Everyone knows about Bitcoin now. Its popularity has grown at an enormous velocity with episodes of The Big Bang Theory and various web series made by YouTubers already dedicated to it. Bitcoin has been the second most searched global news story on Google in 2017 taking its price in USD from $801 to $15037 (during writing this) in just a year. That is a growth rate of 1461%. With this growth comes people’s skyrocketing curiosities making ‘How to buy Bitcoin?’ the 3rd most ‘How to’ question asked on Google in 2017. Web Search engines are flooded with other questions like ‘What is Bitcoin?’, ‘How to mine Bitcoin?’, ‘Who is the founder of Bitcoin?’, ‘What are altcoins?’, ‘Is Bitcoin a bubble?’ etc., and among these a question arises ‘What is the technology behind Bitcoin?’. Well the answer which everyone knows, Blockchains (if you don’t know by now, you should). Just putting the word ‘Blockchain’ in a company’s name these days can sky-rocket its stock price by 394%.
To explain Blockchain in simple terms, imagine it like a spreadsheet program duplicated several times, sent to a network of computers, and this network is updated regularly; or as William Mougayar (Venture advisor, 4x entrepreneur, and blockchain specialist) used the analogy of Google Sheets. It constantly augments a set of records and data called as ‘block’ which contains a timestamp and a link to the previous 'block’. The database is not managed by a group of people; instead, everyone participating in the network gets a copy of the whole database but only few who own a ‘key’ can add a new block. If there is an update in the system, all the participants who have access to that database are updated with that change. All the old blocks are preserved and the ledgers are irreversible which henceforth, shapes the architecture as a chain of blocks. All this makes this technology singularly transparent, interdependent, secure, non-hackable, immutable, and cooperative.
With various governments, world-renowned economists, and investors still being pessimistic about Bitcoins; techies, investors, traders, LinkedIn experts, and bankers have advocated that Blockchain is here to stay. All the above-mentioned qualities make Blockchain an exceptional structure to be implemented in various industries. Some of the widely discussed industries in which the Blockchain technology is being implemented include Banking and Payments, Finance and Accounting, Trading and Investing, Supply Chain Management, Auditing, Healthcare, Cybersecurity, Crowdfunding, Cloud Storage, Retail, Legal, Real Estate, Credit Histories, and Insurance. These are the industries which were already expected to come under the umbrella of this technology because of its fundamental features.
I want to talk about the unusual industries which will or should make use of the Blockchains so that all its positives can be put into service of the majority of the world population. Below are the innovative ways in which the companies are/may be harnessing the potential of Blockchains:
Corporate Governance – One of the benefits Blockchains provides is issuing ‘Smart Contracts’. A Smart Contract is a code stored in the Blockchains to which all participants under that contract agree and if certain conditions are met, certain actions will be executed. Boardroom is an example of such start-ups which aims to provide a governance framework on Ethereum Blockchains. With a belief that organizations need to be decentralized to solve world’s worst problems, Aragon is also trying to develop an online system to manage their global workforce.
Ride Sharing – All the cab service organizations like Uber, Lyft, Ola (India) etc. are the organizations which are functioning completely against the concept of decentralization. Traffic might not be a major problem in North American and European countries, but it is certainly one in populated nations of Asia which include India, China, Thailand, Philippine, Iran etc. A Blockchain based decentralized start-up announced in Israel called La’zooz is helping its customers to utilize the empty space in their vehicles for the ones in need. Initiatives like these can help reduce the number of vehicles and make the traffic lanes more efficient. Adding to this, Arcade City allows its drivers to establish their fares, build up their own business, and render services like deliveries and traveling assistance.
Education – We all want what is been taught in the classrooms of schools and universities to be agreeable and verifiable. Exploiting Blockchains for education can help verify the curriculum content, academic records, and fraudulent claims on educational credits. Collaborating with IBM, Sony Global Education has developed a platform to secure the educational records on a Blockchain structure.
Forecasting – The industries which can be shaken up by this technology are the industries of consulting, research, survey, and forecast. Blockchain can introduce a strong foundation of data analysis in this industry by creating machine learning algorithms. Augur is a firm based on Ethereum Blockchain which allows users to predict results of incidents. They aim to decentralize the entire process and enable their users to place their bets on events like natural disasters, sports, stocks, and even elections.
Music and Entertainment - To remove all the middlemen required by the music artists to make their albums reach their listeners, entrepreneurs are working on tools to help them directly with the help of Smart Contracts. Ujo Music and Mycelia are the two of the start-ups working on this project. A British Blockchain start-up called JAAK as they state are building a blockchain network that will allow the music and media industries to collaborate on a global view of content ownership and rights.
Voting – Elections Fraud or Vote Rigging has been a prevailing obstacle in conducting sound elections in most of the democratic nations across the globe. Blockchain technology can help Electoral Commissions authenticate voter’s identity, secure election records, track votes, and make the counting safe. Democracy Earth and Follow My Vote are working on a Blockchain based online voting system for governments.
Government and Public Records – “Governments are corrupt”, something which we have been hearing since childhood irrespective of which part of the world we are born. Their processes are slow, paper-intensive, encumbering, and fraud extensive. Blockchain technology can help keep the government records and processes more transparent, accessible, trackable, secure, and fast. Dubai is planning to put all its documents in Blockchain by 2020. The Delaware Blockchain Initiative commenced in 2016 aims to build a legal infrastructure to improve the efficiency of services. The BitFury Group and the Government of Georgia have already recorded 100,000 land titles on a Bitcoin Blockchain. Furthermore, they want to make all the government documents easily trackable and obtainable by the citizens.
Gun Tracking – Blockchain technology can assist around keeping the track-records of weapon owners especially in the country like the United States of America where shall-carry issues have always been a topic of debate. Blocksafe is working towards designing a Blockchain-based system as well as technologies inclusively focussed towards tracking weapons and staying informed about the lost or stolen weapons.
Wills and Inheritances - This industry provides a perfect application of Smart Contracts. Blockchain can assist to legitimate the wills, identify facts, and repudiate the claims without merits. Blockchain Technologies Corp. is beginning a Blockchain Apparatus Initiative to develop a self-executing will system that will automatically verify the records from the U.S. Social Security Office and distribute the assets to the beneficiaries based on the pre-programmed rules.
Charities, Trusts, and Foundations – The largest sector which is monumentally exploited to convert Black Money to White and avoid taxes, where the wealth is unaccountable, untraceable, and surrounded by perennial complaints, is the non-profit industry of charity. The number of charities, non-government organizations, religious trusts and institutions, corporation trusts, and helping foundations functioning in all parts of the world, which receive humongous donations, are whopping. Blockchain can help the donors keep a track of their benefactions and help them measure the efficiencies of the organizations. BitGive Foundation is trying to tackle the aforementioned opaqueness by establishing the process on Blockchain so that donors are constantly updated about the movement of their funds. A group of Buddhist programmers developed Karma coin (also called as Buddhist Bitcoin) to disrupt the religious donations, and they also say that people will be able to earn Karma Coins by meditating and spreading Buddha teachings.
3D Printing - 3D Printing (also called as Additive Manufacturing) is a process used to create 3-dimensional objects using a digital file. This digital file can be protected and streamlined in manufacturing sectors using the Blockchain technology. The Genesis of Things Project is assembling 3D Printing, Blockchain technology under the same roof to reduce the cost of 3D printing and automate the process more.
Your Industry - If you are an entrepreneur aspiring to be a founder of a colossal organization in the coming years which requires any kind of deals or transactions, Blockchain can be rightfully convenient for your company and give all the advantages we have discussed till now.
“The future becomes the present, the present the past, and the past turns into everlasting regret if you don't plan for it!”- Tenessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie