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Unless you’ve been living under a rock and starved of wifi, you’ve no doubt heard of blockchain. And yes, you’ll be forgiven if you’re unclear on what that strange word actually means or represents, since for most of us it’s just plain techno-babble.
Technology communicators can be often seen painfully attempting to explain the complexities of blockchain functionality, commonly leading to further confusion and frustration for all. So I’m not even going to try with that dance.
Instead, I’m going to provide some interesting concepts and real-world examples of blockchain technologies that are improving the way humans do things right now.
But before we start, I feel it would be polite of me to offer some simple definitions for a few of the more cumbersome new words you’re about to come across;
- Blockchain?—?for now, just think of a blockchain as a long list of transactions, with new transactions (data) only ever being added to the end of the list
- Decentralized?—?data not privately owned or controlled by corporations. Data not stored on central or private servers where it might be prone to manipulation
- Immutable?—?relates to a transaction record that can never be changed or tampered with
- ?—?sensitive data that cannot be hacked
- Smart Contract?—?a tiny program written to a blockchain that will automatically execute a command when certain criteria is met
- NFT (non-fungible token)?—?a blockchain token containing unique identifiers that cannot ever be replicated
So with that out of the way…
Is blockchain technology worth your attention? I’ll let you decide.
HEALTH CARE
Important raw data collected in medical studies and clinical drug trials is being placed into blockchain-based immutable ledgers. This will ensure long-term data transparency and accuracy, free from the possibilities of centralised data manipulation &/or the potential of politically motivated censorship.
A Permissioned Blockchain-Based Clinical Trial Service Platform to Improve Trial Data Transparency
The clinical research faces numerous challenges, from patient enrollment to data privacy concerns and regulatory…www.hindawi.com
DATA STORAGE
Do you use a cloud storage solution to back-up your photos, files, and data? At the very least you likely have iCloud or Google Drive to back-up your smart phone, and perhaps DropBox or OneDrive backing-up files on your computer.
Although these existing infrastructures may seem robust, they are still at risk of being hacked, or may even be unlawfully accessed by employees/owners of the data centres. Don’t fool yourself into believing this doesn’t happen, it happens surprisingly often.
Blockchain technology is being used to address this issue by using ‘Decentralised Cloud Storage’ so files are not stored in centralised data centres. Instead, they’re encrypted, split into pieces, and distributed on a global cloud network of nodes via a process known as ‘sharding
Not only is this orders of magnitude safer for your data, it’s also far more cost-effective. Companies like DropBox and Amazon Cloud Services may become overpriced and obsolete if they don’t keep up with these advances.
Sia is a decentralized storage platform secured by blockchain technology. The Sia Storage Platform leverages…
DECENTRALIZED IDENTIFICATIONS
Imagine you move to a new country and need to register for all kinds of services: voting, driver’s license, banking, electricity, entertainment subscriptions. Right now, you have to register individually with each service provider and prove your identity to open an account. And every time you want to access this account, you need to prove your identity again, either by password or other credentials.
decentralised identity radically simplifies this process, and through the use of an encrypted tamper-evident blockchain ledger, you are able to reliably and securely confirm your identity with user-friendly wallet ID software downloaded to your smart phone. Think of it kind of like a personal password manager, but rather than storing sensitive data locally or on a server, it’s broken into encrypted pieces and distributed across thousands of decentralised nodes, making it impossible to hack.
Global adoption of this technology will dramatically improve security, reliability, access, and convenience for both individuals and service providers.
As a user, I agree that convenience is great, but I’m still on the fence over the potential Orwellian implications of this one…
DIF - Decentralized Identity Foundation
SIA UHODL Digital Bazaar, Credentia, Blockchain Commons, Patient Privacy Rights, infocert, Bitmark, Radical Ledger…identity.foundation
INSURANCE
Now if you think the subject of insurance is going to be a boring one, just you wait.
Insurance companies around the world all manage their price of premiums in an ever changing market of perpetual risk-analysis.
While not yet fully adopted, global participation in an immutable blockchain LEDGER containing real-time insurance claims and trends information would function as a valuable database to accurately determine risk, while also reducing costs by automating many steps in a claims process.
blockchain ledger with the help of AI technology is also capable of reducing instances of human error and can detect potential fraud.
The overall cost savings should be a win-win for both insurance companies and consumers. Competition in the insurance sector should ensure savings are passed onto consumers.
Hmm ok so despite the innovations of blockchain technology, the subject of insurance is still quite boring… at least we tried! ;)
Blockchain for Insurance - IBM Blockchain | IBM
Learn more about how blockchain technology can be used to re-shape the insurance industry and build trust and…www.ibm.com
REAL ESTATE
One simple example of how blockchain technology has been used in real estate has been in the UK, with the government’s HM Land Registry creating a fully digital land-title registry on the ‘distributed ledger technology’ DLT.
While Corda itself doesn’t strictly meet the criteria of being a decentralized blockchain in a traditional sense, this example does hint at the desire for storing ‘title/deed of ownership’ data on a secure immutable ledger. Not only will this provide reliable history for the ownership of valuable assets, it also has the potential to significantly improve conveyancing efficiencies and costs for consumers.
Land Registry claims early blockchain success | UKAuthority
HM Land Registry has claimed a significant step in the use of blockchain technology with the first simulation of the…www.ukauthority.com
Thanks to the innovation of ‘smart contracts’, first made possible on the Ethereum blockchain, peer-to-peer borrowing and lending applications have become the most widely used feature across the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) ecosystems.
In most DeFi cases, the process for taking a loan is fully automated to the point where no intermediary is required to process an application. As long as you stake collateral to secure the loan, the funding will occur instantaneously to your digital wallet.
Many people are taking advantage of these loans for things like day-trading in crypto markets, or to fund new crypto projects being built across various blockchains
If you’re not looking to borrow, there are very attractive yields being paid to those who stake money to be lent out, with returns of over 20% APY currently being quite common. I’m not qualified to give financial advice, but I’m confident that’s a better return than my savings account at the bank.
Aave - Open Source DeFi Protocol
Aave is an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol for earning interest on deposits and borrowing assets…aave.com
The pixelated elephant in the room is definitely the NFT explosion.
intended use of NFT technology is to delegate ownership of digital assets indisputably on a secure blockchain ledger, with ownership being determined by the wallet holding the unique token that corresponds with the asset in question.
At their core, NFT’s are an excellent way for artists to create and sell their artwork online, while also giving buyers the confidence of blockchain-based digital certificates of ownership. So it’s a win-win.
The problem with this space right now is that it’s been turned into a wild-west cash-grab of low-effort collectable art pieces being bought & sold at laughably inflated prices.
While the current state of things is kinda crazy and fun, I feel the true utility of NFT’s hasn’t yet been fully realised. So watch this space.
Craft | NFT Marketplace
Craft is an NFT marketplace owned by the community. Each week, users will earn $CFT tokens based on their buying and…craft.network
Blockchain-based gaming has been around for quite a while now, with one of the benefits being there are no centralized servers at risk of going offline, so interruption-free gaming is assured indefinitely.
Scalability has been the biggest obstacle preventing graphically cutting-edge game developments from becoming fully blockchain-based as the enormous amounts of data that needs to be continuously verified for thousands of simultaneous player actions has been difficult to do effectively ‘on-chain’.
There are, however, many games that currently run on centralized servers while storing players’ in-game assets on a blockchain. These assets can can be traded amongst other players in-game, making these assets function similarly to NFTs.
blockchain-based games are not yet as technologically or graphically capable as big studio titles hosted on centralized servers, the ability to generate income through the acquisition of valuable in-game items has been enough to entice many gamers. Although in saying that, there are also plenty of opponents who despise the financial gamification of NFT driven game mechanics, believing it ruins the fun of gaming altogether.
I can see how that could be true in some cases.
Buy in The Sandbox - Metaverse Property
The Sandbox is a community-driven platform where creators can monetize voxel ASSETS and gaming experiences on the…metaverse.properties
CONCLUSION
At the beginning of this article I said I wasn’t going to try explaining what a blockchain is. I had hoped instead that these practical examples would do the job of explaining some of the key uses of blockchain technology for you.
So amongst the various examples, did you notice a bit of a trend?
No matter what industry we are dealing with, plays a critical role.
Ensuring data is safe, reliable, and securely accessible is essential for the success and reputation of any business.
Blockchain technology, when appropriately assigned, can provide effective solutions to many data related vulnerabilities that threaten modern businesses today, while at the same time opening doors to exciting new innovations we didn’t previously know were possible.
Please understand that the examples listed are certainly not exhaustive for those industries. There are thousands more examples out there, and many within industries I haven’t even mentioned.
I believe blockchain is an emerging technology still in its infancy, with countless more revolutionary innovations just around the corner.
But what do you think, is blockchain technology worth your attention?
Skye-Fi :)
