The Benefits and Use Cases of Blockchain Technology are Endless
From the humble yet life-changing beginnings of Bitcoin in 2008, the blockchain landscape is an endless evolution of technology
The speed at which the blockchain landscape is developing and spreading is nothing short of spectacular and is a testament to the power this technology can bring to the world. None of us can be sure, but there’s a fairly solid possibility even the great Satoshi Nakamoto (if that is his real name!) didn’t picture the space we see today when the wheels were first put in motion for the creation of a decentralised currency.
The documentation, or whitepaper, outlining the structure for Bitcoin on that historical day back in 2008 has become the catalyst for change in so many technology-reliant sectors in the world, with distributed ledger technology and trustless transactions well on their way to being the global standard. In fact, a recent survey undertaken and published by Casper Labs and Zogby Analytics across over 600 businesses in the UK, US and China showed almost 90% had deployed blockchain tech in some capacity, with 87% having plans to invest in the space this year.
Blockchain technology is here to stay, and the power it brings, coupled with innumerable use cases, provides real solutions for real-world problems and creates long-term value.
Business
The power of blockchain serves a variety of purposes in the business world, optimising processes and creating and improving current and existing standards in multiple areas.
The two most obvious cases here are security — optimised through both the decentralised nature of blockchain and the trustless nature of smart contracts — and copy protection, through the power of NFT technology along with, once again, decentralisation.
The business-based innovation does not stop there, with further developments and improvements already seen in areas including software development (a fairly obvious one), supply chain management and efficiency, and the streamlining of internal workflows.
There are many more areas in which blockchain tech is utilised at every level of business from governments, through institutional levels and down to the retail markets. In the financial side of businesses, whether that be value transfer, insurance, regulations and compliance, or record and identity management, the potential applications for adoption just keep on growing.
Gaming
We have all been witness to the play-to-earn gaming boom of the last year or two, and whilst the earning opportunities available in blockchain gaming — or GameFi — have been quite simply life-saving for huge numbers of people during the global pandemic, this is not the strongest use case or benefit of video games utilising blockchain technology.
The strongest arguments for the mass adoption of this new tech by the gaming world are centred around two core components, the first of which is NFTs. True asset ownership — as is the case with an NFT — has the potential to change the face of gaming and the gamer community, with gamers able to not just play with their characters, their team or whatever in-game assets, but to actually own them. This ownership pivot creates a whole new layer of value for the gamer, giving them power over the assets they create, develop, upgrade, and even sell.
The second key development around blockchain gaming is the metaverse, or metaverse-based gaming. Blockchain games each have their own metaverse — game world if you like — and the interoperable nature of blockchain technology enables the connectivity of metaverses, creating even greater value for the aforementioned NFTs.
Add to the two points mentioned above the token economies being developed in blockchain games, offering gamers earning opportunities in addition to what are rapidly becoming console or PC-challenging quality games, and the strength in the future of web3 gaming is there for all to see.
Healthcare
While one of the many benefits of blockchain is a level of anonymity from centralised entities, there are huge application benefits when it comes to health data. Age, gender, and potentially basic medical history data (immunisations, vital signs etc), that on its own would be able to identify someone, could be stored on a blockchain accessible by numerous individuals without risk of privacy.
As the integration of technology into healthcare increases, the stand-out path to take this forward is undoubtedly blockchain. When it comes to privacy, personal health-related details are at the top of most people's lists of closely-guarded data. This is one of the biggest obstacles in digitising more of the healthcare space right now, but implementing trustless, decentralised technology to create a highly-personal database of information while retaining the level of anonymity required to protect a person’s privacy could well be the key to overcoming this.
These industries mentioned above are just a small selection of the many impact areas in which blockchain integration is already underway, with arts, media, data storage, energy companies and many more already unleashing the power of this decentralised, immutable and industry-changing technology.
About Maitri Capital
Maitri was formed in 2021 by an experienced management team, each with nearly 20 years of investment experience in multiple areas, from institutional investment management to the latest cutting-edge blockchain technology and crypto.
The joint experiences of the team enable Maitri to maintain the dynamic heart of crypto and blockchain investments whilst underpinning this with extensive knowledge of institutional risk management, compliance and oversight. This is augmented by crypto subject matter experts to provide holistic coverage of a rapidly evolving space.
Maitri Capital is the early-stage investor of choice for ambitious founders and projects.
