Blockchain: Real World Impacts
How blockchain will affect your future, and what you need to know to be prepared
When most people hear the word blockchain, they most likely think of an underground, jargon-filled world of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, and the turbulent media reports of the rise and fall in value of these online coins. What does that have to do with me? Perhaps like me, that was your first thought when being introduced to the concept of blockchain. As it turns out, blockchain technology has evolved far past its original conception of being the backbone to cryptocurrency exchange. It now has the potential to revolutionize the way we live, from the way we hire people, to the way we vote, and even down to the way we store our medical information.
Because blockchain is a transparent and secure way of transferring data, this has far-reaching implications in our data-driven world. The potential for blockchain to change how we exchange information and value is almost limitless. Here are some examples of how blockchain is already beginning to transform our day-to-day lives:
Verify Reviews for Products and Services
As much as we — as consumers — depend on reviews for our products and services, it can be surprisingly difficult to verify the authenticity of online reviews on sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor. Even Amazon has had trouble with bots posting fake reviews of products, and people paying or incentivizing consumers to review products positively. To illustrate how easy it would be to generate fake reviews, Nathan Pettijohn created a fake Yelp account under the name Ivan Stravensky. According to him, “All that is needed to create a person out of thin air is a unique name, a few social media accounts and some content — and this can be done repeatedly to create several shell accounts.”
This is disturbing considering how much we depend on reviews when we purchase products, book appointments, and plan trips. However, blockchain could be used not only to halt the use of bot accounts creating fake reviews, but also mitigate the issue of real people posting dishonest reviews because they were incentivized to do so. The blockchain-based ledger could record verified proof that the consumer attended a restaurant or stayed at a hotel. It would act as a sort of timestamp or receipt to prove that the online reviewer truly is who they say they are.
Education
There is massive potential for education to be transformed by blockchain technology. The global skills gap is an issue that is slowing global progress, innovation, and economic growth. Ironically, while the cost of education rises every year, the unemployment rate for students after graduation is also on the rise. And while there are innumerable jobs that need to be filled, employers are struggling to find skilled workers for these positions.
Learning Economy is an example of how blockchain is being used to store and share data as a way to signal skills to employers. Diplomas, workplace skills, job opportunities, and accomplishments can be recorded on a blockchain ledger and shared with prospective employers. Additionally, “ Each of those individual units of learning like videos, homework, documents, or books, are saved along with the supply chain of stewards who helped (teachers, schools, researchers, curriculum , governments, tech providers, etc.).” This way of quantifying skills and units of learning will be a critical step in closing the global skills gap.
Voting
Election meddling has become more advanced and insidious with the help of technology in recent years. In 2016, citizens in the United States were confronted with this issue during the Presidential election. Blockchain technology could mitigate election meddling and transform the way we vote altogether. The technology can not only strengthen voting security but also make it easier for citizens residing overseas or serving in the military to vote. In August 2018, the state of West Virginia was the first to pilot a mobile voting system for troops living overseas, using the platform Voatz. The idea of voting electronically without a paper trail has been met with criticism and skepticism by many. However, pilot programs like the one in West Virginia are being tested and researched, and if the technology is perfected it will undeniably change the future of voting.
Medical Data
Whether it’s through medical records or research, data in the healthcare sector is irrefutably crucial. But it is also incredibly vulnerable — data breaches in healthcare are a nonstop occurrence and cost the healthcare industry millions of dollars every year. Implementing blockchain technology in the healthcare industry will be a massive revolution of data transfer and security. One of the most difficult challenges when it comes to healthcare data is managing consent and privacy permissions. A company called HealthVerity is using blockchain to alleviate some of these issues by “[integrating] with pre-existing data collection points across an enterprise to consolidate permissions and act as the single source of truth for customer intent and legal compliance.”
Additionally, blockchain could help pharmaceutical companies effectively research drugs and carry out clinical trials. Accessing drug trial data is complicated and inefficient, making research difficult to share. However, according to this report,”Blockchain in healthcare helps pharma create auditable, unalterable, and distributed databases for storing and accessing drug trial data.” The technology is also now being used to help researchers find the right people for clinical trials and deter the circulation of counterfeit pharmaceutical drugs.
Food safety
Often when we purchase food from the supermarket or at a restaurant, we have limited information about where our food is coming from and how to verify that information. Blockchain could provide consumers an unalterable ledger that tracks where the food came from and how it got to where it is. In 2018, IBM announced IBM Food Trust — a food traceability platform that uses blockchain to increase transparency in global food transportation, particularly with fresh produce and meat. Many large-scale companies like Walmart and Nestle have announced their participation in the platform. Aside from increasing transparency for consumers, the platform is also expected to increase efficiency in recalling products and tracing contamination, and can verify products that are fair-trade or organic.
So, what does blockchain have to do with you? Soon it will be integral to every part of your day, from when you visit the doctor for a checkup, to when you purchase food at the supermarket, to when you book your next trip. What began as a way to transfer currency in a reliable and decentralized way now has expanded to the transfer of all goods, information, and value. To expand our conception of blockchain technology outside of the realm of cryptocurrency is to better prepare ourselves for the technological changes that are already in action.
Hannah Bergstrom is a brand ambassador and digital marketer for Learning Economy, and a correspondent for Diplomatic Courier.
