Blockchain beyond Cryptocurrency!
Since a time out of mind, the search for better alternatives has been taking place thereby unraveling the qualm of different organizations. The banking system was one such quantum leap to rebuild or reshape the easy-going financial system; until the concept of blockchain came into existence. Back in 1991, some analysts came up with this technique with the sole purpose of digitally time-stamping documents thereby avoiding their meddling. The idea wasn’t well-received until 2008 when the first digital cryptocurrency bitcoins was created. Ever since there has been turbulence in every generation to learn and explore everything possible about bitcoins. Blockchain technology is the only reason Bitcoin has been shot into the limelight. A Blockchain is an open configuration consisting of various information blocks connected to each other where every block contains a direction to the previous one. Just like public ledgers, it is a fragmented system storing a list of transactions in a well-connected network. The system is linked by a technology termed as cryptography which avoids duplicity of data. For every transaction in the blockchain, a copy of every single record is compulsorily maintained. These record details further help in the validation of a system. Many people know this as a technology behind Bitcoin, but blockchain’s potential uses extend far beyond digital currencies. Cited below are some of the possibly upcoming applications of the blockchain technology.
Healthcare
One of the major issues which the hospitals face in today’s era is the inability to get a platform which is secure enough to store all patient records and thus share that valuable information. The reason behind the same is their outdated legacy mechanisms and architectural systems. Blockchain can remove this bottleneck by safely storing different medical records and also help apportion this data to the authorized medical professional or the specified patients. Undoubtedly, the data security is enhanced making possible a faster and more precise treatment. Also, the pharmaceutical stores or monitoring systems dealing with the patient’s record can be linked via a blockchain. The information uploaded from the monitoring system is safely stored in the healthcare blockchain which will later adjoin it to the person’s record. The prescribed medicines bought from the stores can also be added to this blockchain to maintain a clear medical history of the concerned patient.
Trade Finance
The key benefits of Blockchain on trade finance are its ability to reduce the processing time, eliminate the use of paper and, to save money while ensuring transparency, security, and trust, all at once. Removing the inefficient actors and forcing everyone to play fair in a new transparent way of doing business will virtually eliminate the risk of manipulation by participants in the chain. The arrival of an end-to-end trade finance network for banks and their corporate clients such is facilitating trade finance directly between parties and increasing its efficiency in the market. By making it easier to exchange trade-related data and delivering financing to the entire ecosystem such trade finance network has the potential to prove itself as a game changer rather than just another initiative.
Energy
This is one of the most renowned uses of blockchain technology in the contemporary world. In today’s time, the price of energy has been increasing while its quantity is not enough to serve the enormous population. However, energy can be conserved by obtaining it from the natural renewable sources of sunlight, water, and others. Some people have the ability to generate more energy than they need while some cannot even produce enough to sustain his own living. This led to the creation of micro-networks for the storage and thus the exchange of energy.
In order to escalate the genuine use of energy produces, the world has started using the blockchain technology to check up on the amount that was consumed, at what probable intervals, and many more.
ICO
An Initial Coin Offering is simply a method of crowd-funding with the aid of cryptocurrency. ICO is one of the best ways of building capital for any blockchain start-up. Corporate investors or for that instance even individuals can plow their money into an organization generally through cryptocurrencies like bitcoin as an integral part of the ICO. Post this; they get back a percentage of that specific cryptocurrency which was previously sold to the company. This is similar to the process of token-sale where participation is different projects get sold.
Distributed Cloud Storage
Blockchain data storage can be assumed to be one of the most successful revolutions coming up in the near future. The present-day cloud storage mechanisms are all concentrated which implies that the consumers have to blindly trust the one and only provider of storage. All the online valuables are thus controlled. In contrary to the present system, the blockchain network is fragmented. There has come up many beta-testing cloud storages which use a network powered by blockchain, aiming at enhancing the safety thereby omitting threats and user dependence. They’re doing so by creating an end-to-end encrypted decentralized object storage. Alongside, the customers can also avail an excess storage capacity for their personal requirements. Anyone on the network can store the user data at a pre-decided price. Techniques like hashing or storing in multiple locations help secure the information. Post encryption, the information is distributed across the network with the ability to be tracked easily.
Summarizing
The game is young and perhaps there’s still time for corporate blockchains to prove themselves. But for now at least, “blockchain but not bitcoin” appears simply to be a marketing ploy. Summing up, there is a multitude of utilities of the technology of blockchain. Its ability to enhance the standard of services is unfathomable. No other technology in the market would work on the security and rectitude of information simultaneously. The transparency of transactions and such an amount of concentration on the data involved; are the stepping stones to a digitally sustainable and thus a better world. Blockchain, the same technology that powers cryptocurrencies is now proving to be worth all the hype created around it and it does seem like Blockchain is here to stay.