Five Other Uses For Blockchain
Real Cases
Cryptocurrency made a long way through various myths and illusions to finally reach even the government meetings. The main reason for that is blockchain — a decentralized ledger where each and every transaction is recorded.
It’s almost impossible to hack it, for there’s a constantly increasing amount of transactions throughout every network distributed over a large number of computers.
Eventually, other possibilities to apply such ledgers have been recognized and hyped-up across different sectors; it seems that the future holds much more for the blockchain technology beyond cryptocurrencies.
Let’s list some of the already implemented cases with much promise and potential.
1. IR Protection
Case: KodakOne
It is a blockchain product for licensing photographers’ payments. From the official website: “We believe that blockchain technology is the ideal way for photographers and agencies to store their image assets and associated metadata in a way that track ownership, rights and license transactions regardless of where those images are used and by whom. By pairing this with KODAKCoin tokens, our bespoke cryptocurrency, we are creating a licensing platform, which tracks usage, gives creators more control over licensing, while enforcing copyright and creating a marketplace for all of a photographer's needs”.
2. Supply Chains / Pharmaceuticals
Case: Pfizer & Chronicled MediLedger
One of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies, Pfizer, joined Chronicled for MediLedger Project. It’s aimed at finding “a blockchain-based solution to the inefficiencies currently found within the industry’s supply chain pricing and eligibility contracts”. Going live in October 2019.
3. Tracking Foods And Drugs
Case: Walmart & IBM
Walmart has already gotten experience in distributed ledger technology (DLT): from identifying and flagging recalled food to tracking meat in China and live food in the United States.
Recently, Walmart announced a new field to cover by the verification power of blockchain with the Food and Drug Administration and in conjunction with IBM, Merck, and KPMG. It focuses on the development of a proof-of-concept blockchain for identifying and tracking prescription drugs.
4. Real Estate
Case: SAPEB AnnA, villa in Paris
Last week, the AnnA Villa in Paris became the first European property to be sold entirely via blockchain. First, the ownership was transferred to the joint-stock company, the SAPEB AnnA. Then the company was divided down to 100 tokens received by the owners. Those were split into 100 thousand units, where each of them is sold through tokens.
In 2017 a similar blockchain real estate transaction took place in San-Francisco when the property was sold through the blockchain platform Propy.
5. Workers’ Rights
Case: Coca Cola
There’s a project in progress by Coca-Cola, US government, and other partners that completes a blockchain registry with smart contracts in order to improve labor policies and urge employers to apply digital contracts.
***
The list can go on. Among other uses for blockchain being implemented across the business and public sectors, the following ones are worth it to be mentioned: online voting; tax regulation and compliance; NFC smart cards; passenger screening tested in Canada; transparency of donations and reducing fraud in humanitarianism; ethical fashion and more. Sky’s the limit or did someone say “space”?
