How Are Blockchains Used or Working?
How Are Blockchains Used?
As we now know, blocks on Bitcoin’s blockchain store transactional data. Today, tens of thousands of other cryptocurrencies run on a blockchain. But it turns out that blockchain can be a reliable way to store other types of data as well.
Some companies experimenting with blockchain include Walmart, Pfizer, AIG, Siemens, and Unilever, among others. For example, IBM has created its Food Trust blockchain to trace the journey that food products take to get to their locations.6
Why do this? The food industry has seen countless outbreaks of E. coli, salmonella, and listeria; in some cases, hazardous materials were accidentally introduced to foods. In the past, it has taken weeks to find the source of these outbreaks or the cause of sickness from what people are eating.
Using blockchain allows brands to track a food product’s route from its origin, through each stop it makes, to delivery. Not only that, but these companies can also now see everything else it may have come in contact with, allowing the identification of the problem to occur far sooner—potentially saving lives. This is one example of blockchain in practice, but many other forms of blockchain implementation exist or are being experimented with.
Banking and Finance
Perhaps no industry stands to benefit from integrating blockchain into its business operations more than personal banking. Financial institutions only operate during business hours, usually five days a week. That means if you try to deposit a check on Friday at 6 p.m., you will likely have to wait until Monday morning to see the money in your account.
Even if you make your deposit during business hours, the transaction can still take one to three days to verify due to the sheer volume of transactions that banks need to settle. Blockchain, on the other hand, never sleeps.
By integrating blockchain into banks, consumers might see their transactions processed in minutes or seconds—the time it takes to add a block to the blockchain, regardless of holidays or the time of day or week. With blockchain, banks also have the opportunity to exchange funds between institutions more quickly and securely. Given the sums involved, even the few days the money is in transit can carry significant costs and risks for banks.
The settlement and clearing process for stock traders can take up to three days (or longer if trading internationally), meaning that the money and shares are frozen for that period. Blockchain can, in theory, drastically reduce that time.
Currency
Blockchain forms the bedrock for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. This design also allows for easier cross-border transactions because it bypasses currency restrictions, instabilities, or lack of infrastructure by using a distributed network that can reach anyone with an internet connection.
Healthcare
Healthcare providers can leverage blockchain to store their patients’ medical records securely. When a medical record is generated and signed, it can be written into the blockchain, which provides patients with proof and confidence that the record cannot be changed. These personal health records could be encoded and stored on the blockchain with a private key so that they are only accessible to specific individuals, thereby ensuring privacy.
Property Records
If you have ever spent time in your local Recorder’s Office, you will know that recording property rights is both burdensome and inefficient. Today, a physical deed must be delivered to a government employee at the local recording office, where it is manually entered into the county’s central database and public index. In the case of a property dispute, claims to the property must be reconciled with the public index.
This process is not just costly and time-consuming, it is also prone to human error, where each inaccuracy makes tracking property ownership less efficient. Blockchain has the potential to eliminate the need for scanning documents and tracking down physical files in a local recording office. If property ownership is stored and verified on the blockchain, owners can trust that their deed is accurate and permanently recorded.
Proving property ownership can be nearly impossible in war-torn countries or areas with little to no government or financial infrastructure and no Recorder’s Office. If a group of people living in such an area can leverage blockchain, then transparent and clear timelines of property ownership could be maintained.
Smart Contracts
A smart contract is computer code that can be built into the blockchain to facilitate transactions. It operates under a set of conditions to which users agree. When those conditions are met, the smart contract conducts the transaction for the users.
Supply Chains
As in the IBM Food Trust example, suppliers can use blockchain to record the origins of materials that they have purchased. This would allow companies to verify the authenticity of not only their products but also common labels such as “Organic,” “Local,” and “Fair Trade.”
As reported by Forbes, the food industry is increasingly adopting the use of blockchain to track the path and safety of food throughout the farm-to-user journey.7
Voting
As mentioned above, blockchain could facilitate a modern voting system. Voting with blockchain carries the potential to eliminate election fraud and boost voter turnout, as was tested in the November 2018 midterm elections in West Virginia.8
Using blockchain in this way would make votes nearly impossible to tamper with. The blockchain protocol would also maintain transparency in the electoral process, reducing the personnel needed to conduct an election and providing officials with nearly instant results. This would eliminate the need for recounts or any real concern that fraud might threaten the election.