Investigating Blockchain Technology Use Cases
By now you have likely heard of Bitcoin, the most well known cryptocurrency. However, one of the most innovative aspects of cryptocurrencies is the technology that makes cryptocurrency trading possible.
When people think of blockchain technology, if they know what it is, they usually just associate it with Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, but it actually has many other use cases and the potential to improve systems in many different industries. Some of these blockchain technology use cases you may never have thought about before, and they will probably surprise you!
Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
Let’s start with the obvious use case for blockchain technology. Decentralized Finance, commonly referred to as DeFi, is one of the fastest growing applications of blockchain at the moment. The goal of DeFi is to provide a decentralized option for every type of financial service that you would normally have available to you at a bank when dealing with fiat currencies.
DeFi takes cryptocurrency trading a step further by allowing crypto traders and investors to participate in crypto lending and to earn interest on cryptocurrency, among other traditional financial services. Perhaps the most exciting impact of decentralized finance is that it can provide all of the same financial services as a bank to the 1.7 billion “unbanked” people in the world, making financial services more accessible.
Cryptocurrency trading platform CryptoLocally has developed a DeFi feature, the Finance Wallet, which allows users to earn interest on ETH, DAI, USDT, USDC, UNI, and GIV. CryptoLocally’s easy-to-use, user-friendly trading platform and DeFi feature, as well as its strategic partnerships across the globe, will help the company make DeFi more accessible to people around the world.
Medical Data
Blockchain technology has been used by companies like BurstIQ to help doctors securely transfer sensitive medical data related to their patients’ treatment. Blockchain’s added security can help to keep our medical information private. Thankfully, some companies are already using the technology for this purpose!
Music Royalties
Musicians have often had to fight for the royalties that they deserve from their music. Thankfully, smart contracts are now being used to help musicians get the money that they’ve earned. MediaChain, which was recently acquired by music streaming service Spotify, uses smart contracts, and the decentralized contract is helping artists earn higher royalties and get paid on-time.
Real Estate
Interestingly, the Real Estate industry has also been disrupted by blockchain technology. The smart contracts in blockchain platforms have allowed assets like Real Estate to be tokenized. The ATLANT platform uses blockchain technology to facilitate real estate and rental property transactions.
Blockchain And IoT
Blockchain technology and the Internet of Things are being combined to improve systems in a number of different industries, such as:
Supply Chain & Logistics
Delivery delays have become the biggest challenge in the supply chain. So companies are making vehicles IoT enabled to track movement through the shipment process. Blockchain and IoT combined can enhance the network’s reliability. Shipment status information can be provided by IoT sensors such as GPS and motion sensors, and the information can then be stored on the Blockchain.
Automotive Industry
The two technologies can be used in the automotive industry to disrupt automotive fuel payment, autonomous cars, smart parking, and automated traffic control. A company called NetObjex demonstrated how smart parking using IoT and blockchain technology works. It makes the process of finding an empty parking space easier and then automates parking space payments using crypto wallets.
IoT sensors calculate parking duration charges and billing takes place through the crypto wallet.
Smart Homes
Blockchain technology can take smart homes to the next level by solving the security issues and removing centralized infrastructures. Smart home solutions provider Telstra uses blockchain and biometric security to ensure people can’t manipulate data captured from smart devices.
Personal Identity
Millions of people every year have their personal identity compromised. If someone assumes your identity, it can be difficult to get it back, and if they get ahold of your credit card they can charge whatever they want as you. These types of problems happen all the time, and sorting them out can take hours and hours and cause endless headaches. By keeping sensitive personal information on a blockchain ledger, there could be a substantial drop in identity theft claims.
The Illinois Blockchain Initiative that is funded by the state of Illinois has already initiated a program to use blockchain to provide added security to birth certificates, voter registration cards, social security numbers, and more.
Media and Entertainment
Film, TV, and short form digital media can all gain from distributed ledger technology as well. FilmChain, which operates on the Ethereum network, collects and analyzes revenues in film, TV, and other digital media. The goal is to encourage transparency in the distribution process, and the use of blockchain technology allows stakeholders to be compensated without needing a middleman to oversee the transaction.
Streambed Media allows social media creators to link co-creators and brands to the videos they publish. The platform is free and enables everyone to repost content and benefit from analytics.
NFTs and Digital Assets
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are a class of digital assets that have individual characteristics that set them apart. In other words, each NFT is different. This means that, unlike Bitcoin, where each token has the same value, NFTs have different values depending on how unique and rare they are. In this way, trading NFTs can be compared to trading baseball cards. The main similarity between Bitcoin, altcoins, and NFTs, is that trading them is made possible by blockchain. NFTs are considered to be digital assets. However, they are not the only digital asset class that is compatible with blockchain.
Blockchain Technology’s seemingly endless possibilities
These are just some of the many different unique use cases of blockchain technology. Although DeFi is probably the most common, prominent, and obvious use case on the list, the other use cases and projects mentioned are making an impact in their industries as well. People continue to come up with new ways to implement distributed ledgers to improve existing markets. It will be interesting to see which industry evolves to include this useful technology next!
