In 2017 we have seen dozens of companies raise from the grounds that all promised to disrupt each and every industry. We have seen people promising to bring blockchain to the dental industry, pets industry and whatever other industry you might think of. In some cases though, it does work. We will look at the top 5 of the areas where the application of blockchain technology actually makes sense.
5. Real Estate
Within the trade of real estate, or in fact any estate, it’s always important to have all your documentation in check. The moment a transfer is made, from one owner to the other, the name on the documents changes and the owner of the property changes as well. In most cases, this all goes like it’s supposed to, but sometimes it can go wrong. We have seen it happen before where people claim to be the rightful owner of a property that belongs to someone else. Both parties claim to have the proper documentation but no one know which party is lying and which party speaks the truth.
Blockchain can solve this problem by simply offering the option to verify any transaction. A notary office can use blockchain technology to verify the documents and the ownership of the property will be recorded on the blockchain. At the moment of a transaction, the people that own the property will be able to back up their claims with the use of the blockchain.
4. Politics
One thing that history can teach us, is the fact that things don’t always go the right way. Within politics, it can go extremely wrong whenever there’s one person in charge of a country, where usually this person wishes to stay in charge for a long time. To battle the competition but not to raise any suspicions, the person will simply rig the voting mechanism to stay ahead of the competition.
We have seen it happen before in underdeveloped countries where the same leader will stay at power for many years because this person has full control over the votes. With blockchain technology, each vote will be recorded and verified on the blockchain. Any vote will be recorded on the blockchain, making it impossible to alter the result of the votes. In this case, the real winner of the election will come out of the race, not the one that has the most power at that point.
3. Legal Industry
As we have mentioned earlier in this article, blockchain works perfectly with verifying documents. The real estate industry is just an example of how that would work, but we can take it up a notch. In the legal industry right now, there are fortunes being made off forged documents by fraudulent parties. To battle this, blockchain technology can serve as the middle-man that trusts no one. It can simply be the person that checks each and every document to see if things went fair. Just some examples of where we can apply blockchain to make sure things go as is fair;
- The inheritance of property and wealth by means of a will
- The documentation of legal cases in criminal procedures
- Documentation of employee contracts in case of any disputes
We make contracts in order to stay ahead of any disputes, but sometimes this is not enough. Contracts can still be altered when they are not verified properly. The use of blockchain can create an ecosystem where contracts can not be altered.
2. Logistics
This is one of the industries that is betting big on the implementation of blockchain. In the logistics sector, every single detail is being documented to make sure that everything goes according to the plan. It might sound simple, you want to get a product from place A to B, but in between, there’s a whole process. The product is being made in a factory, then it’s brought to a warehouse for storage until an order is placed by a buying party. Then, the product goes onto a ship, plane or truck to be brought over to the party that bought the products. From that moment, the product will be shipped to the consumer.
This is a complicated process that involves many different parties. The moment something goes wrong, everyone starts pointing fingers at each other. In reality, nobody knows where it went wrong. The moment you start using blockchain technology to verify each step in the process, you know immediately whenever something went wrong, and where it went wrong. No more lost packages, wrongfully packaged products, wrong deliveries or extra illegal cargo on board of container ships.
1. Banking
The industry that has been getting disrupted for many years since the invention of Bitcoin, is the banking industry. It’s an industry that needed some shaking up after the 2008 crisis. We saw people unable to reach their money in Cyprus and because of that, an alternative to the traditional system was created. Bitcoin and the technology that came with it makes it possible for people to have full control over their own money, not the banks. Let’s have a look at some of the benefits;
- Full control over your own money
- Borderless transactions in a matter of seconds
- Very low transaction fees
- A currency that can not be affected by inflation
There you have it, the benefits of blockchain technology. It can bring a lot to many industries, we just have to open up our arms and welcome the technology.
