Blockchain is About to Change Everything
What is blockchain?
Some of you may already be familiar, since we interact on Steem; which is built on a blockchain.
But simply put blockchain is a distributed ledger technology, that allows the transfer of data, in a way that is secure, auditable, and resistant to outages.
Blockchain provides the users and organizations that use it transparency, democracy, decentralization, and security.
Because of this, blockchain will likely disrupt many industries, in the near future.
There are many startups and projects currently being developed that could revolutionize the way we do a lot of things.
Because there are an exponential number of these projects going on right now, I can only list a few...
Banking
Blockchain provides a simple way to send and recieve fincial assets and all you need is a cell phone with an internet connetion. Bitcoin for example has provided a cheap and easy way for people with no access to a bank or financial insitution a way to send and recieve funds, even accross borders and with low fees.
The Abra Project: https://www.goabra.com/
Ripple: https://ripple.com/
Cybersecurity
All data on a blockchain is secured by cryptography and verified across a network of nodes. This means that information is immutable, and shared in a decentralized, permanent manner.
Nebulis: https://www.nebulis.io/
Networking and Internet Of Things (IOT)
Blockchain gives us the ability to share documents and transactional information secure, monitored, and transparent fashion.
With blockchain you can eliminate the need of a central location for the communication of devices like the Internet of Things project. Devices will communicate will one another for software/firmware updates, monitoring energy and data usage, etc.
John McAfee said in a recent interview:
“The Blockchain will be central to nearly every aspect of cybersecurity, from wire transfers, to send and receive authentication, to secure voting systems. It will become the cornerstone of virtually all digital transactions,”
IOTA: https://iota.org/
Insurance
Blockchain is a new way of managing trust. You can verify an insured person or property's identity and interact with real world data with the help of smart contracts.
Verifying the status of a crop, vehicle, machine, shipment, or property
Insurex: https://insurex.co/
Aeternity Blockchain: https://www.aeternity.com/
Ride Sharing
Blockchain is already being used to create decentralized versions of ride sharing apps, similar to Lift and Uber. This gives us a peer to peer platform for drivers and riders to arrange terms and conditions in a secure way and without the need of a third party; allowing for much cheaper and more profitable ride sharing. These smart contracts allow for the automatic payments of parking, tolls, and fuel.
Arcade City: https://arcade.city/
LA'ZOOZ: http://www.shareable.net/blog/lazooz-the-decentralized-crypto-alternative-to-uber
Cloud Storage
When you store data on a centralized server, your data is vulnerable to hacking and data corruption, and human error.
Decentralized cloud storage allows for data to be stored in a robust and secure manner, that is immutable, unhackable, and always available.
Storj.io: https://storj.io/
Sia: http://sia.tech/
Charity and Donations
The main issues we have with our charities are corruption and fraud. With blockchain you can confirm, track, and verify that your donation is going to the party its supposed to. Also, verifying with the party that they recieve the full amount.
Bitcoin charity BitGive allows donors to verify and track their donations on a secure and distributed ledger, allowing them to see when the funds arrive to the intended destination.
BitGive Foundation: https://bitgivefoundation.org/
Voting
Blockchain can be used for voter registration, identity verification, and vote counting.
Democracy Earth - http://democracy.earth/
Follow My Vote - https://followmyvote.com/
Public Benefits, Welfare
With blockchain public benefits such as food stamps and welfare in a manner that is fast, secure and verifiable; eliminating delays and fraud.
GovCoin is a project being developed in the United Kingdom to help the government distribute public benefits using the blockchain.
Healthcare and Medical Records
Healthcare requires a secure plateform for the transmitting of sensitive information. Blockchain can provide a way for hostitals, docors, and patients to share and store medical records and other sensitive information.
Gem: https://gem.co/
Tierion: https://tierion.com/
Energy Production and Management
For as long as we can remember, energy has been a centralized industry.
Energy producers and consumers are unable to provide or purchase energy for one another and must go through a centralized distributor, provided though the grid.
TransactiveGrid uses smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain. These smart contracts allow for producers and consumers to buy and sell energy in a peer to peer, decentralized manner, cutting out the middle man.
TransactiveGrid: http://transactivegrid.net/
Online Music and Videos
Smart contracts can be used to track licensing on songs and videos; putting control back into the hands on the content creators and preventing piracy. This is all without the need for a centralized platform such as ITunes, giving all of the profits to the content creators.
Mycelia: http://myceliaformusic.org/
Ujo Music: https://ujomusic.com/
Real Estate
The main issues with our current real estate markets are bureaucracy, fraud, lack of transparency, and the changing of governments/laws.
Blockchain can speed up the transacting of real estate by reducing the need for paper based information. With the ability to verify identity, ownership, accuracy of documentation, and the transaction itself, without the need of a third party.
UBITQUITY is a blockchain based real estate recordkeeping platform
Ubitquity: https://www.ubitquity.io/
Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding relies on trust between the project creators and supporters.
Current popular crowdfunding sites are centralized, can be censored, and charge high fees.
Blockchain based smart contracts can offer a platform for crowdfunding and can provide trust though reputation systems, eliminating the need for a third party that charges high fees and can deny your project for being funded.
Most recently ICO's or Initial Coin Offerings have provided a way for developers to crowdfund their projects by using tokens that can later be exchanged or used on their platforms or services
Overall, I think that blockchain technologies have a long way to go, but have the opportunity to change everything!
The future is now!