5 Reasons Why Businesses Will Embrace Blockchain in 2020

Published in

Futurepia

4 min readNov 28, 2019

While most associate blockchain technology with the volatile nature of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, large corporations are making massive investments towards applying the technology to their businesses. Several large companies are leading the charge in leveraging the multitude of benefits that lie beyond crypto.

Within just the last few years, industries from insurance to finance, social media to local government, and everything in between have found ways to utilize the power behind blockchain!

Here are the 5 ways that businesses are leveraging blockchain!

1 — Greater Transparency

“Distributed Ledger” is a term that often gets used when discussing blockchain. Essentially, this is the idea that if there are many ledgers as opposed to just one ledger, records could be more transparent and accurate. The beauty of blockchain lies in the fact that it creates trust out of mistrust. Think of a large pool of people, all with their own ledgers or record books, these people can and will only add to the ledge if a majority of the people agree upon the authenticity of the proposed addition. This group action or “distribution” is incredibly powerful and can provide not only business with peace of mind but customers as well!

2 — Enhanced Security

In the same way that a “distributed ledger” can provide more transparency, it can also provide enhanced security. The biggest problem with a centralized ledger or a handful of centralized ledgers is that it is vulnerable to corruption and/or manipulation. Because of the distributed nature of blockchain, to manipulate the ledger one would have to tamper with a series of ledgers thus significantly reducing the risk and enhancing the security of the records.

3 — Improved Traceability

Perhaps the second most common term used when describing blockchain is “immutable”. This is the idea that the records in the ledger cannot be changed. IBM describes the benefits as such “When exchanges of goods are recorded on a blockchain, you end up with an audit trail that shows where an asset came from and every stop it made on its journey.” Source

4 — Increased Efficiency & Speed

Now, here is where it gets really exciting! To use the example from before ( the pool of people with ledgers) imagine that same pool of people as a self completing automated application. This is a smart contract or a self executing contract built on a blockchain. Essentially, on a smart contract when “INPUT A” is delivered “OUTPUT B” is instantly completed without delay. This makes the transfer of assets such as land deeds, records, intellectual properties and others not only possible on a blockchain but faster and more efficient when compared to conventional means.

5 — Reduced Costs

Today, most businesses devote significant amounts of funds, time, and energy towards creating, trust, transparency, security, and efficiency. We usually see this in the form of middlemen or specialized companies who provide these services to other businesses at a cost. However, because of the nature of blockchain, business can massively decrease their overhead costs and direct those costs benefits to customers or other initiatives.