Over the past year or so, there has been a massive amount of hype around how blockchain technology could transform the way we do business.
One of the most exciting things about blockchain technology is that we can apply it to virtually any industry.
Of course, there are some industries that stand to benefit from the application of blockchain technology more than others.
Blockchain in the Finance Industry
Without a doubt, the application of blockchain technology to the finance industry is something that virtually every investor is getting excited about – and for good reason. It’s one of the most obvious applications of the technology, and has huge potential.
Multinational firms including PwC and Deloitte are already discussing how they can leverage it to improve their business.
A few days ago, Samsung launched their blockchain-based finance platform that will be used to secure digital identities.
The platform will be known as Nexfinance. It will be used to offer services such as digital identity management, finance concierge, and automatic insurance payment.
It will even be completely open source, meaning clients can also leverage third-party solutions.
Blockchain and Social Media
You might have already heard about Telegram’s ICO, where the platform managed to raise a whopping $1.7 billion from private investors alone in the biggest, most successful ICO date.
It’s not surprising that people are rooting for decentralization on social media platforms – especially since the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal, which has turned many people away from centralized social media platforms altogether.
Hoping to follow the success of Telegram is the social media question and answer platform, ASKfm.
The social media platform shares many similarities with Telegram. It has been around since 2010 and has already managed to successfully monetize its services.
As it stands, it boasts over 215 million users who represent over 49 different languages from 168 different countries and ask a surplus of 600 million questions every single month.
By jumping on the blockchain bandwagon, ASKfm intends to strengthen its position as the official knowledge center for users all across the globe.
Through introducing tokenization, the platform will be able to reward users for their contributions to the website, thereby attracting more knowledgeable individuals and professionals to the platform in order to increase the quality of responses, and therefore increasing trust and confidence amongst the user base.
Given the sheer size of the website, this could be the biggest migration to the blockchain yet. If it is successful, it won’t just have dramatic implications for ASKfm, but for the entire blockchain environment as a whole. It will definitely be an opportunity for keen investors to jump on.
It is likely we will see many social media companies follow suit in the near future.
Blockchain in the Healthcare Industry
Global annual health spending is increasing year on year. In 2015, it surpassed $7 trillion dollars.
Meanwhile, Q1 funding to digital health startups reached an all-time high in 2018.
From these statistics alone, it’s clear that there is a huge amount of potential in the healthcare niche for blockchain solutions that could increase both the quality and efficiency of healthcare.
Startups like MedRec are leveraging blockchain technology to improve the way electronic medical records are handled.
As it stands, accessing patient records is a long, arduous process for healthcare providers. Transmitting records between different providers across geographies compromises both privacy and security.
However, blockchain technology could solve this, allowing healthcare providers to access patient records at any time they are required.
This would essentially give them access to healthcare information across all the providers their patient has ever seen, thereby vastly improving the treatment process.
Such a solution would also give patients the opportunity to grant anonymous access to their personal records to researchers, making medical research more efficient than ever before and improving our chances of making new medical breakthroughs.
Are We Moving Towards a Blockchain-Based Future?
As you can see, the potential for the mass-adoption of blockchain technology is enormous – and this is only a small sample of the industries it can be applied to.
A blockchain-based future won’t happen overnight – but it’s becoming ever-more likely.
Without a doubt, blockchain is coming – and it will affect virtually every industry.
