But blockchain is now used for a lot more than just crypto and NFTs. It is also used in many other industries.
According to Jitin Agarwal, president of Workspend, a managed service provider for contingent workers, “the best use cases aren’t general, at least not yet.” Instead, they are unique to a company, industry, or role. He told businesses to look at how they work to figure out which of the six main benefits of blockchain—transparency, control, security, public access, immutability, and the ability to audit—is the most important to them.
Top blockchain use cases
As a general-purpose tool, blockchain can be used in many different areas, according to Christos Makridis, a research professor at Arizona State University and a digital fellow at the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy. “For instance, financial services can use it to create smart contracts between customers and their bank.” Therefore, it can be used in healthcare to create smart contracts between hospitals and individuals as well as between insurers and hospitals. Infinite options exist.
Smart contracts
The main job of these programs is to follow the rules of a contract without the user having to do anything. Simple logic is used in the code to make sure that everyone gets the rewards or punishments that were agreed upon in the contract. The blockchain saves a record of everything that happens during the trade and will always do so.
Cybersecurity
If certain conditions are met, these programs will automatically follow the rules of a contract. Within the software code, straightforward thinking is used to guarantee that everyone receives the rewards or punishments agreed upon in the contract. The trade is recorded by the blockchain and kept forever.
Internet of Things
Asset tracking and inventory management that employ IoT are two common blockchain uses in supply chains. A third use is IoT devices that record measurements captured by sensors in the Arctic, the Amazon jungle, in a manufacturing plant, or on a NASA drone surveying Mars.
In an interview, Aaron Rafferty—co-founder of Standard DAO, a community-owned decentralized treasury that runs on blockchain—explained that the blockchain can be used “anywhere data is interacting with the real world,” including in reports of chemical data regarding oil grades or tracking shipments of electronics across the globe through various ports of entry. Rafferty is the founder of R.F. Capital, a cryptocurrency investment firm.
Cryptocurrency
Blockchains were invented for cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. Blockchain helps keep accurate transaction records and protect privacy because crypto coins are anonymous. In the “crypto winter of 2022,” fraud, bankruptcy, and a steep drop in value plagued cryptocurrency. This demands for government control.
Non-Fungible Tokens
NFTs are unique, non-transferable digital or virtual items. NFTs are changing digital art and mementos, says Rafferty. Shantal Anderson, founder, and CEO of Reel Mood, a music and pop culture streaming network, said decentralization and the Ethereum blockchain are being used to create a music livestream network where artists and streamers can directly connect with fans, sell NFTs, receive fan contributions, and trade in rewards and contributions for crypto tokens
Real-world industry blockchain applications
Blockchain can be used in many industries, but “offer the most ‘bang for your buck’ are based on optimizing and reducing the friction associated with normal business practices.”
A blockchain app can streamline company operations.”Over half of respondents cited data security and new ways to make money or run a business,” said EY blockchain senior manager Rajat Kapur. Government, healthcare, supply lines, media, and financial organizations like banks use blockchain in unique ways.
Healthcare
There are a lot of ways that blockchain could be used in healthcare. “There are many possible uses,” said David Brown, science and program head at Qatar Precision Medicine Institute.
Precision medicine is medicine matched to a patient’s genomics to improve results and minimize or eliminate side effects. It also encompasses genomic-based medicines that are badly needed as infectious agents become increasingly resistant to antibiotics.
“Blockchain,” Brown explained, “allows healthcare providers and researchers to develop groundbreaking drugs and therapies based on genomic profiles.”
Government
Blockchain can be used in many ways by government bodies, such as for voting and keeping personal information safe.
However, A blockchain can hold digital IDs, certificates of any kind, and even passports, according to Rafferty. This is because blockchains’ data can’t usually be changed or faked. “This data can be accessed and viewed at any time in a completely transparent manner, which will bolster international travel industries.”
In the same way, voting on a blockchain in a truly decentralized, open, and safe way cuts out the middleman and any concerns about vote theft or manipulation.
Financial services
Blockchain is used in many types of financial applications. Trade finance, for example, “is riddled with multiple steps and concurrent processes that can dramatically elongate transaction timelines,” Agarwal said. Blockchain’s bidirectional data flow simplifies trade finance transactions for all parties and “dramatically reduces the time to close from 10 to 12 weeks to approximately one week.”
Banking
Chen Zur, EY’s blockchain leader, said business-to-business clients with contract-based multiparty cash flow distributions may use blockchain to speed contract computations and processing.
Kapur said blockchain is employed in many real-world financial functions despite its infancy. These include contract management, inventory tracking, buying, fund tracking, lending and borrowing money, digitizing assets and cryptocurrency, settling securities and commodity exchanges, and protecting land records.
Supply chain management
Before COVID-19 disrupted supply networks worldwide, supply chains were the trendiest blockchain use. According to Kobe University research scholar and University of North Carolina in Greensboro professor Nir Kshetri, blockchain is ideal for complex global supply chains that lack visibility and a central authority.
According to Kshetri, supply chain companies can gain from data openness, commercial secrecy, and an unchangeable record of transactions. “For these reasons, the Netherlands-based market intelligence platform Blockdata’s analysis found that traceability and provenance supply chains were the most popular blockchain use case among the world’s biggest brands in 2020.”
Media and entertainment in Blockchain
However, Blockchain technology offers many uses in media and entertainment, as inventive as the industry itself. Zur said that EY and Microsoft’s blockchain-based gaming rights and royalties management software is another effective use case. The financial system records contract generation and payment reconciliation.
Makridis said Living Opera is developing blockchain apps to combine opera tunes with visual art to improve user experience. Since smart contracts are computer code, we are investigating interactive artwork.
The time is ripe for blockchain
However, These days, businesses are focusing on how to use blockchains to make new money and avoid problems caused by change. Agarwal said blockchain’s finest uses allow companies to exploit its mathematical advantages “without moving large parts of their business.