Blockchain Business Use Cases

I constantly hear statements like "blockchain is a fad" or "blockchain is overhyped".

Although I understand this mistrust and fear of falling into the hype of blockchain, I simply cannot buy into this fear because I do see the true value in blockchain. Of course neither of us should buy into the idea of blockchain until each of us can truly understand what value it can bring society. I do challenge you to use critical lenses to look at both the pros and cons of the technology. While doing so, I also challenge you to open your mind to the capabilities of blockchain.

The influence of blockchain technology goes beyond cryptocurrencies. It has the ability to improve most (if not all) major businesses we see in the commercial landscape. As an employee of one of the largest technology firms in the world, I am internally seeing customers that Microsoft is helping to achieve digital transformation with the use of blockchain technology.

Today, I wanted to point out some improvements on an industry basis to see how blockchain can improve organizations.

What are some of the business use cases we are seeing?

Lets take a look with a breakdown of industries:

1. FINANCIAL
   Blockchain technology can improve the high-cost monolithic workflows of financial institutions by segmenting various streams. Some obvious improvements would be less frequent capital expenditures and movement towards a more operational expenditure model, as well as the free up of capital and improvement of liquidity. Moreover, with the blockchain, there will be more transparency between transactions both internally and externally. This aids in fraud reduction and improvement of service execution.

2. HEALTHCARE
   Currently, one of the main challenges seen in healthcare are the middlemen. These include verifiers such as health exchanges storing information and removes them from the process by directly linking the patient record to the clinics or financial stakeholders (out-of-pocket or insured). Beyond this process, another apparent improvement is the ability to automate records and secure them in a blockchain, without the involvement of hospital employees. Paper and digital files can be breached. Together, we see a faster, more secure as well as authenticated access to personal medical records across healthcare organizations.

3. CONSTRUCTION
   Construction companies have an extreme vertical flow of information. Authorization needs to constantly be given to initiate work. With blockchain technology, compliance and authorization for work can be streamlined. In addition, emerging issues can be solved with trust and verification in the process.

4. GOVERNMENT
   Blockchain technology helps governments improve as well. Taxpayers are often reluctant to give their hard earned money to the government because many feel like there is little transparency with how money is spent. Blockchain increases transparency and traceability of how money is being spent. Internally, governments can track asset registration such as vehicles and equipment. They can also reduce fraud and operational costs as well as overhead.

5. RETAIL AND MANUFACTURING
   Blockchains can drastically improve the supply chain management process in businesses. Parts of the supply chain that currently have manual processing and a series of painstaking checks, can now be automated processes where each node indicates that the previous step was complete. This allows for transparency in the whole process for those with access to the private blockchain. Management is kept content and well-informed of the success/failure of deliveries.

Whether you like it or not, blockchain is here to stay. Instead of being wary of the technology, embrace it! See what it can do for your business and/or company. The adoption of private blockchains in enterprises is on the rise. I am excited to see blockchain help companies succeed, and top see them rise as top performers in their industries.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed my article, please upvote and follow @sanno :)