This informal CPD article Real-World Business Use Cases for Blockchain Technologies was provided by The Tesseract Academy, providing executive training in data science, AI and blockchain.
Business Use Cases For Blockchain Technologies
When people think of blockchain technologies, they often make the connection to cryptocurrencies and finance-related applications. Of course, the blockchain is the technology that underpins all cryptocurrencies, plus there are many other applications of the blockchain within the finance and alternative finance sectors.
However, the use of cryptocurrencies is only one application for blockchain technologies. The blockchain also has applications beyond the world of finance. In fact, there are many other use cases for the blockchain, i.e., business applications that can benefit from the trust, security, transparency, and traceability that the blockchain offers.
Supply Chain Management
Blockchain technologies make it possible to track in real-time products and materials as they move through the supply chain. The use of smart contracts can also be used to speed up supply chain paperwork processes This can improve the efficiency of supply chain management and help to identify bottlenecks.
Transparency and traceability are also improved with blockchain technologies, helping with compliance and competitiveness. Increased oversight also drives efficiency savings.
Sustainable Raw Material Sourcing
Sustainable raw material sourcing is connected to the point above about supply chain management. However, it is worth mentioning separately as the source of raw materials is becoming increasingly important.
There are two main reasons for this increased focus on raw materials:
- Regulatory and legal considerations – ensuring raw materials are sourced within regulations and any relevant legal constraints. Examples include complying with sanctions as well as human rights legislation such as laws and rules preventing slavery.
- Consumer-driven – consumers are increasingly concerned about the provenance of the products they buy. This applies to items like clothing, but it is probably most apparent in the food sector where consumers want to know where the food they are eating has come from.
Using blockchain technologies, companies can ensure there is a complete, secure, un-editable, and fully traceable record of the raw materials they source.
Ticket Sales
Ticket sales for big sporting and entertainment events present challenges for organizers, rights owners, and the companies that provide ticket selling platforms. The challenges include ticket fraud and the resale market for tickets. Without control measures being put in place, tickets can be traded on third-party platforms at greatly inflated prices. This is damaging to all legitimate parties involved, including the fans who want a fair and equal opportunity to buy tickets at their correct price.
The blockchain can be used as a solution, as it can keep control of tickets with the ticket issuer. This protects against fraud and ensures ticket authenticity. It also ensures traceability and helps control third-party ticket sales, stopping brokers and others from profiting from selling tickets at prices significantly higher than the original face value.
Healthcare
The healthcare sector is becoming increasingly digitized. This is positive in many respects, as digitization brings benefits to both patients and healthcare providers. However, increasing digitization also brings risks, especially in relation to the security and control of health data.
The Covid-19 pandemic brought this into sharp focus in many parts of the world where governments and health authorities looked to implement digital vaccination certificates or passports. In other words, an app that individuals could use to prove their Covid vaccination status.
How can this health data as well as health data in a myriad of other applications be kept secure? Blockchain technologies can help, by putting the control of health data back into the hands of users, ensuring an individual’s health data is secure against unauthorized access or tampering.
Advertising
Programmatic advertising offers significant benefits to many businesses, particularly those with large advertising budgets. With programmatic advertising, you can more efficiently buy ads at scale. However, programmatic advertising also significantly increases the complexity of buying ads.
Oversight is also challenging, as it is hard to get full visibility. There are also problems in the industry with click fraud – problems that can be costly to advertisers. Blockchain technologies provide a solution to the challenges that exist in programmatic ad buying. The blockchain can help stop click fraud and it can bring a greater level of transparency and traceability to programmatic advertising.
The Ever-Evolving Applications of the Blockchain
The above points are examples of how businesses in a range of different sectors are using the blockchain today. As blockchain and related technologies continue to evolve, new innovations and applications will be developed, increasing the footprint of the blockchain even further. The days of the blockchain being limited to cryptocurrencies and applications in finance are well and truly over.
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