Blockchain has the potential to revolutionize the digital economy

Blockchain has the potential to revolutionize the digital economy 1Blockchain has the potential to revolutionize the digital economy 1

Blockchain technology has gathered a lot of attention in recent times but for its usage in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. The capabilities of this technology are not restricted to the innovation of usage in the form of digital token but go far beyond that. It makes it able to implement some of the technologies that were not practical to be deployed.

Blockchain can also be called as a distributed ledger technology. It is expected to bring a revolution in the field of economics by disrupting it on a global scale, due to its properties of being transparent, secure and scalable.

Financial Applications of Blockchain:
Blockchain may open the avenues of a secure and transparent medium of transactions that can cut off the role of the middleman as well. The financial services sector is taking advantage of the secure and transparent environment offered by this technology and thus is leading the way with blockchain. Deloitte is one such organization that is working with respective clients to work on a solution like ‘Smart Identity’ that may help various banks and other such organizations to ease the process of KYC.

The technology also finds its application in the field of insurance, for financial institutions, exchanges, etc. A number of organizations are taking advantage of blockchain as a means of recording the time stamp. Nasdaq uses blockchain to record transactions while Axoni makes use of blockchain for managing the post-trade events for credit default swaps. The technology also offers a real-time solution to monitor market activity.

Commercial Applications of Blockchain:
Factom and Everledger are two of the startups that are making use of blockchain, in the commercial world. Factom focusses on securing data and is working on a land registry project along with projects for 80 smart cities in the field of data infrastructure. Everledger is the company that focusses on the identity of nodes involved in any blockchain transaction. One of the properties of blockchain nodes is that the history associated with it cannot be modified, making it more trustable. The history of transactions is utilized by the company to verify records for insurance companies and law enforcement agencies.

Potential for developing countries:
With the advent of digital identity, powered by blockchain, the data of thousands of people may be recorded in a secure manner thus offering opportunities for faster transactions in a number of industrials and processes. A digital identity may be secured using a private key making it easier for banks and other financial institutions to gather the required data for knowing their customers better.

A number of transactional costs may be saved by the successful implementation of a blockchain-powered backend of the information. The potential to bring a revolution is certainly there if only the implementation is done in the right manner.