is very conducive to peer-to-peer (P2P) trading, which in this case is energy. With this, energy producers can directly transact with consumers, resulting in faster and more transparent transactions. What is more, consumers can purchase cheaper energy because there will not be any middleman who will charge more.
Implementing this use case is Power Ledger, an Australian blockchain-based startup that aims to become a major energy marketplace. It recently conducted a P2P energy trading trial in Fremantle, Perth. The trial was participated in by institutions and energy companies such as Curtin University, Synergy, Western Power, and energyOS.
Real Estate
Real estate is another industry that is being revolutionized by blockchain, enabling the speedy and secure execution of sales and deed transfers.
According to a report published by accounting firm Deloitte, “blockchain technology… could enable the commercial real estate (CRE) industry to address these [identifiable] inefficiencies and inaccuracies.” Among the aspects of real estate that blockchain can improve are the purchase, sale, financing, leasing, and management.
Moreover, blockchain can even be linked to public utility services including “smart parking, waste, water and energy billing, and also enable data-driven city management,” the report stated.
Smart contracts, which are widely utilized in blockchain platforms, enable the accomplishment of such activities within the real estate industry.
Aside from the said use cases, blockchain can specifically be used to tokenize shares in real estate investments. The industry suffers from not having enough investors who could afford to purchase real estate. But with blockchain, investors who possess modest amounts of digital assets can invest in properties.
Real estate sellers can make their properties more liquid by tokenizing them, and by issuing them to potential investors through initial coin offerings (ICOs) and other similar crowdfunding structures.
Media
Media is one of the most powerful entities today. In fact, many democratic nations dub it the “Fourth Estate”. Yet it is plagued by fake news as enabled by various entities who are publishing such content to deliberately fuel their own propaganda.
Deepfake, a popular term for false images and videos that appear to be the real deal, has also become too mainstream that any average person, given the Internet and a laptop — even a mobile phone in some instances — can create a deepfake within minutes.
This would have been fun in some instances. But if it is being used to defame people and tarnish the truth to serve the schemers’ ulterior motives, then it is dangerous and may prove a fatal threat in the thriving of government systems.
That is why a number of reputable media organizations have actively sought ways to counter this. And in their quest, they have found blockchain to be a perfect technology to infuse in their systems.
For example, the New York Times (NYT) launched its own blockchain-based initiative called the News Provenance Project. This uses Hyperledger Fabric, a permissioned distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform hosted by the Linux Foundation.
Through blockchain, the NYT will actively combat deepfakes and fake news by tracking the originality of a news piece — particularly images and videos — or story pitches.
Civil, a blockchain-based platform and community for media organizations to create, share, and support ethical journalism. Aside from enhancing the business frameworks of media organizations, Civil also provides a way to fight fake news by verifying the integrity of any piece of news for its members.
Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is an industry whose importance cannot be overstated, especially since the dawning of the Internet. Today, cybercriminals can commit various crimes even with a mere laptop or a mobile phone.
Even Ginni Rometty, IBM’s CEO and President, exclaimed that “cybercrime is the greatest threat to every company in the world.”
Thankfully, blockchain technology is highly compatible with the cybersecurity industry for many innate reasons. The former can greatly improve the latter, and vice versa.
According to another report by Deloitte,
“Blockchain technology can be regarded as a secure technology, from the point of view that it enables users to trust that the transactions stored on the tamper-proof ledger are valid. The combination of sequential hashing and cryptography along with its decentralized structure makes it very challenging for any party to tamper with in contrast to a standard database.”
A number of tech and cybersecurity firms are using secure blockchain to help many enterprises and organizations. One notable example is IBM Blockchain, which offers enterprise-grade implementations of blockchain technology for businesses.
Banks, like Santander and JP Morgan, are also using blockchain to facilitate secure transactions. Some cryptocurrencies, like Zcash and Monero, are also committed to making privacy-focused assets and transactions. Even antivirus companies like Kaspersky are dabbling in blockchain technology.
At ADN, we know that cybersecurity is a multi-faceted industry, and if one of the facets is not secure, then the whole may suffer. That is why we are dedicated to making a secure ICO platform.
We are keen on developing a seamless and secure app — the ICO Wallet — to empower crypto investors with the autonomy to collaborate with the system in protecting their own funds. At the same time, the system will foster a healthy ICO community wherein legitimate and dedicated blockchain developers will be spurred to work on worthwhile projects.
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