Blockchain to Become a Commonplace for Fortune 100 Companies
By Stephan Cummings on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE
I believe that the cryptocurrency market distracts people’s attention from the most important processes taking place in the global business and tech. While traders talk about the drops in prices of Bitcoin, Ether, and altcoins, the big companies are working hard to implement the blockchain technology even though in some cases such implementation can lead to drastic change in the way these companies work.
Click-bait headlines usually proclaim another one death of Bitcoin as one of the most significant news from the world of cryptocurrencies while the best players in the world business are dedicating many resources and utilize their high creativity to improve their services using blockchain. It’s silly to think that CEOs of most of Fortune 100 companies are such naive that they agreed to invest time and money into shaping new solutions based on the blockchain. Rather it is naive to think that the blockchain was a fraud, or useless over-hyped technology, or anything like this.
2017
Let’s take a step back and think of what happened at the end of 2017. Someone might think that this year was a breakthrough point for the cryptocurrency world and blockchain technologies. In 2017 mainstream public first heard of cryptocurrencies and many people bought their first Bitcoins, Ethers, and altcoins. The prices were skyrocketing and everyone seemed so excited about the things that were happening.
In fact, 2017 was something very different from a breakthrough year. The reasons as follows: first off, there were no new ambitious blockchain projects. The second thing — the tech giants, or other successful companies were not in hurry to announce their interest in what was going on. There were very few companies that got involved in blockchain projects and without the support from tech giants, the entire blockchain world was nothing more than an experiment ground for startup projects and scammers.
It comes that the principal thing that happened in 2017 was that cryptocurrencies have gone viral. It’s not surprising that the reaction was polar — some people met a new technology with enthusiasm, while others were more or less skeptical (although some of those people opted to exploit the new trend to make quick cash).
2018 and 2019
2018 was the year of frustration if we judge by the prices on cryptocurrencies, although it’s much better to look at something more significant — I mean the development of the blockchain projects. Imagine if there was no Internet after the burst of the dotcom bubble. Sounds silly? That’s why we should not be distracted by prices of cryptocurrencies when we analyze the perspectives of the blockchain technology (or other innovations associated with the distributed ledger technology).
The things have changed and now we are witnessing the beginning of the new era in tech and business sphere. The blockchain technology is as influential as the Internet (and let’s not forget that the Internet has much more influence than such an innovation as social media). Can you imagine a company that is not presented on the Internet? That would be commercial suicide nowadays. The business won’t survive without the Internet. In the future the companies won’t survive without implementation of the blockchain. Why so? Because they won’t be able to compete with the efficiency of the companies that use blockchain.
Blockchain and Fortune 100 Companies
You may say that I’m just a freelance blockchain writer and my opinion doesn’t matter. Yes, I totally agree with that and that’s the reason why I attach the list of Fortune 100 companies already working on the implementation of the blockchain solutions in all spheres of human society. According to Cryptotapas, 82% of Fortune 100 companies work with blockchain. The list below is quoted from the same article:
Walmart is implementing blockchain for its food businesses.
The State Grid Corporation of India is using blockchain technolgy to impove data sharing.
Royal Dutch says Blockchain will revolutionize and disrupt oil industry to trillion Dollar Industry.
Toyota seeks blockchain technology in developing Self Driving Cars.
Volkswagen implements and backs Blockchain technology to drive the automobile industry to a new level.
BP, formerly known as British petroleum has announced that they will be partnering with blockchain startups which are running ICO’s and also have already tested the tokens internally.
Big names in Oil Industry are looking forward to blockchain patents, as they see the potential.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathway is planning to utilize blockchain technology for shipping freights.
Apple’s Co founder is considering to implement blockchain technology.
Samsung looks into blockchain to track their worldwide shipments and also believes it might reduce the costs.
Mckesson implementing blockchain and forecast a better future for healthcare IT solutions with blockchain.
World’s largest producers of Cobalt are considering the implementation of blockchain technology, but its not being confirmed yet.
On April 2 2018 United health group has confirmed its usage of blockchain, to maintain and keep the date up to date.
Daimler and Landesbank Baden-Württemberg(LBBW) together have successfully tested and using blockchain technology.
Amazon web services teams up with ethereum blockchain to make it easier for its customers with a service called Kaleido.
AT&T, One of the leading telecom industries of United States gets awarded a patent for a server fueled by Blockchain.
General Motors along with other leading automobile manufacturers are deploying Blockchain technology.
Ford Motor along with other leading automobile manufacturers are deploying Blockchain technology.
24. Hon Hai Precision Industry/ FOXCONN
Foxconn’s Venture capital has joined a 7 Million Dollar Series A round in a Cambridge Blockchain startup.
AmerisourceBergen and Merck & Co to extend their usage of blockchain technology to track the geneuinity of medicines.
26. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
Yi Huiman, The Chairman of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has announced that their focus is now on using blockchain technology.
Leading Insurance giant is making plans to offer insurance using blockchain with Fizzy.
Leading Insurance company groups, has let out a ‘white paper on smart cities’ support blockchain and AI technologies.
Along with other giant Automakers have presented many innovative new technologies at the auto expo’s and Blackchain as been the prominent technology displayed by most.
IBM along with China Construction Bank(Asia) in Hong Kong are working on a Bankassurance (Bank+Insurance) Blockchain Project to improve the data transmission and Speed.
IBM, Naxatis and Trafigura implement blockchain solution for US crude oil businesses.
Potential and usage of Blockchain is beyond bitcoin and can improve the security of Pharma, according to Cardinal Health.
Food companies such as Nestle, Walmart and Costco are working with IBM on a Blockchain to safeguard global food supply network.
SAIC motors in collaborations with Link-up, a tech firm exploring Blockchain technology.
“Increasingly, our enterprise customers want to effectively leverage blockchain to meet the security demands from their customers. They are looking for proven, reliable solutions and Verizon is recognized as a market leader in managed security services. Combining our security expertise with Guardtime’s blockchain platform offers customers an advanced solution.”
Alex Schlager, executive director security services, Verizon Enterprise Solutions.Oliver Volk, a blockchain expert at Allianz’s said: “Yes, we are thinking about a kind of Allianz token whereby money coming in will be converted to a token,” he told CoinDesk.
Kroger, Wlamart and many other food supply chains are working with IBM on Blackchain Platform for food safety.
40. Agricultural Bank of China
Agricultural Bank of China is testing blockchain to provide Land-Backed Loans.
According to them, Blockchain is beyond just bitcoin and has a huge potential to enhance wherever applicable.
Ms Yang Xiaoyuan, General Manager, Shenzhen Service Center, China Life Insurance (Overseas) Company Limited, commented, “Blockchain is a cutting-edge financial technology, which enables decentralization, transparency and immutability.
The bank successfully processed payments using blockchain technology.
Bank of China’s CIO, Liu Qiuwan, announced that they are increasing their investments into Blockchain, IoT and FinTechn space.
Apart from applying for patents (like other financial institutions) JP Morgan has taken the game up a notch by offering a Blockchain platform specifically to serve Financial industry.
Fannie Mae is rumored to be exploring the possibilities of bringing Blockchain capabilities to its mortgage business.
In an update posted earlier this year Gazprom disclosed that “BLOCKCHAIN AND INTERNET-OF-THINGS (IOT) TECHNOLOGIES BEING SUCCESSFULLY TESTED IN LOGISTICS AT GAZPROM NEFT”.
In a press release Prudential announced that “Prudential and StarHub to launch blockchain-based digital trade platform to support growth aspirations of SMEs”.
BMW piloted a project to track mileage of their leased vehicles using Blockchain technology.
Bloomberg reported that Google (owned by Alphabet) was working on its own Blockchain related project.
53. China Mobile Communications
China Mobile became one of the 3 major telecom companies to join the Trusted Blockchain consortium.
Nissan’s Global CIO joined Loyakk’s Blockchain project as an advisor.
55. Nippon Telegraph & Telephone
Nippon applied for a patent to store new contract agreements on Blockchain to avoid them from being tampered with.
Home Depot is among the sponsors of Microsoft Blockchain for Supply Chain initiative at Auburn University.
Generali is among the insurance companies that have come together to form a startup called B3I to explore the benefits of Blockchain for insurance industry.
Bank of America had filed for over 43 patents in the Blockchain & Cryptocurrency space as of January 2018.
Wells Fargo is among the Banking giants to make the run to file for patents related to blockchain and tokenization.
Lukoil became one of the first energy companies to accept Bitcoin (back in 2015).
Boeing disclosed its plan to develop blockchain enabled unmanned vehicles.
“Siemens’ investment in LO3 represents our acknowledgement of the future potential of blockchain technology as an enabler of local energy market places,” says Ralf Christian, CEO Siemens Energy Management.
Carrefour became launched Europe’s first food blockchain.
Nestle joined the Food Trust (IBM initiative of supply chain management to help track food from farm to table) to help tracking and traceability in their supply chain.
“doc.ai Partners with Anthem to Introduce Groundbreaking, End-to-End Data Trial Powered by Artificial Intelligence on the Blockchain” reads news headlines.
Microsoft has been working diligently in the Blockchain space. Their Azure platform is quite an household name in the Blockchain industry.
72. Huawei Investment & Holding
Huawei launched their Cloud services on Blockchain. They even have a dedicated page that shows various service offerings connected to Blockchain on their site.
“Petrobas is conducting a study and designing scenarios for the [Blockchain] technology’s implementation” reads their official disclosure that was made in April 2018.
Early in 2018, Bosch confirmed investment in IoTA (Internet of Things) project and disclosed their plans to explore Blockchain solutions.
In May of 2017 Citi announced that “Nasdaq and Citi Announce Pioneering Blockchain and Global Banking Integration”.
“Santander becomes first UK bank to introduce blockchain technology for international payments with the launch of a new app” reads their site.
While other companies are thinking about utilizing Blockchain, Hyundai beat them all by taking it to next level — they had their own Initial Coin Offering and issued HDAC Tokens which will be used on Hyundai’s own HDAC Blockchain.
“Hitachi has been developing unique additional functions for financial institutions, leveraging our past experience in building financial core systems along with expertise gained from research into technologies such as security and distributed data processing technologies” reads their blockchain section.
Comcast believes that future will see world with multiple blockchain technologies serving different industries and needs. It has invested 3.3 million dollars of seed money in Blockdaemon, a NYC based startup.
“I’m convinced that the blockchain isn‘t hype. It’s a potentially revolutionary technology. It creates an incorruptible, decentralized ledger that automatically verifies and monitors identities, contracts and transactions.” says François Fleutiaux, member of the T-Systems Board of Management.
Crédit Agricole experimenting with Ripple blockchain money transfer technology.
“The blockchain, even in its most common form (payment systems), could have an impact on Enel in the future considering that it has over 60 million customers and every day it is engaged in trading on the commodities market” according to the article on their company’s website.
South Korean Telco SK Telecom will adopt blockchain into subscriptions and payments from consumers.
SoftBank, Synchronoss and TBCASoft partner on a Proof of Concept for an RCS and blockchain-based mobile payments service.
Uniper expects that Blockchain will help Energy companies immensely.
“The mechanism behind Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies will revolutionize the distribution and access to energy. Eni is on the front line…” read the title of an interesting article on their site.
HSBC succesfully executed a transaction on R3 Corda’s blockchain platform.
91. China Communications Construction
“Xiongan, in partnership with a subsidiary of state-owned China Communications Construction Company, has launched a blockchain network for small businesses to raise capital, where business owners and other relevant parties can track project completion and money flow in an efficient and transparent manner” reads the news article.
IBM wants to be at the forefront of Blockchain revolution, it is bringing HyperLedger to businesses. It has already successfully implemented Food Trust with Walmart and has a solid team to support companies that are looking to implement Hyperledger.
Blockchain will not make sense for most use cases but for financial and health industries this could be a game changer, that was the essence of Dell CTO John Roese’s message.
EDF is looking to bring the efficiencies of Blockchain to its business. It was also among the companies that joined Blockchain Energy Consortium along with Shell.
State Farm is among the other insurance giants that is working with Plug and Play Insurance to leverage Blockchain’s capabilities to the insurance business.
Sony has applied for a patent to store digital files on Blockchain platforms called Distributed Rights Management (DRM) that could potentially disrupt industries making use of data such as movies, games, audio, academic data, etc., essentially disruption of all industries.
Sinochem Group has succesfully utilized Blockchain in its gasoline export.
Johnson & Johnson has had an positive outlook relating to emerging technologies. JLabs has had their eye on multiple new technology frontiers including blockchain.
The article was written 5 months ago. Most probably nowadays this number is bigger than 82%. What is more interesting that some of the companies that might be competitors are uniting to work in collaboration. For example, the Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA) includes such members as General Electric (GE Transportation), UPS, and FedEx. Or another unexpected collaboration is the Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative (MOBI) where long-term competitors General Motors and Ford work together to create a blockchain-based “car passport” that is aimed to make it easier to track odometer data and help to avoid fraud.
Conclusion
It’s awesome to see that serious and successful businessmen work together to solve the old problems of people. They care not only about money, and that’s great that blockchain inspired people to do something useful. As it was mentioned above most of these projects are currently at the testing stage. It means that quite soon the real changes will follow it improving our lives and changing our perspective on what human society can be. You can be skeptical about the blockchain if all you see is articles about the nosedive of the Bitcoin price, but it’s hard to deny that tech giants cannot come together and dump tons of money on useless technology. Almost all of the technology masterminds and leaders are working on making all the spheres of our lives better via blockchain. The time for being skeptical is out.
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