The Benefits of Blockchain Implementation Across Industries

Published in

IdeaSoft.io

12 min readDec 16, 2020

IdeaSoft How different idustries use blockchain

According to MarketsandMarkets, the global blockchain market size is expected to grow to $39.7 billion by 2025. Today, no one will argue that blockchain is one of the most promising technologies of our times. Having gone beyond the financial market, blockchain has begun to benefit various industries, and the plans for the future use of this technology are simply amazing. In our new Medium article, we have collected the most common blockchain implementation scenarios to find out how different industries are using it to drive their business. Real use cases are included.

Why Companies Are Using Blockchain

If you are still wondering how blockchain became so popular and why companies are using it, you should start by understanding how this technology works. Blockchain is essentially a distributed database, where all information is stored in blocks. Each block is connected to the previous one, also, there is no single control center, which means that the database is available simultaneously to all users. Why is it important?

Firstly, due to the structure of blockchains, information cannot be changed or deleted by one user without others seeing it. This makes blockchain a reliable storage and transmission medium, where data cannot be controlled alone. Secondly, blockchain is a highly secure technology that combines the advantages of both peer-to-peer networks and cryptographic algorithms. Blockchain supports various levels of encryption and hash functions. Plus, relying on verified digital IDs and the fact that every transaction is logged with full agreement among all actors involved the possibility of non-fulfillment of agreements is excluded.

These properties make blockchain attractive to businesses. Features such as traceability, immutability, and decentralization can solve many of the business challenges that industries have been working on over the years. According to PwC research, 84% of respondents are actively involved with blockchain. The blockchain market is growing every year, which is confirmed by other studies. So, companies are looking for ways to implement blockchain to gain a competitive advantage and increase efficiency.

Blockchain Application in Financial Services

The financial sector is the home of blockchain. The popularity of the technology began with cryptocurrencies and for a long time has been associated exclusively with this. The emergence of financial blockchain startups has become a real challenge for traditional financial institutions, so banks started to actively explore the technology and partner with startups to transform their own services. So, what makes blockchain so effective for financial institutions?

Blockchain provides a peer-to-peer system with low fees and reliable transactions. This means that you don’t need to involve third parties for registration and verification of financial activities. Blockchain does it on its own, and you save on commissions to third parties. Remember what fees banks charge for money transfers, especially when it comes to international payments. Blockchain helps to reduce the cost of such transactions while ensuring their transparency and traceability. According to Market Research Future, the worldwide blockchain in the financial technology market is expected to grow to $6700.63 million by 2023.

Blockchain solves the following challenges of the financial industry:

Transparency of financial systems. It is much easier for regulatory authorities to audit financial institutions, having a single source of reliable information about assets and transactions secured by blockchain. Any data can be verified, so blockchain minimizes disruption. Users also value the transparency of payment systems, which increases their confidence in the financial company.
Faster and less expensive transactions. We have already mentioned the savings on fees and the absence of third parties. Plus, blockchain greatly simplifies payments, which also affects the reduction in the cost of transactions. According to Jupiter Research, blockchain deployments will enable banks to save up to $27 billion in cross-border settlement transactions by the end of 2030.
Simplified data management. Blockchain technology allows users to store and manage their personal data on a blockchain. Therefore, a financial institution doesn’t need to spend a lot of time on customer identification, since a user can easily provide the company with verified personal information and speed up the onboarding process. Also, a fast and complete check of counterparties can be performed in this way.
Funding. Blockchain technology has opened up new ways for us to raise capital, such as asset tokenization. Tokenization is the digitization of rights to an asset in the form of tokens that can be bought and sold. Tokenization allows partial ownership of an asset, so smaller investors can have access to the investment market.
Automation. Blockchain is an excellent technology for automating financial processes. For example, the use of smart contracts makes it possible to automate the regulation of agreements, since payment and sale will be carried out automatically following the rules laid down in the agreement.

Use cases of implementing blockchain in financial services:

International platform Roobee allows you to invest in stocks, ETFs, venture capital markets, precious metals, cryptocurrencies, IEOs, and IPOs.
Biteeu is a fully licensed and compliant virtual currency exchange that provides the safety of assets and data through a partnership with Bittrex.
UK-based company Revolut offers banking services including pound sterling and euro bank accounts, debit cards, free currency exchange, stock trading, cryptocurrency exchange, and blockchain-based peer-to-peer payments.
Xion created a subscription billing platform powered by blockchain that allows transactions in cryptocurrency.

Blockchain in Supply Chain and Logistics

As we remember, blockchain provides traceability of data. This property has made the technology useful for logistics and supply chain management applications. One of the main difficulties of logistics is the involvement of several companies that perform certain activities, such as planning, coordination, monitoring, and verification. The use of shared blockchain distributed ledgers can reduce delays and minimize human error. Also, the use of smart contracts contributes to the automation of agreements between suppliers and recipients. Blockchain can also help buyers track the origin and status of goods. For example, Walmart does this to trace the origin of fruits and vegetables, and EverLadger uses blockchain to verify the origin of the diamond trade.

Blockchain solves the following challenges of the logistics industry:

Tracking cargo in real-time. Thanks to its traceability, blockchain provides complete visibility of the supply chain across all ongoing transport operations and can send notifications whenever a shipment is delayed. Each action with cargo is recorded in a blockchain system and users can see the location of the package in real-time.
Verification of the authenticity and quality of the product. As we mentioned, some companies use blockchain to authenticate a product. For example, American startup Bonafi has integrated Crypto-Tag and a mobile app with blockchain technology. As each product moves through the supply chain, data is recorded on the blockchain, and consumers can scan the product and verify its authenticity. This is a great way to fight counterfeiting.
Simplification of the workflow with smart contracts. Smart contracts that are self-executing help suppliers to negotiate better deals. Traditional contracts must be certified by third parties (lawyers, notaries) to be legitimate and to protect the parties from the default, while smart contracts are enforced by blockchain. You cannot simply change the data on a blockchain, so the conditions laid down in the contract must be met. Thus, smart contracts reduce the cost of concluding a deal, protect against fraud, and speed up the processing of documents.
Fraud detection. The immutability of blockchain prevents any supply chain fraud. The data recorded in a blockchain cannot be deleted or changed without affecting other blocks. Moreover, in blockchain, it is easier to trace any record back to its original version and restore it.

Use cases of implementing blockchain in the logistics industry:

ShipChain has built a blockchain-based logistics platform to support the end-to-end delivery process, which allows all parties in the chain to receive updates on the location of the container as well as the estimated time of arrival.
FoodGuardians helps protect food and keep it fresh longer with blockchain-based software that lets supply chain managers effectively track the food lifecycle.
The Port of Rotterdam, the largest port of Europe, in partnership with ABN AMRO Bank and Samsung SDS, launched the DELIVER platform based on blockchain to optimize physical and financial processes in the supply chain.

Blockchain in Healthcare

One of the major challenges in the healthcare industry is the secure storage and transmission of patient data. It is currently estimated that one patient generates about 80 megabytes of images and electronic health records annually. Blockchain can help solve this problem, as it is a distributed storage that securely encrypts data and protects it from unauthorized changes. This means that the data recorded on a blockchain will not be lost, and you will also have quick access to it. Also, having a single database will simplify medical research work, as it provides quick access to research results. Tracking drug shipments is another problem that blockchain can solve. This will help prevent counterfeiting. As with food, blockchain allows tracing the origin of medicines.

Read how 5G will transform the healthcare industry here.

Blockchain solves the following challenges of the healthcare industry:

Safe sharing health data. According to statistics, the records of one in five patients suffer from inaccurate matching (data confidentiality) or are not available in the EHR (electronic health records). This largely happens because medical data is spread out across many different healthcare facilities. Blockchain can provide full and secure access for patients to their full medical history since the information recorded in blockchain is almost impossible to delete and no data will be lost.
Digital Identity Management. Digital identification of patients allows medical workers to provide timely and high-quality medical services. Interaction between healthcare actors such as hospitals, clinics, doctors, pharmacies, insurance companies is key to the successful functioning of the healthcare system. But storing digital identity data on a centralized server is a huge risk. Blockchain can be a great alternative as it has a copy of the database spread across multiple nodes. Also, such a system allows storing guarantees of data authenticity without actually storing any personal data.
Improving research in medicine. Medical research helps to improve the quality of medical services, but at the moment there is no single system for the exchange of research data. Using blockchain, researchers, with patients’ permission, can access a vast database of information to help accelerate health improvement.
Reduced medical costs. By addressing the current challenges of the healthcare system, blockchain could ultimately help reduce costs for both healthcare providers and patients. This will be facilitated by tokenization, elimination of third parties, and counterfeit pharmaceutical products. Also, according to BIS Research, the adoption of blockchain technology could save the healthcare industry up to $100-$150 billion per year by 2025 in data breach-related costs.

Use cases of implementing blockchain in the healthcare industry:

MediLedger is a blockchain protocol that allows companies in the prescription drug supply chain to verify the authenticity of drugs and their expiration dates.
Curisium provides blockchain-based systems in which various players of the healthcare sector (pharmaceutical companies, wholesalers, insurers, and so on) can authenticate their identity as organizations, register contract details, and track transactions of goods and services.
Taipei Medical University Hospital and Digital Treasury Corporation (DTCO) have released a blockchain-based phrOS solution that aims to increase transparency between healthcare facilities by putting all of a patient’s medical information on a blockchain.

Blockchain in the Government Industry

Blockchain has good prospects for public sector applications. You can already find real-life cases of its use. For example, in 2014, the Smart Dubai project was launched in Dubai, which is based on the blockchain and is designed to effectively manage medicine, monitor roads, speed up work with documents, and reduce resource costs. Also, Estonia became one of the first countries to apply blockchain at the national level. They started testing blockchain technology back in 2008. Blockchain government solutions bring transparency and help avoid corruption, so many see it as an effective management tool.

Blockchain solves the following challenges of government:

Building trust with citizens. The decentralized nature of blockchain ensures the transparency of blockchain-based systems, which allows participating parties to see and verify data. In such an environment, any concerns can be minimized, since you can always access the data. Sweden, Estonia, and Georgia are already working with blockchain. When citizens and governments share access to documents, the level of trust rises.
Protecting sensitive data. Protection of citizens’ data is one of the priority tasks of any state. Building a database using blockchain will allow any government to store data securely since this technology reduces the likelihood of a single point of failure and it is reliably protected by cryptographic methods.
Government management. Government operates many systems such as education, pension, legal, healthcare, and so on. For the successful work of a state apparatus, it is necessary to ensure the coordination of these areas. Blockchain-backed administration systems can do this in real-time while providing the necessary transparency and reducing regulatory costs.
Voting and elections. Elections are a challenge for any democratic government. Blockchain helps speed up and simplify voting and vote counting processes while providing transparency and security. Moreover, you can vote from home, work, anywhere, for example, using a mobile application. The electronic ballot will not be available to anyone except the voter. West Virginia had such an experiment in 2018 when it allowed citizens in the military along with other citizens overseas to vote using the blockchain-based Voatz program.

Use cases of implementing blockchain in the government industry:

The Government of Malta in 2017 launched a blockchain-based pilot attestation program that instantly verifies academic credentials.
Bochica is the first Colombian blockchain created in 2018 that offers a complete technical solution available to the IT industry, government, academia, developers, and citizens.
Georgia’s National Public Registry Agency (NAPR) partnered with Bitfury Group in 2016 to introduce blockchain into the land ownership register to increase public trust in property records.

Blockchain in Agriculture

It’s clear that blockchain in the agricultural industry is a great way to improve supply chain management and control product quality. The block architecture provides excellent traceability. Also, farmers can gain more benefits by incorporating blockchain into the management and marketing of agricultural commodities. A transparent blockchain-based system will allow farmers to attract more investors and get better insurance conditions.

Blockchain solves the following challenges of the agricultural industry:

Financing and insurance for small farmers. Thanks to its transparency, blockchain can provide open credit history and financial agreements for small farmers, thus reducing risks for investors. Plus, the use of smart contracts will improve insurance programs by eliminating the human factor in assessing insurance claims and simplifying claims settlement.
Product quality control. Transportation and storage of agricultural products require a special temperature and humidity regime. According to statistics, a large number of products spoil before reaching the market. Blockchain can solve this problem using sensors that collect the necessary information and record it in real-time in a blockchain-based decentralized distribution ledger to see at what stage products go bad and how to prevent it.
Fair pricing. The truth is that farmers receive minimal income from their products since most of the profits remain with the middlemen. Blockchain reduces the number of intermediaries so farmers can enter into more profitable contracts directly with sellers and participate in international trading.
Better farm management. The agriculture industry is undergoing a digital transformation like other industries. However, it needs a transparent yet secure operating environment to effectively manage new technologies and tools. Blockchain is a great solution that can provide unimpeded access to data for all parties and ensure that the information is authentic and protected from falsification.

Use cases of using blockchain in the agricultural industry:

TE-FOOD is a food traceability solution that uses fresh food transportation and packaging identification tools to track product quality as it moves through the supply chain.
Black Insurance is a blockchain-based B2B platform that opens up a centralized insurance market for crowdfunding, including farm projects.
Ripe.io uses sensors to monitor humidity, temperature, and product maturity, and farmers can track the route of products through the supply chain.

Blockchain Adoption in Other Industries

The use of blockchain is not limited to the listed industries. Blockchain-based software solutions have huge potential for other areas as well, here are some additional examples of blockchain implementation.

Where to Start Implementing Blockchain

If you like the benefits of blockchain and you are thinking about introducing this technology into your business, you need to learn more about how to start a blockchain project. Important issues are not only setting goals but choosing the right type of blockchain and regulatory compliance. It is important to understand that despite all the advantages of blockchain, it is not a panacea and you need to make sure that this particular technology will best solve your business challenges. So where to start?