8 Ideas that Next-Gen Upstarts should be Exploring with Blockchain!
Business models are not created out of thin air.
There are a number of factors that govern the process of creating business plans, and technology is probably the most important of them. Take any of the great businesses that have been built over the last couple of decades, it is only after engineers, CEOs and product managers leverage emerging technologies are they able to create something great — Netflix, iPhone, Paypal, Uber, you name it!
Today, Blockchain is the emerging technology that’s attracting entrepreneurs, investors and even governments all alike. I and my team have been working with the technology for a couple of years now, and have built a couple of projects and worked on numerous use-cases spread across industries and verticals. In this post, I am going to discuss business ideas that the entrepreneurs are pursuing with blockchain technology. Even early-stage individuals and teams who are exploring this technology can come to know a lot with this one. So, let’s begin -
P2P Payments App — As most of you would already know, most promising use-cases of blockchain happen to be in the financial markets. You can read this post on Sodio’s blog on how blockchain technology can accelerate financial inclusion. P2P payments app is yet another astounding idea that you can pursue with blockchain technology. Our team has already built one using the stellar blockchain — CashStash.
The reason why P2P payments app tends to be popular is that they allow the users to make on the spot payments a reality. In order to encourage people for making transactions more often with the P2P payments app, the privacy and security concerns, too, are very important. Using the stellar blockchain, all these issues can be addressed head-on.
Asset Digitization — This is another incredible financial use-case of blockchain that can drive rapid inclusion of new participants as well as increased liquidity of assets such as gold and real estate. The tokenization and fractionalization can truly streamline the markets, be it the conventional behemoths or the small players.
This opens up a plethora of opportunities for organizations as well as individuals since you can fractionalize, tokenize and issue tokens for almost every asset class. The transformation of physical assets into tradeable digital assets results in liquidity. If you manage to successfully digitize assets, you can increase the participation of investors, buyers, and sellers into commodities and asset classes that are not-so-liquid in the present day’s markets.
App for Sharing Economy — Today, with cutting-edge developments in technologies across the spectrum, the true potential of sharing economy is yet to realized. And as a matter of fact, entrepreneurs and executives around the world are still trying to figure out what the next generation platforms for sharing economy will look like.
Be it sharing of power or even natural resources such as solar energy, blockchain has made it possible to create platforms that allow users to share them with simple smart contracts. All you need to do is build solutions with great user-experience and robust infrastructure, and the users will come SHARE!
Crowdfunding Platforms — Crowdfunding is one of the best ways of raising capital today and has a great business potential too. As it happens, trust is one of the most important factors that determine the success of crowdfunding platforms. Blockchain can take care of this because of it’s immutable and distributed nature.
The blockchain technology can be used to set trackable and verify-able milestones about the projects. Not only this, the credibility of donors, project owners and groups can be verified in a more trusted manner using blockchain technology. The most important benefits of introducing blockchain to crowdfunding platforms are that there will be no intermediaries while ensuring that the crowdfunding guidelines are stringent as ever.
Cryptocurrency Exchange — Now, as the number and variety of digital assets are increasing day-in and day-out. The owners and buyers of these assets need a reliable platform to do the same, right? Enter Cryptocurrency Exchanges. As a matter of fact, the most popular of blockchain startups or companies today happen to be cryptocurrency exchanges itself.
Sodio has built numerous solutions that can help you create and deploy your own cryptocurrency exchange tailored as per the needs of yours and the users itself. Have a look at these posts on “How to create a Decentralized exchange” and “The Ultimate Guide on How to create a DEX using the Stellar Blockchain.
Freelance Network on Blockchain — The rise of gig economy has been nothing but rampant in the last few years. But there have been a number of unresolved issues with the so-called platforms of gig economy or freelance networks. These include the presence of freelancers with sub-par work quality and even some bad employers. Using blockchain, the profiles of the participants can be more real and genuine than ever. The centralized nature of power and decision making into the hands of platform owners, too, is an issue at hand. Using blockchain technology, you can make sure that it is the participants who have control over their earnings and jobs.
Content-Sharing and Social Media Platforms — The content sharing and social media platforms around the world have been questioned by the people around the world. Be it the data privacy debacles or the singular irregularities of rewards being given to the content creators, there is truly a lot that needs solving with these platforms.
Be it the youtube creators not getting paid enough for the content they create or the bloggers who are not making enough out of their Google Adsense accounts lately, resorting to drop-shipping and affiliate marketing in the last couple of years, these content sharing and social media platforms need changing.
You can create your own platform and fix these problems using blockchain technologies. With every content creator bound to be rewarded on your platform, you can leverage the power of network effect and fuel growth for your platform.
Lending or Credit platform — Be it the mortgage loans or the incredibly tough to bear college loans that the students across the world have to pay off, there is a lot that consumers have to suffer through. There have been a number of POCs on how lending credit platforms can be made simpler and fairer. You can, too, try and make one if you feel the same about this problem.
The automation and execution of loan agreements along with payments using smart contracts can make the process of sanctioning loans and repayments really streamlined.
So, these were one of the most popular ideas that you can pursue using blockchain Technology. At the end of the day, you must remember that it is not just about the blockchain technology. Innovations such as DevOps and Serverless computing too, are groundbreaking. If you need any help at any stage of building your product or crafting the business model, feel free to hit me up!
This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by +437,678 people.
Subscribe to receive our top stories here.
