Blockchain is a powerful technology that can (and will) change the world.

Everyone here on steemit and in the crypto-scene knows it - but the mainstream world around us is discovering the endless benefits of blockchains only very slowly.
Last year, IBM already stated that 15% of Banks worldwide would be using Blockchain technology by the end of 2017 - and in recent news, citi bank and JP Morgan have started to integrate Blockchain.

But Blockchain Technology can actually be used for much more than "just" cryptocurrency.

The UN for example is using Blockchain Technology to fairly distribute funds to refugees, and Walmart (in cooperation with IBM) is using it to ensure food safety.

The possibilities are almost endless, but let me highlight 2 new major projects have been announced just this week, where Blockchain technology plays a key role.

#1: Saving the Environment with Blockchain!

Conservation biologist Guillaume Chapron has written an article which was published in Nature yesterday, claiming that Blockchain Technology could be used to save our Environment.
Many environmental problems are created because we lack trust and transparency.
When buying produce at the grocery store for example, the supply chain is very long and it's complicated for the end consumer to find out where and under what conditions the item was created.
It's easy to cheat in this long process, and it's also easy to sneak in environmentally unsustainable factors.

Blockchain could change that: it could prove every step of the process with a timestamp, and everyone would know that no data can be falsified in this smart contract.

This may sound quite hypothetical, but it's already being done:
Like mentioned above, Walmart is using Blockchain Technology to track the supply chain of its pork in china, checking for things like farm origin and storage temperature.
London-based technology platform Provenance uses Blockchain to trace the supply chain of sustainably caught fish in the Indonesian fishing industry.
The same could be done to other goods like minerals, raw materials, or even diamonds (which are already being tracked by the startup Everledger through Blockchain.)

"Today's modes of governance are prone to corruption and are unable to steer humanity towards sustainability, despite the ongoing global environmental crisis. A technological innovation triggered by another crisis — the 2008 financial meltdown — offers radical solutions. (...)

If humans repeatedly fail to build trust, perhaps algorithms should replace them.

The environmental crisis is growing partly because of a lack of trust—the increasing distance between multiple actors who are unknown to each other, from companies and governments to individual consumers, creates many opportunities for fraud and failed policies. (...)

The blockchain will disrupt all institutions, including governments.

A public, shared and immutable register of assets and transactions can help the public to hold politicians accountable. Authorities cannot withdraw or forge evidence, nor seize or shut down blockchain-based institutions."

The overall environmental impact of firms or consumers could be recorded on the blockchain and sustainable behaviour rewarded through incentives such as tax rebates. Building a life-cycle record of goods would also help to develop the circular economy.

-Environmentalist Guillaume Chapron in "Nature"

And there's another feature that Blockchain Technology can enable: certified ownership.

The Blockchain can verify someone's ownership of something - whether that's a piece of land, a forest, or a farm.
Startups in Nigeria, Ghana and Georgia are already using Blockchain Technology for land-title registries.
This could be especially useful in underdeveloped countries that suffer from corruption and ensure to certify rightful ownership.

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#2 Making Self-Driving Cars more secure with Blockchain

In other news, the Toyota Research Institute just announced yesterday that they will start using Blockchain technology to "help to securely share driving and autonomous vehicle testing data, manage ride and car share transactions and store vehicle usage information."
They stated that Blockchain could help speed up the development process of autonomous cars, as well as making them more secure.

“Hundreds of billions of miles of human driving data may be needed to develop safe and reliable autonomous vehicles,” said Chris Ballinger, director of mobility services and chief financial officer at TRI. “Blockchains and distributed ledgers may enable pooling data from vehicle owners, fleet managers, and manufacturers to shorten the time for reaching this goal, thereby bringing forward the safety, efficiency and convenience benefits of autonomous driving technology.”

Toyota is clearly making a leap forward, trying to position itself as a very innovative and future-oriented company.
This is no surprise considering that it's homeland Japan is currently also increasing economic involvement with Blockchain, Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general.
Toyota has partnered with several Blockchain-startups like BigchainDB from Berlin, Oaken innovations from Dallas, Commuterz from Tel Aviv and Gem from Los Angeles to make this innovative project happen.

Are there any other other real-world applications - apart from cryptocurrency - where Blockchain could be used?

Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

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