5 Major Industries Blockchain Technology Will

Disrupt This Year

The buzzword and technology trend for 2017 was - BLOCKCHAIN, and it will

continue to be so for 2018. An open ledger technology that began with

Bitcoin and has been around for years seems to have entered mainstream

conversation lately. It is basically a global public database/ledger that stores

detailed information about every transaction. It is an open transaction that

enables companies to know who owns the document at any given time and

also cites the proof that the document is not altered in any way.

This proved to be extremely vital for Bitcoin as it ensured that the same

money won’t be spent twice, unless a third-party plunges in. The most

unique feature of Blockchain is that the ledger isn’t stored on one computer

instead it’s shared across a huge number of computers which allows

everyone in the network to have access to it. Given the reliability and

accountability Blockchain entails, it has today become a customary element

for development of financial technologies. However, other sectors are

recognizing its influence and structural integrity and are keen on imbibing it.

Following are the industries that could be transformed by Blockchain

technology or have its indelible imprint in near future.

List of Major Industries Blockchain Technology is Poised

to Disrupt:

1.Banking

Blockchain can inject enhanced accuracy and information sharing into a

structured and complex financial services ecosystem such as a bank by being

a digitized and a tamper-proof ledger. Banks are investing the maximum in

Blockchain startups, for example, R3 CEV, a consortium of global financial

institutions collaborating to develop a platform and commercial applications

for distributed ledger technology. The platform has been called Corda and it

meets the highest standards in the banking industry but will be applicable to

any commercial scenario.

This is what Blockchain will do for the banking and financial sector -

1.1 Fraud Reduction

The potential of Blockchain technology to reduce fraud is getting a lot of

attention from the financial world because 45% of financial intermediaries

suffer from financial crimes every year. Most banking systems are built on

centralized databases that are vulnerable to cyberattacks where the hackers

only have to breach one system to have full access. The Blockchain

technology would eliminate some of these crimes.

5 Major Industries Blockchain Technology Will Disrupt This Year

1.2 Smart Contracts

Blockchains are capable of storing any kind of digital information which can

be computer codes as well. These codes can be executed when two or more

parties enter their keys enabling smart contracts. Once a set of criteria has

been adhered to these codes can be programmed to create contracts or

execute financial transactions.

1.3 Know Your Customer (KYC)

Financial institutions spend millions to keep up with KYC and customer due

diligence regulations annually. Blockchain would allow verification of one

client by one organization to be accessed by other organizations so the KYC

process wouldn’t have to start from scratch. This would bring down the

administrative costs for compliance departments significantly.

1.4 Trading Platforms

Operational errors and fraud would be reduced if trading platforms started

relying on Blockchain technology. NASDAQ and the Australian Securities

Exchange are already exploring Blockchain solutions to reduce costs and

raise efficiencies.

1.5 Payments

Blockchain disruption will eliminate many of the existing intermediaries in

the payment processing system. This will bring in fortified security and lower

costs for banks to process payments between banks, among organisations

and their clients.

5 Major Industries Blockchain Technology Will Disrupt This Year

2.HEALTHCARE

Healthcare organisations face the challenge of secure sharing of data across

platforms, which is an impediment in the pursuit of delivering cost-effective

care. Employing blockchain technology could allow hospitals, payers, and

other parties in the healthcare value chain to share access to their networks

without compromising data security.

For example, Tierion, a Blockchain startup has built a data storage and

verification platform for healthcare. Also, Blockchain Company GEM and

Tierion have partnered with Philips Healthcare in the Philips Blockchain Lab.

3. RIDE SHARING

Taxi apps like Uber, Hailo and Lyft operate as dispatching centres that use

algorithms to control their drivers and tariffs. Here, Blockchain could

introduce a wave of new options where both drivers and users could create

a more user-driven and value-based marketplace because of the distributed

ledger.

For example, Arcade City, a startup with a ride sharing app for people where

users can select their driver, negotiate payment and enjoy personalized

service. So, Arcade City is basically functioning in a similar fashion to that of

other e-hail taxi apps but allows drivers to set their fares (in place of a

corporate) with Blockchain recording all transactions. Arcade takes a

percentage of the rider fares and helps drivers build their customer base

along with providing value based services like deliveries.

5 Major Industries Blockchain Technology Will Disrupt This Year

4.RETAIL

Blockchain could change the existing dynamic of the marketplace by

decentralizing the trust. For instance in case of Amazon, its success is

dependent on its consumers’ sense of trust; here Blockchain will attach that

trust to sellers than to site themselves.

There are startups that are developing decentralized Blockchain utilities to

connect buyers and sellers, without a middleman and the related charges.At

these utilities customers purchase goods using any of the available

cryptocurrencies, and sellers are paid in Bitcoin with all data distributed

across the global network instead of being stored in a central database.

5.The Internet of Things (IoT)

Blockchain will prove to be a security fabric for IoT, it will give companies

invested in this sector the confidence that their IoT devices won’t be

compromised. With the rise of IoT severe issues will surface when millions

of devices would want to interact among themselves or their users and with

the current IoT ecosystem relying on the server/client paradigm, these

challenges will be difficult to meet.

Many tech firms are exploring possibilities of resolving these problems with

Blockchain technology. They are considering importing its core concept of

peer to peer messaging devoid of trust a complete possibility as has been

proven in the financial realm through cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. For

IoT networks Blockchain will allow billions of devices to share the same

network without the need for auxiliary resources.

5 Major Industries Blockchain Technology Will Disrupt This Year

The Next Industries in Queue: Apart from the above listed sectors, industries like Music distribution, Cloud

Storage, Supply Chain Management and several others will also harness the

power of Blockchain technology in innovative ways. If you too are thinking

of riding the Blockchain wave for your business, don’t skip exploring the list

of top blockchain technology companies curated by GoodFirms.

5 Major Industries Blockchain Technology Will Disrupt This Year