Blockchain technology is on everyone’s lips. More and more companies are working on adapting their business models to the Blockchain technology. Even though they still associate many of them with cryptocurrency, it is by far more than bitcoin. Blockchain offers transparent, reliable and fail-safe data recording and transmission. This technology, which quickly became a hype, is capable of making the organizations that use it not only more transparent and efficient, but also safer. Blockchain can be used in almost all industries where data exchange is involved. Three of them are described in more detail in this article.
1. Banking and Payment
According to current statistics, around 80% of banks are already developing their own blockchain technology. An uprising of the financial institutions, which is necessary because, if you look at the experts, some people say that the banking system could experience the same kind of disruption through blockchain as the media did with the advent of the Internet. Blockchain can be used to provide billions of people worldwide with access to financial services, not only in Europe or the US, but also in third world countries that currently have no or only limited access to traditional banking.
Take the example of Bitcoin. The cryptocurrency allows any money to be transferred almost instantly and with relatively low basic fees everywhere.
But why is Blockchain so well suited for payment transactions? The secure, decentralised and tamper-proof network of Blochchain not only reduces costs, it also makes it possible to transfer money almost immediately and with the lowest possible fees. If it is used correctly, up to 20 billion dollars can be saved for middlemen. So it’s no wonder that the first “block chain bank” already exists and financial figures such as UBS and Barclays are experimenting with the technology.
2. Online Music
Music streaming has fundamentally changed the media industry. Spotify and Amazon Prime make almost every song accessible over the Internet, but what is pleasant for us as users is a curse for the musicians. Some of these companies lose up to 86% of their revenues to music piracy. With block chain technology, this should be a thing of the past and even increase royalties. The technology enables the artists to earn royalties on their music even without a record label.
If you like to put it that way, Blockchain makes the entertainment industry fairer and gives the creators of their songs something back. Smart contracts are used for this purpose. This allows the income from the sale of songs to be automatically distributed according to pre-defined license agreements.
Many startups are now working on the idea that musicians can be paid directly by their fans without having to give up a large part of their turnover to record companies or portals.
3. Voting
In Germany in particular, the electoral system would urgently need modernisation. After all, voting is one of the most important areas of our political society, but it is far from being appropriate. In future elections, however, votes could be cast via blockchain, for example. By capturing votes as transactions, governments and voters would have a verifiable path to ensure that no votes are changed or removed and no illegitimate votes have been added.
The technology’s audit trail would simultaneously authenticate the voter’s identity and track voting.
But these are just three examples of many areas of application of the Blockchain technology. Any industry and any area related to data or transactions can benefit from Blockchain. The possibilities are manifold and for start-ups a good field for new and disruptive business models.
