Blockchain technology has been around since 2008, when Satoshi Nakamoto published his white paper describing Bitcoin. Since then, blockchain has become an increasingly popular way to store distributed data securely online. It’s being used extensively in industries such as banking, healthcare, logistics, and finance.

In addition to its use as a secure distributed database, blockchain technology can help businesses with several different functions. One of the biggest benefits is that it allows companies to make transactions fact and more efficient. This means that businesses will save money by reducing the number of people involved in each transaction.

With the success of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin, many businesses are now looking to adopt cryptocurrencies and other applications. In fact, companies like IBM and Microsoft have been using blockchain application for years, but now startups are starting to use it too.

Blockchain technology is still new and there are many questions about what it can do for us. While there are many applications developed using blockchain, here are some of the applications that is making the lives of business easier and making them future ready.

Learn about the potential implications of blockchain technologies and how they are disrupting business now and continue to do in the future. We’ll go over some of them here. 

Decentralized Storage – Increased Security

A blockchain is a distributed open ledger that records transactions across multiple computers called nodes. This means that once something has been entered into the system, it cannot be changed. In addition, the blockchain is decentralized, meaning there is no central authority that controls access to the data. Because of these characteristics, the blockchain is often referred to as “the trustless network.”

Thus being distributed and decentralized, it makes it much easier to keep track of who owns what and when.

Digital Identity

If you’re looking to build an identity management system for your company, blockchain technology has some unique advantages over the traditional system.

Traditional identification architecture of today are fragmented and unsecure. Blockchain offers a more secure digital identity management and storage system by offering a consistent and immutable architecture with significant benefits for organisations and users. These systems allow people to prove who they are online by using cryptographic keys instead of passwords.

Digital identity is critical to every company, across all industries, and is crucial to the expansion and sustainability of our digital economy. Managing digital identities are crucial in following scenarios:

• Background Checks
• Medical Healthcare Records
• Online KYC
• Proof of ownership

Since businesses, governments, and educational institutions gather various types of data from their customers, using blockchain applications to manage digital identities can help prevent repetitive checks and verifications.

If you’ve ever used an online banking service, you probably understand how much money is lost each year due to fraud and lost identities. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), financial losses due to identity theft in US alone total $5.8 billion annually in 2021. And each year, it keeps on increasing.

Furthermore, in the connected world of IoT and smart devices, it is critical to digitally identify them in order to decides what data, services, and information they have access to and what they don’t.

Smart Contracts – Build Trust Between Parties Without A Mediating Authority

In traditional business transactions, there is an authority figure who holds the power to make decisions. This authority figure is usually a third party, such as a bank, broker or government agency. However, when you use blockchain technology, you no longer need to go through a mediator to build trust between parties.

Instead, you can simply build trust by creating a smart contract to automate transactions between two parties. A smart contract is a set of rules that automatically execute once certain conditions are met. These conditions might be based on the outcome of another event, such as a vote.

With blockchain smart contracts, you can ensure that all data is authenticated and protected from manipulation. This will help prevent fraud and ensure that no one can tamper with your data or agreement rules.

Additionally, as smart contracts allow you to cut out the middleman, it eliminate the fees associated with third party intermediaries. For example, let’s say you wanted to buy a house. If you were to do so using a real estate agent, you would likely pay a commission fee to the agent.

However, with a smart contract, you may avoid paying commissions since the contract will execute automatically whenever certain conditions (such as the sale price) are satisfied.

We know now that blockchain technology is an innovative way to create secure digital records that are immutable and secure. That is why it’s also a great tool for creating smart contracts, which allow people to exchange money without having to trust each other and without anyone influencing the contract.

Smart contracts are one of the biggest uses of blockchain technology today.

Cryptocurrency Wallet

A cryptocurrency wallet is an application that stores private keys and balances associated with cryptocurrencies of a user. It also allows users to send and receive funds.

There are two main types of wallets: desktop and mobile. Users using desktop wallets, may manage many accounts. Mobile wallets are available as mobile apps on smartphones and tablets. They usually store only one account and require users to enter a PIN code when making transactions.

Supply Chain Management

Blockchain technology has been gaining traction as an alternative to traditional methods of tracking goods through the supply chain. A lot of companies are starting to use blockchain based applications to improve their supply chain management. It allows companies to track products from raw materials to finished product without relying on third parties.

This means that they can track products as they move through different stages of production without the intervention of any party.

In fact, it’s being used to help make sure food gets to its destination safely at the right time. They can also verify the authenticity of the items being shipped.

Companies like Walmart are using blockchain applications to ensure that products arrive at stores as promised. They use sensors to monitor shipments and send alerts when there are any issues.

Walmart had over 70% discrepancies in their invoicing to their partner carriers prior to deploying blockchain programme. The differences were reduced to less than 1% once the blockchain application was implemented on their private blockchain network.

Metaverse – Your Virtual World

The Metaverse is the first decentralized virtual reality (VR) / augmented reality (AR) platform allowing people and businesses to create their own virtual reality worlds. The Metaverse platform uses the Ethereum blockchain as its underlying technology. This means that the Metaverse is powered by smart contracts, which allow users to interact with each other and transfer value using cryptocurrencies.

A decentralized application (DApp), it is an open source blockchain platform that allows businesses to create their own digital assets and trade them in the virtual world. Get ready to experience a whole new way to interact over the internet. It’s like Second Life but much better!

If you’re looking to grow your business, then you need to start thinking about how the Metaverse will impact your brand. In fact, there are four ways the Metaverse can help your business grow.

• Create new forms of brand expression and experience
• Drive Sales
• Improve Customer experience
• Expand Your Brand in the virtual world

The most probable demographic to be interested in the metaverse and ready for companies to take charge is younger customers or the Gen Z. 94% of teenagers used Facebook in 2012 which has been reduced to just 27 percent in 2021. Which just proves that Gen Z’s interests and preferences are unique, and that only a 3D immersive experience will pique their attention.

For instance, Warner Bros. Pictures used Roblox to host an In the Heights block party. The British Fashion Council (BFC) built an in-game simulation of the The Fashion Awards 2021 event and nominated digital designers for them within the metaverse.

As a metaverse application development agency that develops metaverse applications, we are quite optimistic about the future. We are really excited about the future.

If your businesses haven’t yet taken advantage of the power of virtual reality (VR) yet, now is the perfect time. In fact, according to the National Retail Federation, there is a growing connection between retail and metaverse; according to Bloomberg Intelligence by 2024, the worldwide metaverse market will generate sales of almost $800 billion. It was $500 billion in 2020.

That’s good news for businesses looking to take advantage of this emerging virtual trend.

Conclusion

Blockchain technology will alter business and transactional processes in five different ways. First, it will make data sharing easier and secure. Second, it will help reduce fraud due to distributed architecture. Third, it will improve transparency as members in the network (nodes) authenticate each transaction. Fourth, it will allow for better collaboration between different parties. Finally, it will enable new business models for conducting businesses in virtual world such as metaverse and NFT marketplace.