How Blockchain Technology Can Improve Your Life
The current state of technology is in a weird sort of purgatory.
Innovations, like the smartphone or digital media platforms, that were originally created to improve our lives are now more of a distraction than an improvement. Not only that, but much of this technology is eating away at our mental health too.
Technology has taken over our lives and it is nearly impossible to separate the recent advances in technology from our day-to-day activities.
Social media and online entertainment are the biggest offenders, with 69% of Americans using social platforms in the United States. By 2025, the online learning industry is poised to make $331 billion.
Needless to say, technology is engrained in the very way that we exist as humans.
All of this technology, while convenient and amazing, floods our brains with information every step of the way. With all the different information out there, it’s often too difficult to hold focus on one thing.
While you may intend to watch that hour-long YouTube talk on the benefits of yoga, you’re more likely to get distracted by the “related videos” tab before getting into the discussion.
All of this content is affecting our mindsets, attention spans, and wellness. It is leading us down a rabbithole that many of us are not even aware of.
While it may seem like technology is the big problem here, why not use it as a solution?
This is where blockchain technology comes in to help.
The blockchain is a revolutionary new technology that could be used to improve your life in ways that traditional technology simply could not. In fact, this breakthrough is already making waves in our daily habits, from payment processing to app development.
You’ve likely heard about these ideas through projects like Bitcoin and Ethereum, but did you know that the blockchain can also incentivize self-improvement and wellness?
It’s true.
Due to the decentralized nature of the blockchain, the power to make a change is entirely in your control.
Using Token Economics to Change Behavior
Ask anyone in your life whether or not they want to improve themselves and they will likely say yes.
We all want to be happier, calmer, nicer, and funnier. We all want to be more fit, vibrant, and well.
Even with all of the resources to achieve these personal goals, we are still not improving how we had hoped. As humans, we tend to get stuck in our ways and daily routines. As much as we want to commit to new habits, we struggle to make them a regular activity.
Because our behaviors are deeply embedded in our psyche, we must consciously manipulate the way we act if we truly want to change.
When it comes to the blockchain, one of the biggest attractions of this new tech is the automation of tasks via a trustless token economy.
That automation can also apply to behavior manipulation.
Token economies are relatively straightforward. Each blockchain pairs with a token that enables users to take part in the network. With these tokens, the system rewards users for completing specific milestones, which creates a tokenized economy.
For example, a freelance job platform (Upwork, Fiverr) on the blockchain may tokenize a reputation system. Freelancers and clients would each receive tokens based on their behavior, with more tokens resulting in a higher reputation. At the risk of losing their tokens, both parties are incentivized to treat each other better.
This is a simple example, but token economies have many other far-reaching uses. Many of them can incentivize to do better and be better, much like a rating system on Yelp or Upwork might do for its users.
Token economies are great for incentivizing hard work and good behavior, but they can also impact your well-being as well.
Using Blockchain Networks to Promote Wellness
The power of token incentivization is indisputable. In a world where we are constantly trying to improve ourselves, it only makes sense to infuse these ideas into wellness practices, such as meditation or fitness.
Wellness projects on the blockchain are already doing this by using token economies to incentivize personal growth.
Essentially, wellness startups are paying you to complete certain tasks.
With Conscious OS, for example, we will be paying users to get in on the beautiful, freeing act of meditation. By participating in the meditation community, reaching personal goals, or contributing to the education of meditation, you will receive cryptocurrency rewards.
The idea is that with an incentive, you are much more likely to commit your attention to the process of meditation and ultimately form a habit that lasts.
Meditation can help reduce anxiety, depressive thoughts, and improve concentration. Whether it’s for 10 minutes or an hour every day, the act of focused relaxation is beneficial to our bodies and our brains.
Right now, only 40% of adults in America meditate on a weekly basis. Plus, a lot of them do so alone at home without a community or leader to keep them involved. Because of this, many fail to generate a habit and do not fully experience the benefits that would otherwise come with meditation.
We are using the blockchain to help users improve their habits, change their behavior, and finally experience the full benefits that meditation has to offer.
Meditation isn’t the only wellness activity improved by blockchain, though. Fitness programs could incentivize you to workout more and diet plans can reward specific calorie counts with currency.
With the right mindset, any wellness habit can benefit from incentivizing its users on the blockchain.
Our idea is not unique in the blockchain world and many blockchain applications are paying their users to complete tasks, from meditation to charity, everyday. All you need is access to a smartphone or other device that can access the blockchain.
Ways Blockchain Companies Are Improving Our Lives
While wellness is a significant factor in self-improvement, blockchain technology affects all sorts of different activities in a wide variety of styles.
As a transparent, trustless ledger, the blockchain removes the need for a centralized authority or third-party reliance. The daily benefits are limited only by our creativity. Here are a few other ways the blockchain is making it easier to improve our lives:
Monetization of Data
Companies are going to sell your data whether you like it or not. With the blockchain, you can start making money from it instead of them.
Since the rise of smartphones, for example, people have been recording their fitness and health progress within apps in order to meet their goals. Each app stores data separately instead of in a space where the entire industry can benefit from it. The only benefit that the user gets from the entire transaction is inherent and often short-lived.
With the blockchain startup Lympo, users are incentivized to sell their data in exchange for cryptocurrencies. Users can then buy fitness-related items with their rewards. Information from the different apps will be moved to one location before professionals analyze it. Blockchain security encrypts the information, making it more secure, and both users and the industry enjoy the collaboration.
Online Learning
Online learning is a giant space that has been growing in recent years and will only continue to grow, especially on the blockchain. On the blockchain, companies can implement a streamlined learning experience for both parties.
With an online learning platform built on the blockchain, learners can create personal goals on the platform, which are then verified by automatic smart contracts upon completion. Should they finish a significant section of a course or rise above a specific threshold for a test grade, the learner will immediately qualify for a reward or the next tier upwards.
Plus, degrees and certifications can be stored on the network for anyone to see. Documents are digitized too, minimizing the environmental impact of physical records.
Blockchain technology can motivate users to progress through their education and then serve as proof of education to anyone who needs to verify it. It will undoubtedly make a major impact on continuing education in the professional world, benefitting people who are not even actively using the technology.
Transparency
Blockchains can store your data and even monetize it, it’s true. But it can do even more with that information.
An additional blockchain feature is that of transparency. This means that if a company sells your data, you can see exactly where it goes, how much of it was sold, and if it continues to change hands.
Transparency could also benefit cities and towns when it comes to spending. Politicians will no longer be able to secretly divert funds. A ledger kept on a decentralized network will contain a complete report of all transactions so citizens can keep track of where their hard-earned tax money goes.
Automated Philanthropy
We live in a world with an increasing amount of smart devices. Fridges, toasters, solar panels, and any other tool that connects to the internet will use some sort of processing power. However, all technological appliances tend to generate more power than they need.
If connected to a blockchain network, that extra power can be transmitted elsewhere. Users then gain rewards for providing excess energy. Not only that, but with smart contracts and artificial intelligence, users can automatically donate those funds towards their preferred charitable organization.
Blockchain technology is inherently designed to share energy and share benefits without costing the user who is sharing.
That’s a pretty big deal.
Overall, the blockchain is working to innovate across all different industries. People tend to think of financial and business aspects as the primary focus, but we can use this emerging technology for wellness, learning, and even charitable acts. As time goes on, we are likely to see even more applications that allow us to improve our everyday lives.
Blockchain technology may provide a decentralized economy, but it has the potential to do way more than that. It can improve our lives in beautiful, powerful ways.
