Blockchain is quite a new technology that has already become a buzzword. Due to its innovative approach to data processing and storage, security, and transactions, blockchain can potentially bring benefits to many industries. Here is our list of top five sectors that can embrace it in the nearest future.
Banking
Blockchain transaction model is very different from the contemporary one that banks have. In the modern banking system, both banks and their clients spend a lot of money on intermediary services and transfer fees. Blockchain can improve the situation by offering a secure and accurate method of transferring digital information. With this technology, the banking industry would be able to store banking records without worrying about their integrity and indestructibility. Banks would get a faster, and a more cost-effective way of transferring funds through the decentralized blockchain system. Compared to the traditional approach, blockchain has minimal chances of collapsing, which can help banks gain more customer trust and loyalty.
As for now, blockchain startups working on data storage, transaction security, and safe data storage attract huge investments. Banks don’t hesitate to invest in such projects, as they realize how much potential profit these solutions can bring to their system.
Messaging AppsAccording to BrandwatchOpens a new window , 60 billion messages were sent on Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp daily in 2018. As a result of recent Facebook security breaches, many smartphone users started worrying about the safety of their personal data that they entrust messaging apps with. Blockchain has the potential to make the mobile messaging app industry safer thanks to its technology of data encryption.
Currently, Telegram is one of the best examples of messaging apps that incorporates the blockchain technology. The developers of Telegram, the encrypted messaging app, are now working on a blockchain-based platform called Telegram Open Network, or simply TON. This platform extends Telegram’s services into censorship-resistant browsing, payments, and file storage for 200M users of the messenger.
Healthcare
Healthcare is one more industry that could use the technological advancement ерфе blockchain offers. Currently, this sector experiences significant difficulties with data handling. There are myriads of formats and programs for patient data storage, used around the world. What is even worse, different health institutions gather different information about their patients. Medical records get lost, falsified, stolen and sold all the time.
More and more healthcare professionals suggest that there needs to be a universal patient card that can be securely accessed from anywhere. If every country and every health institution gathered patient data in one format and could share it with the authorized parties safely and quickly, the provided services would improve greatly.
Blockchain technology could allow all the parties of the healthcare service chain to get all the data they need without having to worry about its integrity and security. It looks like blockchain and healthcare have a bright future together.
Supply Chain ManagementDue to ineffective data management, fraud and theft, this sector loses billions of dollars in the US only. This sector struggles to overcome the insufficient transparency and accountability of the supply chain processes with the currently available means. Some supply chain processes have hundreds of steps and involve dozens of intermediaries. It is impossible for a human to process all the accompanying data and determine a problem at some point of a supply chain quickly and effectively.
Blockchain can bring supply chain management to the next level. It can give all the parties an effective, transparent and secure tool for tracking all the transactions that happen along the steps of the supply process. When we allow the blockchain technology to track the product in a real-time mode, we reduce the overall costs significantly. The administrative procedures speed up, the intermediaries and middlemen are no longer needed, the fraud is eliminated, and the system is protected from any breaches. Blockchain can provide the most accurate record keeping so that the products are hard to lose along the steps of the supply chain.
Cybersecurity
In all the industries mentioned above, there were security issues blockchain could potentially solve. It is a safe bet to say that this technology can improve digital security critically, fighting most of its current threats and soft spots. Blockchain is considerably less sensitive to hacking due to its decentralized nature. It can be successfully used to secure digital wallets from the fraud.
Blockchain can help businesses and organizations secure their sensitive data with the end-to-end encryption. It will eliminate most of the data handling issues that currently exist. For example, the data encrypted in blockchain will have perfect security control, it would not be possible to modify, erase or falsify it locally. The information, distributed across a network of nods, will preserve its integrity and security even if some of the nods get out of order.
Final Thoughts
Over the recent years, blockchain became the notion everyone knows about now. This buzzword technology has many target applications in a wide range of industries. As for now, some of the most fitting applications for this technology can be found in banking, mobile messaging, healthcare, supply chain management, and cybersecurity sectors. Many startups have already developed blockchain-powered solutions that proved to be useful for these industries. It looks like in the nearest future we will undoubtedly hear about more cases of blockchain enhancing the performance of various sectors.