Blockchain’s is a technology whose capabilities reach far ahead of cryptocurrency. Blockchain digital ledger technology can bring more transparency to any transaction, which involves multiple parties. It is expected that the will bring technology revolution and also modify the ways contracts are carried on between parties. This is the exact technology that underpins the Bitcoin. Basically it creates a file system, which builds blocks of transactions, called as distributed ledger, where all parties have access to the ledger.
It is quite evident from the news reports that Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are at the mercy of bigger corporate houses as credit cycles are not fundamentally under their jurisdiction. As a result payments were delayed, and credit terms were not thought even though contracts affirmed particular dates. For such SMEs, indulging in legal recourse is a high-priced proposal. The researchers are studying the possible use cases of Blockchain to prepare a contract for the businesses, where the information is highly secured in a digital ledger and cannot be tampered.
Blockchain is not a magic potion, but an efficient system, which is quicker than customary technologies like customer relationship management, ERP, and WMS. However, Blockchain securely records information across a peer-to-peer network where every participant verifies or rejects the information using consensus algorithms.
Here are the five industries that can take advantage of this technology:
Retail Industry: According to the data available on the Internet, retail is $650 billion industry, out of which only 10 percent is organized. Sadly, out of 10% in the organized sector, only 1.5 percent is spent on the research and development of future technologies. Nonetheless, the prospects for Blockchain are plenty, particularly in supply chain management.
How it may help? A store manager or a warehouse manager can integrate this technology in the point of sale (POS) system to the ERP of the company. Therefore, a company will understand exactly what should be ordered, and what needs to be replenished. When a request for replenishment is made from the POS, the ERP issues a notification to the warehouse system about the stock, which needs to be shipped. Blockchain can help at this point of time.Blockchain can eliminate the requirement of multiple calls to the vendors and the general issues of complexity in communication. The complexity embarks when 1,000 stores are interacting with multiple parties. Many other technologies, for instance, Artificial intelligence and machine learning (ML) can be built on top of Blockchain to allow retailers to take decisions faster.
Manufacturing Industry: Blockchain system can ensures different units are communicating accordingly by marinating a hierarchy and only when the entire chain of management accepts the feasibility of the proposal the business will move forward towards implementation. The preeminent usability in manufacturing is payment of credit. Each party in the manufacturing has a contracted period to complete its payments and if a party falters at any point of time, vendors can in fact consent that the compensation can either be postponed for the requirements that can be covered immediately.
Banking Sector: If you have been involved in Banking lately, you will know that the banks need to relay on credit and the “letter of credit”. The issuing bank dispatches a letter of credit to the seller, which the vendor authenticates with his bank. The products are then sent and after finally receiving the goods, the issuing bank transfers money to the seller’s bank. An exact theory pertains to asset financing and EMI payments, where Blockchain can cut out replica or frauds in a multi-party system.
Healthcare: Blockchain can be utilized at diverse levels in India but healthcare industry specifically can utilize it. In a blockchain network, every person who is covered under insurance (be it government or private) will not be denied service at any hospital. The Aadhaar number of the person can be utilized in this case, where it can be linked to authenticate the individual’s identity, and the network can generate blocks of records that insurance companies and hospitals will honour. The company can capture information about families and transmit it to the centralised cloud where hospitals and insurance companies can check it.
Source: Applancer