Updated: Nov 28, 2022
Anthony Maiello, CEO, CTO
August 1 2022
While many leaders were dealing with various disruptions and ever changing business challenges throughout the last couple of years, Blockchain technology has been enjoying more industry-wide adaption taking it well beyond cryptocurrencies, banking and nonfungible tokens (NFTs). Blockchain may have entered your industry while you weren't looking ready and hungry to disrupt the way you do business today.
Does your Technology Strategy address a Blockchain disruption?
If not, should it?
Our surveys and models show many business leaders over the last few years did see the potential for new revenue streams from blockchain, digital assets and cryptocurrency solutions. And many companies across multiple industries did invest in Blockchain technology - especially in Banking. But on the other hand, there were still many companies that did not think much about Blockchain within their specific industries.
At VNCTech Group, as we continuously collect and validate data-drive solutions via our VNCPropel Platform, our network of experts clearly sees Blockchain technology evolving and disrupting multiple industries well beyond banking and crypto. Over the course of the next 5 years, Blockchain technology will continue to evolve and mature being adapted in many more industries. We will see deployments go viral across numerous asset classes and new service providers and models emerge resulting in newly created products and services.
Besides Cryptocurrency and NFTs that clearly demonstrated Blockchains' application in finance, we are now seeing many other industries already using blockchain technology as well - Automotive, Banking, Insurance, Entertainment and a few more. With a 713% YoY (2021 data) in funding for Blockchain startups ($25B), it's no wonder we are seeing tremendous opportunity to take advantage of this disruptive technology no matter what your industry.
Let's take a look at a few use cases and industries Blockchain technology will disrupt (or continue to ingrain itself) in the future.
Banking
Although Blockchain is already in this industry, this is just the beginning. From peer to peer transactions to other valuable transfer hubs banks currently perform, blockchains could serve the same function with digitized, secure, and tamper-proof ledgers, injecting enhanced accuracy and information sharing into the entire financial services ecosystem. In reality, Blockchain has the opportunity to disrupt the banking industry by significantly reducing or potentially eliminating the key services that banks provide today, from payments to clearance and various settlement systems.
Cybersecurity
Cyberattacks are the top threat to almost all of our digital world. Look what happened to our data when Equifax announced its gigantic data breach in 2017 that affected 143 billion consumers. Blockchain technology can end such nightmares. It can secure our data against unauthorized access and tampering.
From the early Bitcoin days, Blockchain was clearly marked as a solid solution for cybersecurity problems that businesses across all industries unanimously face. Now this is a tall order for any technology, but Blockchain, if deployed correctly, may have what it takes to make a major play - because blockchain is a decentralized system, it’s ideal for environments where high security is involved. Here, all the information stored on a blockchain network is verified and encrypted using a cryptographic algorithm – which leads to no SINGLE point of entry for a wide-scale attack.
When it comes to cloud and the typical computer network usage in business, centralized servers are usually used to store the data. Now, when you save all your business data on a centralized system, you open yourself to risks such as corruption, data loss, human error, and even traditional hacking. But when you put your data on a distributed, decentralized system by employing the Blockchain model, the instances of hacks significantly decreases. Also, by eliminating a central authority, blockchain provides a secure and transparent way of recording transactions without disclosing private information to anyone.
So the applications that can make use of Blockchain for cybersecurity are endless.
Air Travel
I speak to many Travel industry investors on regular basis and this subject of Blockchain almost always come up ... Air Travel is an industry where the list of benefits are plentiful - here are just a few.
Many people who are not in the air travel industry may not know - but a lot of personal data is collected and stored on a central server when booking a flight - a subset of this data includes names, birthdays, credit card numbers, immigration details, destinations, and sometimes even hotel or rental car information. Implementing blockchain technology to secure personal information and reconcile this data can make for a safer journey — and one that’s more convenient for the traveler.
Even with the new airline smart phone apps using "digital tickets", the backend processing is mostly still very much producing "material tickets". Transforming a material ticket into a digital token using Blockchain technology provides a new layer of security. Using a "smart contract" as part of the new ticket token can help airlines control the sale and use of these validated tickets to provide verified experiences for customers - fulfilling amenities such as bag check-in, food orders and other traveler offerings become easier, more profits for the airlines, and much more secure.
Blockchain can also play well with some of the backend services airlines have to perform. It can be used to create more accurate logs of aircraft maintenance, prevent overbooking, and more. There’s are many challenges for airlines related to aircraft maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO). I once sat in an airport for 10 hours waiting for a common aircraft part to be found and installed. Tracking and tracing aircraft spare parts is a manual process that often leads to delays, major unnecessary costs, and human mistakes in the MRO process. Blockchain addresses these problems with accurate and traceable digital records, which can provide an accurate and secure maintenance history along with details of an aircraft’s configuration. Detailed MRO data can be fed to advanced algorithms to aid predictive analysis and maintenance reducing aircraft downtime. It can also be used to swiftly trace parts and suppliers as well as boost the resale value of aircrafts. There really is no end in sight for Blockchain applicability.
Many entrepreneurial and modern companies in the Travel industry are already taking advantage of Blockchain perhaps positioning themselves to disrupt this industry from how we know it today.
Government Voting
Blockchain can eliminate the question of voter fraud being asked altogether by ending the possibility of voter fraud.
Whether we use mail-in voting, stand in line to vote, or even on-line voting (if approved) - today's system depends on a central authority which is where problems of fraud arise.
Using blockchain technology, people can vote online easily and securely without revealing their identities. Using blockchain, officials can count votes with absolute accuracy, with voters being validated and knowing that each ID can be attributed to only one vote. Fraud cannot occur because it is next to impossible with the way blockchain technology works. And, once a vote is added to a ledger, it cannot be changed or erased.
Realizing politics may play a major role in how voting is managed, feel assured Blockchain can permanently eliminate voter fraud if there is a desire to do so in the future.
Internet of Things / Edge Computing
The mesh of connected devices (IoT / edge computing) is an advantage as I've discussed in one of my other articles "Edge Computing - A MUST HAVE for all Technology Strategies", but it also brings it to a vulnerable position. When you operate in a connected ecosystem, the moment one IoT device gets hacked the chances of other connected devices getting hacked also significantly increases. "Blockchain based IoT" adds the capability for you to exchange data on the platform instead of a third party essentially enabling connected devices (across the Internet) to send data to private blockchain networks to create tamper-resistant records of shared transactions. Since the devices are addressable with the benefits of this technology, businesses get access to the usage history of the connected devices, which comes in handy at the time of troubleshooting. The devices would be able to communicate with one another autonomously to manage software updates, bugs, or energy management.
One area industrial companies are focused on is IoT network security. As critical infrastructure like power plants and transportation all come equipped with connected sensors, privacy and security concerns have arisen. Some industrial companies are employing blockchain’s tamper-proof ledgers to secure data across industrial device networks.
Once again, the applications for Blockchain based IoT are numerous - manufacturing, supply chain and much more.
Other Industries
As you can see, the future of Blockchain is already here and Cryptocurrency and banking are not the only industries affected. Thanks to entrepreneurs heavily investing in Blockchain, believing the technology could transform industries, we are seeing a future where Blockchain is very alive and present; and if not already, may soon be knocking at your business' door.
We have listed over 80 industries in our VNCPropel datastore that are either already seeing Blockchain present or soon to come. I have listed only a few in this article. Others include Healthcare, Retail, Agriculture, Entertainment, Supply Chain, Insurance, Energy Management and many more.
How VNCTech Group Can Help
VNCTech Group is equipped with expertise and a proprietary VNCPropel Platform to assist you with all your technology strategy needs. Our experience spans 3 decades of helping companies and executives enable their technology strategies.
Our VNCPropel Platform validated data-driven solutions and network of experts already spans across many industries currently using Blockchain as well as industries that are likely to see this disruptive technology very soon. We can work with your team and experts to help map an actionable technology strategy that aligns to your budget and business goals while both taking advantage of disruptive technologies and leveraging existing invested technologies.
