What’s All the Hype about Crypto and Blockchain?
When Bitcoin was first created in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto, the main appeal of a cryptocurrency was that it could be a private and secure online currency. Since then, thousands of different cryptocurrencies have been created with uses ranging from changing the way we vote in elections to bringing transparency to the way our personal data is used by Big Tech. The underlying technology of Bitcoin — blockchain — has emerged in its own right as something that can be used without involving cryptocurrencies. According to many members of the crypto world, we are now in a similar situation to the start of the internet where some of the best applications of blockchain haven’t even been created yet. In the meantime, here are some of the most exciting uses of cryptocurrency and blockchain at the moment.
Payments
The most obvious use of cryptocurrencies is as online money. Typically, cryptocurrencies are cheaper and faster to use than the current forms of electronic payments such as PayPal, Venmo, and credit cards, which typically charge around 3% per payment. In contrast, the average fee for a Bitcoin payment is ~ $0.30. Other cryptos are even cheaper! An Ethereum transaction costs around $0.01 at the moment, while EOS and TRON offer free transactions. Not only are cryptos cheaper, they are also faster. The electronic payment systems mentioned earlier usually take around 1–3 business days to process while most crypto transactions are completed within hours. It’s possible that one day we will all be using cryptocurrencies to pay for everything from Amazon purchases to employee paychecks.
Data Sharing
Most of the companies you interact with online share your data with other companies. This includes big names such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, and PayPal as well as most credit card companies. Not only do they often not tell you who they share your data with, they can also make money from doing so. Blockchain could be a way to make this process more transparent and allow users to share in the profits. If these companies were to integrate blockchain into their platform, they could do so in a way that would notify you every time your data is shared and provide details about who it was given to and what they do with it. They could also use cryptocurrencies to automatically pay you every time they make money from sharing your data.
A biotech startup called LunaDNA is using blockchain to help people safely share their genetic data with researchers and share in the profits.
Voting
Blockchain could provide the solution to electronic voting in elections. Currently, there is a push towards electronic ballots to make voting more efficient and more accessible, especially for people with disabilities. However, there are concerns about the potential for an election to be hacked. The benefit of blockchain is that once an event is recorded on it, it is final. That means that after a vote is casted, it is impossible for it to be changed by a hacker after the fact.
Voatz has created an app that uses blockchain for voting that has already been used in more than 30 elections.
Supply Chains
Many large companies have complicated supply chains that are mainly recorded on paper. They could bring this process online by recording transactions on the blockchain. This would provide transparency and make it easier for companies to actually follow the steps that their products take. Companies would be able to better analyze their supply chains and find ways to make them more efficient. Using blockchain could be particularly useful for the food industry where it is very important to track products to its source.
IBM has developed a blockchain powered supply chain management platform used by over 90 companies internationally with a goal to increase visibility and efficiency.
Tokenized Assets
Not all cryptocurrencies are meant to be used as money — a crypto token is used to represent rights to an asset or utility. The potential for crypto tokens is pretty much limitless. One of the more popular uses is to buy or sell ownership in assets such as real estate as well as private and public companies. In the same way that a stock can signify that you own part of a company, so too could a token. The benefit of a crypto token is that it could easily be bought or sold online without the need for a broker, which would lower fees and increase speed.
The St. Regis in Aspen recently sold 20% ownership in the hotel through a token sale.
Tickets
Buying resold tickets can sometimes be a risky proposition, especially outside the US. Another promising use for a token would be as an event ticket. Since it is impossible to duplicate or fake a token, using tokens for events could help end ticket fraud. Additionally, because crypto tokens are digital, it would be easy to update customers if an event had to be cancelled or postponed.
GUTS has already created blockchain powered tickets that are being used for events in the Netherlands.
Home Buying
The process of buying a house is often drawn-out because of all the paper contracts involved. These contracts could be handled on the blockchain using smart contracts — code that automatically runs transactions. Putting these contracts online could help speed up the process and provide more transparency to home buying. Smart contracts could also be used to replace bank escrow services. Instead of having a bank hold the payment for a house until the deed is signed, a smart contract could automatically transfer the funds. This would increase speed and remove the fees charged by banks.
Reasi has created the first end to end real estate transaction management platform which offers secure escrow services using the power of Blockchain. It is already being used to buy homes.
Data Storage
In today’s world, with so much personal information stored online, there is always the looming threat of hackers. One way to help companies safeguard our personal data is to store it on the blockchain. Information can be securely encrypted on the blockchain so that it can only be accessed by users with permission.
Solve.care is already encrypting personal data with blockchain and requiring the user’s permission for others to access the information.
Decentralized Social Media
For users who do not wish to have their personal information shared to third parties by companies like Facebook and Twitter, social media built on blockchain could be appealing. Instead of being controlled by one institution, a social media platform built on the blockchain would allow all users to operate independently, without having to give up their personal information. Since it would be decentralized, content would not be able to censored like it is on other social media sites.
Arguably the most popular blockchain social media platform at the moment is Steemit — check it out and give me a follow.
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Thanks for Reading :)
Check out some of our other articles about crypto and blockchain
Here are some resources I used to write this article that you may find helpful:
https://www.androidcentral.com/does-google-sell-your-data
https://mashable.com/2018/04/14/google-amazon-facebook-cambridge-analytica/#JrRzuKH3RPqL
https://www.disruptordaily.com/blockchain-use-cases-lending/
