8 Uses of Blockchain Other Than Bitcoin

While Bitcoin is a public blockchain, you can also have a private one and a combination of the two called hybrid blockchain. All this can be used by individuals, corporations and governments. Here’s looking at 8 uses of blockchain other than cryptocurrencies…

1. IoT Networks

   The Internet of Things is expected to be really big in the 2020s. The current IoT systems have a centralized architecture, but how effective will that be if the number of IoT devices touches say 500 billion, the very upper estimate? How safe will such gigantic networks be? There is a way to secure and decentralize this via blockchain. In fact, when it comes to Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), there is something called Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG), which is seen as a successor to blockchain tech. IOTA (IoT + iota) is already looking at Tangle (DAG) technology to work with IoT networks.

2. Digital voting

   The way Bitcoin has a wallet for your money, a similar wallet can be made for any electoral candidate where you place your vote instead of your Bitcoin. Sounds a bit far-fetched today, but such a secure and transparent process is indeed possible. There are even startups who are trying to make this possible like FollowMyVote and Voatz. In fact there are also concepts to bring the entire government documentation under blockchain.

3. Digital IDs

   While we are scared that our Aadhaar data will be leaked, what about digital IDs backed by blockchain? In fact there is an ID2020 alliance just for that and even the likes of Microsoft have jumped onto the bandwagon. According to them, “Everyone should have access to a digital ID that enables them to prove who they are across institutional and international borders and across time, while giving them control over how their personal information is collected, used, and shared.”

4. Distributed ledgers in banking

   A distributed ledger is synchronized data that can be replicated and shared across multiple geographies. Banks are exploring how they may be able to use this. Hyperledger is a Linux project that has received support from many IT and banking companies.

5. Supply chain logistics/management

   This is an area where there is great complexity but minimum transparency. It is difficult for a user to know what’s going on and sometimes quite difficult to investigate. But now it is possible to record every transaction on the block, bringing in great transparency and revolutionizing the system. IBM and Amazon are just two of the biggies looking into this.

6. Gaming industry

   If the cats own the Internet, then here’s something that combines that aspect with blockchain. CryptoKitties is a game where you can breed and groom virtual cats to sell online. The validation is done by blockchain and that’s why even the game owners have a limited say. That’s why the whole concept is much more transparent. Some other blockchain games: Age of Rust, CryptoWars, Neon District and The Sandbox.

7. Weapons tracking

   A blockchain powered database can monitor arms and weapons from inception to current usage and it could well be a global database. On paper at least this could put a check on the illegal arms trade and multiple agencies could monitor the arms market. In the US too, groups are looking at tracking guns since their use is protected by their Second Amendment.

8. Healthcare

   In the healthcare industry, blockchain could solve issues like interoperability. The industry also deals with a huge amount of sensitive private data which has to be protected and at the same time requires transparency.

Note: At the concept level, it seems blockchain can be used in almost every industry: Digital content creators/Copyright, Smart contracts, automated escrow, gambling, crowdfunding, Internet advertising, messaging apps… It remains to be seen finally how many industries adopt this emerging technology in a big way!

Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS)

Blockchain is among the most complicated and least understood technologies for the common layperson. However, most companies would like to start availing their services and that’s where BaaS steps in and already startups have started coming up in this domain. While the big tech companies can have in house teams with experts guiding them, others may turn to BaaS.

Other currencies

Apart from Bitcoin, there are many other cryptocurrencies which have touched at least US$1 billion like Ethereum, XRP, Bitcoin Cash, Tether, Litecoin, EOS and Binance Coin.