A Blockchain New World: Where The New Tech Is Being Used
A number of organizations in different countries of the world boldly use the advantages of blockchain to complete a variety of tasks, bringing the day closer when their usage becomes ubiquitous.
You can argue as much as you like about the “bubble” nature of crypto-currency, but there is no denying the importance of innovation, and most importantly, the convenience of using distributed network technology in a number of areas of life.
Even representatives of JPMorgan Chase, who are known for their crypto-skepticism, have stated that they are still still “cool-headed” about this digital currency but support the argument for the importance of the technology itself at the recently held main crypto-gathering in New York, Consensus.
Where, in fact, is this magical fern, blockchain, today growing and flourishing? And where is it actually applied?
Taxes, land, elections
One of the first and most obvious areas of implementing useful qualities of blockchain are state services and document circulation. The Florida State Taxation Authority has announced it is joining forces with the BitPay processing service in order to start accepting payments for taxes and property fees, driving licenses, identity cards, car numbers and other documents in Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash crypto-currencies.
Georgia. Everyone who is somehow connected with blockchain has that country on their A-list. What exactly did the Georgian government do? First, blockchain options were added to the official website of the National Agency of Public Registry of Georgia (NAPR).
Now with the help of a blockchain network it is possible to find and receive an official statement on real estate objects. This option is and has been available for several months. It is possible to check the validity of the statement using the global blockchain network via special resources.
Secondly, NAPR has been cooperating with Bitfury for more than a year. Bitfury is the world’s leading manufacturer of mining equipment. They are helping Georgia introduce services to purchase and sell property rights to land, register real estate mortgages and notarize documents. Valery Vavilov, the head of Bitfury, has high hopes for “blockchaining” the workflow, envisioning round-the-clock access even on smartphones. Similar working systems have also been established in Sweden and Ghana.
Not in one country in the world did anyone think of using blockchain in the elections so far. The technology itself does not allow tampering of any kind. Therefore, there are a lot of conversations taking place about democratization of blockchain and blockchaining of democracy.
A recent example would be the first municipal elections using blockchain in West Virginia, USA. You could vote from anywhere without absentee ballots and walking to the site or an embassy. Now the authorities are considering using the technology in November during the big congressional elections.
Presidential elections in Russia this year (although no one particularly doubted the result) also involved blockchain. “National Public Monitoring” observers broadcasted a parallel vote count and voter turnout, and this data was confirmed with the help of NPM’s blockchain technology and “International Standard of Confidence” protocol used by an independent blockchain platform Verifier.
In March, with the support of a blockchain company, presidential elections were also held in Sierra Leone. The head of the company which was responsible for vote-counting hastened to please his telegram-subscribers with the fact that his specialists were quicker and published the results two hours earlier than the local CEC.
Japan, salaries, schoolgirls
In December 2017, when Bitcoin price beat all records, a company called GMO Internet, which is based in in Japan, announced to the envy of crypto-enthusiasts that in the coming year its employees will receive part of the salary in Bitcoins.
100 000 Japanese yens (this is slightly more than $900) have been sent digitally since February 2018 to the wallets of 4000 employees of GMO Internet. The company also deals with trading on crypto-exchanges and even got involved in the mining business.
Another example is the digital platform Bitwage, with which, according to CNBC, such giants as Netflix, Airbnb and Starbucks cooperate, who already offers the function of paying crypto currency in full or in part.
By the way, Japan still remains ahead of the whole planet in terms of real use of digital money in everyday life. Here it can be spent in shops or coffee shops. Even the pop group Kasotsuka Shojo (“Cryptocurrency Girls”) not only sings songs about Bitcoin, but also receives salary in crypto, and uses it to charge for tickets to concerts and an opportunity of a photo shoot with them wearing a mask and apron of a Japanese schoolgirl.
Finance, business, software
The fintech industry is now developing at an incredible pace, and to a large extent, the cause of this is blockchain.
The usage of such technology in banking operations can be illustrated clearly by a transaction that The HSBC Bank and The Dutch ING Bank have conducted. To deliver cargo from Argentina to Malaysia, they issued a letter of credit through the R3 Corda blockchain platform and completely avoided any paper documents.
A similar deal was conducted not so long ago by the Russian Alfa Bank and the S7 airline. Instant updates of the network is the advantage that will make such financial transactions faster, easier and more reliable.
Another recognized leader in the area of blockchain is Ripple. Through its network you can send bank transfers using inter-currency which are instant and feature commission lower than the traditional fiat commission.
In Russia, the pioneers were the company M.Video, Alfa-Bank and Sberbank Factoring. A few months ago, they have launched an open blockchain platform for factoring operations within the consortium.
Using the opportunities offered by the Ethereum network, the platform connects suppliers and verifies documents with maximum speed and efficiency while preserving confidentiality of transactions information.
In addition to convenience, usage of blockchain for factoring saves a lot of funds, about 150–200 million rubles a year, as well as getting the user rid of paper invoices.
The problem of transparency in raising funds is relevant not only to ICOs, but also for charities. To whom and how the collected money is transferred, and how is it actually distributed? I am sure many asked these questions, even while being actively involved in the charity process.
The Charity Blockchain Association helps dozens of funds, including, for example, the Foundation for Fighting Leukemia. This fund was the first to “switch to the formation and publication of financial statements using blockchain technology.”
And, of course, the business does not remain uninvolved. Blockchain was introduced to the intercorporate networks, by such a giant as Microsoft. After topping up an account, one can buy software, movies, games and apps for Xboxes.
One other cornerstone of commerce, which is an online platform for retail and online shops Shopify, added Bitcoin-payments to their functionality. Thousands of stores that use the platform are already accepting Bitcoins, taking advantage of greater speed and once more a low commission for transactions.
So, while regulators write laws and try to fit distributed registers into their legislative framework, many organizations around the world are boldly using the advantages of blockchain technologies, speeding up the arrival of the day when the word “blockchain” ceases to mean something obscure and gray, and technology really changes the life and work of people for the better.
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