How Embracing Blockchain Privacy Solutions Can Be Profitable For Businesses
Many businesses, including multinational corporations, are continuously striving to develop new streams of revenue that facilitate the growth of their company.
Businesses are now looking to utilize their extremely valuable stores of consumer data in order to create an additional stream of income. But there are a few major obstacles in their path — one of which includes consumer trust.
In this article, we’re going to discuss how companies can embrace blockchain-based privacy solutions to help make their businesses not only more secure and trustworthy but how they can utilize distributed ledger technology to boost their profitability.
Building Trust
When it comes to establishing an awesome reputation, brands must first be able to attain the trust of the consumer. This can take years to build, and seconds to break. With data breaches consistently on the rise, many organizations that have been affected by instances such as cyber-attacks are inevitably finding it a difficult task to regain the trust of their once-loyal consumer base.
According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, distrust amongst the mass population appears to be on the rise, so it is crucial that companies optimize their operations to ensure that they can attract and retain consumer trust. With 68% of the US economy being made up by consumer spending, the demand for products and services is ever-increasing, with customer loyalty becoming an increasingly unimportant factor in purchasing decisions.
The security and privacy measures put in place to ensure customer records are managed safely seem to be of great concern to millions of consumers. In January of 2019 alone, over 1.7 billion records were leaked due to a combination of data breaches and incompetent security systems implemented by organizations. It’s situations like this that further fuel consumer concerns with regards to data protection.
Blockchain-based record access applications are set to offer the perfect solution to the current consumer data security crisis. Not only will companies be able to efficiently manage sensitive consumer data, but the trustless nature of blockchain technology will help to bolster the confidence of customers when it comes to how their private data is handled.
With an increase in confidence, comes more accurate, detailed, and reliable consumer data. This alone would help to make businesses more profitable, as they’ll be able to provide customers with a more personalized and contextual product or service. Companies will also be able to generate healthy streams of revenue when trading precise sets of consumer data with third-parties, as the records will be much more authentic and therefore more valuable.
Trust is arguably one of the most important factors in terms of a company’s success, especially so for multinational organizations. Using revolutionary technologies such as blockchain and distributed ledger technology will help to weed out the negative potential side effects of storing records in so-called data silos, and help to augment consumer trust, thus making businesses who opt to employ such applications more profitable in both the near and long-term.
Profiting From Secure Data Sharing
Data sharing is a trillion-dollar market and would prove to be extremely lucrative for many industry leaders looking to utilize their stores of consumer data and insights as a revenue-generating asset. The market for big data analytics is predicted to grow to a gargantuan $103 billion in less than 10 years.
Many companies could tap into their stored consumer data to generate additional streams of profit. According to Reuters, peer-to-peer ride-sharing giant Uber could be looking to make use of their gigantic collection of customer data in order to increase their overall revenues.
Important customer details including purchasing behaviors and demographics can help many companies gain a better understanding for their customer base, and will be able to utilize this data in order to improve services and potentially offer new and relevant products to purchasers based on their activities.
Blockchain technology has the power to disrupt a huge variety of different industries, including the automotive sector, in terms of how they deal and trade valuable consumer data.
Companies who have a huge record of loyal customers will also be able to utilize secure blockchain data management systems to transact consumers details (with consent from the consumer) to third parties in return for a profit. Blockchain data management initiatives will help businesses to use their stored data as an asset that can be securely exchanged with third party operators, without the risks posed by potential data breaches caused by cyber-attacks, database malfunctions, and even human error.
Incentivizing Consumers To Increase Profits
The benefits of using blockchain-based data privacy solutions, such as Tide, will not only benefit businesses but can also enable consumers to take control of their data and share in the profits derived by trading records with trusted third parties.
The consumer will be issued the only encryption keys to their personal data, which puts them in a position to assign one-time decryption permission to third parties looking to utilize their personal data, in return for tokens.
Not only will this initiative incentivize consumers to participate in the data-sharing economy, but it will also boost the interaction between consumers and companies. This will help organizations build and maintain trust between themselves and the customer, which in turn will boost consumer confidence in dealing with said organizations.
As discussed previously, trust is a cornerstone of a successful business enterprise. Through the use of blockchain technology, companies will be able to construct an invaluable economy of trust, initiated through the use of transparency and incentivization, that could prove to be the most valuable asset they hold.
Benefits For Third-Party Data Seekers
As previously established, the implementation of data privacy solutions that utilize blockchain technology achieves huge benefits for both business looking for extra profitability, whilst also encouraging an increase in trust amongst consumers with regards to how their data is handled.
It’s also important for us to mention the huge advantages that accurate and complete consumer records have for third parties looking to purchase the data. Each business has an entirely unique view of a consumer from their particular interactions. Rarely do marketers have the opportunity to tap into that precision and access previously siloed pockets of the personal data economy. Additionally, the consent-based nature of the data shared ensures that these third parties are engaging with relevant and motivated audiences.
The ability to target new customers based on specific details will prove to be invaluable to many organizations who are looking to utilize the data effectively. Blockchain-based data privacy solutions will significantly reduce the costs and ambiguity associated with traditional methods of consumer targeting, which is often facilitated by the use of browsing cookies and other limited web-based tracking metrics. In turn, these accurate data sets will help to dramatically boost a business’s overall profitability by enabling them to hyper-target new and existing customers.
Everyone’s A Winner
Blockchain is arguably one of the most perfect solutions to current data privacy issues.
Not only will the nascent technology provide a significantly enhanced layer of security for both companies and consumers, but it will also enable both of the aforementioned parties to take full advantage of the profitability that is currently hosted by the trillion-dollar personal data economy.
Third-party data seekers will also find huge benefits from purchasing accurate consumer data, enabling them to make increasingly informed decisions when targeting new and existing customers, helping them to improve their overall profitability.
Stephane is head of partnerships at Tide Foundation — A not-for-profit, community-driven foundation charged with the stewardship and mass adoption of the Tide protocol — a decentralized, open source infrastructure powering a new personal data economy. Tide is founded by a diverse team, representing a wide range of stakeholders, including media agency heads, bank chief economists, cryptography professors, forward thinking politicians and tech entrepreneurs. For more, visit https://tide.org/.
