Blockchain Applications — Past, Present & Future
Blockchain is essentially a distributed database or public ledger of all transactions or exchanges that have been executed and shared among participating entities. Each transaction in the public ledger is verified
by consensus of a majority of the participants in the system. Once verified, a permanent block is created which can niether be tampered nor erased.
The tremendous potential of blockchain based application in real world is due to the transparency, traceability, immutability and efficiency of Blockchain technology.
In the past, our ancestors have kept legacies noted and maintained in the physical format. Book keeping trend back then still holds importance amongst some businesses around the world. Diamond merchants, per say are known to keep or maintain a physical record of all the transactions. Physical record keeping can give a firm added security in case of software malfunction or cyber attacks but this maladaptive practice has a lot setbacks which can cause a firm millions. To maintain a physical record, a secure space is needed which can be costly(looking at the current property rates). Physical records is more vulnerable to thefts. The paper used to keep the records can corrode over time or get infested with pest attacks. Moreover, the process too, is inefficient involving human errors which is another big headache. Retreiving past data is a difficult task and this entire practice was revolutionized by the Digitization.
The complexities involved have led to many disputes, some of which are yet awaiting verdict at the apex courts.
The Present — Digital Age
Current digital economy is based on the reliance on a certain trusted authority. All online transactions rely on trusting someone to tell us the truth — it can be an email service provider telling us that our email has been delivered; it can be a certification authority telling us that a certain digital certificate is trustworthy; or it can be a social network such as Facebook telling us that our posts regarding our life events have been shared only with our friends or it can be a bank telling us that our money has been delivered reliably to our dear ones in a remote country. The fact is that we live our life precariously in the digital world by relying on a third entity for the security and privacy of our digital assets. The fact remains that these third party sources can be hacked, manipulated or compromised.
Blockchain technology address all the major challenges encountered in the past and present times. If unbiased and incorruptible blockchain-based information systems become prevalent repositories of our records, trusting other humans with constructing and maintaining key records to define the resources at our disposal could become unnecessary.
Blockchain owing to its unique characteristics has immense potential use cases in the real world and it is believed, in the blockchain community, that the blockchain technology will be as revolutionary as the internet.
As large organizations and government rush to incorporate blockchain to increase operational efficiency, we have a look at what future holds for this revolutionary technology.
- Blockchain in Electronic Health Record
Today’s EHR (Electronic Health Record), although very essential, is available in an unstructured format stored in the central database of several healthcare providers. This makes EHR vulnerable to hacks and in case of the collapse of central database, the entire health history of patient data is compromised. As per a recent survey, medical negligence is the third leading cause of death.
Blockchain in EHR:
Blockchain will contain references to the EHR data, while Smart Contracts will define and enforce access rules to EHR content. This will ensure that only authorized persons/entities access the EHR data. In addition, the blockchain provides an irrevocable record of all events that the data has undergone. The proposed new system for patient EHR in Blockchain, prioritises patient as the most important beneficiary along with building trust and confidence for all the other parties involved.
Blockchain acting as Land Registry
The lack of proper system to maintain land records and provide a person with conclusive titles, result to infrequent and long drawn legal conflict.
Blockchain will help deal with the nightmares of dealing with land records by creating immutable digital records of transactions and a permanent audit trail which can be instituted. What this means is that once land records or property transactions are on the blockchain software — governments, banks, agents, buyers and sellers can easily access the chain of data pertaining to that property. This will reduce fraud and ensure that properties cannot be sold thrice over to the same entity. Blockchain solution ensures safety, security, transparency, and non-repudiation of data to residents as well as the government — and therefore paves the way for a way more secure technological paradigm.
Rajasthan State government is working with Auxesis Group, to incorporate blockchain in land records.
Blockchain in Cross Border Remittances
Cross border remittances generally means transferring or exchanging assets from one country to another. Traditional remittances have hardly changed over the years and now Blockchain is here to radically improve the process of cross border remittances. Currently, cross-border remittance settlement takes huge transaction fees along with a long settlement time. Blockchain based protocols enable this settlement in minutes with a fraction of the fee compared to the traditional banking system.
Auxesis Group, world’s leading blockchain company has built a blockchain-enabled solution — Cashaa which has already transferred millions of dollars across countries in a much faster and cost effective manner.
Blockchain Supply Chain Management
Supply chain management is considerably the most sought after blockchain use case. The headache involved in supply chain checks and audit to verify a product for its authenticity is denting a company’s profitability in a huge way.
Nearly all of the world’s leading companies run computerized enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain management software. From connected manufacturing equipment to digital shipping notices and RFID scanning, products are tracked on computerized systems from their earliest origins, often all the way to the recycling bin. Even as supply chains have transformed, companies have not updated the underlying technology for managing them in decades. The issues of trustworthiness, quality compliance, transparency and traceability can all be addressed by enabling blockchain based solutions in supply chain.
Walmart is aggressively working to incorporate blockchain in its vendor channel to enhance quality control on food products.
IBM solutions for blockchain enabled Supply Chain is gaining considerable traction.
Blockchain in Identity Management
We carry a range of identifications: Our driver’s license, computer password, identity cards, keys, social security ID, and so forth. Blockchain ID is a digital form of ID that’s engineered to replace all these forms of physical identification. In the future, fintech scientists say you’ll be able to use the one digital ID for signing up at any registrar. It is open source, secured by the blockchain, and protected by a ledger of transparent account.
Aadhaar, implemented in India, is a 12-digit unique identity number that can be obtained by residents of India, based on their biometric and demographic data. The proposed blockchain solution, AadhaarChain, is the proposed Blockchain based citizen’s repository platform acting as a single consolidated database solution for every Indian. Aadhaar Chain will act as a base infrastructure layer which can with ease integrate with nation’s other products and services while opening up an easy & secure way to build new powerful applications. The platform proposes to fully leverage the system of Aadhaar — the Indian resident data hub.
There are innumerable potential blockchain use cases but we have mentioned the top five, we believe, shall be realized in the near future.
