Blockchain is reshaping the world of online business for the better, and it’s slowly creeping into every major industry. From the financial sector to web hosting, online business owners have realized the potential of blockchain technology.
But what is that potential that everyone keeps going on about? Blockchain technology provides those who rely on it with data security, immutability, and decentralization. It achieves all that by storing the data within a public ledger that shows details for each transaction. Moreover, that data cannot be changed, which is the core idea behind blockchain.
You can see why such technology is so lucrative. In fact, you’re not the only one. The global blockchain market size is expected to grow from $3 billion in 2020 to $39.7 billion by 2025.
Now that you see how profitable and attractive blockchain is, it’s time to go over some of the major industries it’s transforming already.
Blockchain Is Redefining Major Industries
The benefits and the security that blockchain offers are attractive to more than a single industry. It’s bound to revolutionize the way in which various business sectors operate, and the change has already begun. The following industries are already reaping some of the advantages of blockchain:
- Financial industry
- Legal industry
- Healthcare industry
- Automotive industry
- Web hosting industry
Let’s start off with the influence that blockchain has over the financial sector.
The Financial Industry
Among other industries, the banking sector demands security in all its transactions. After all, that’s the most likely target for criminals, hackers, and everyone else looking to make an illegal claim on someone else’s money.
For that very reason, the financial industry derives perhaps the greatest benefit from the application of blockchain technology. The permanence of records and their transparency ensure that each transaction is secure and always accessible.
The first and most obvious place to start when talking about the transformation of the financial industry is money transfers. National Australia Bank, CitiBank, Barclays, and UBS are just some examples of banks that have adopted international payments with blockchain technology. Usually, money transfers are slow, expensive, and error-prone. However, blockchain alleviates all of those issues, resulting in an overall better experience for the customer.
Secondly, all the extraneous fees are either significantly lower or gone altogether. Blockchain helps streamline the payment process, reducing the number of fees you pay to all the parties involved in the transaction.
We’ve already mentioned that blockchain is an excellent method of tracking transactions and ensuring accurate, secure information. Besides that, it promotes financial inclusion as the technology allows startups and small companies to compete with major banks on equal footing.
The Legal Industry
From contracts and court records to fund transfers and property records, there’s a wide range of ledger-based activities in the legal industry.
Seeing how blockchain functions much like a public ledger itself, it’s the perfect tool to assist in legal matters. It can help avoid many of the mistakes that people tend to make, like when signing a contract. Smart contracts signed digitally will help reduce the number of errors and make such procedures more convenient for everyone.
Another interesting use of the technology is the improved efficacy of patent registration systems. Blockchain will ensure the faultlessness of intellectual property laws by assisting the trademark registration process. Currently, it takes more than a year for the US Patent and Trademark Office to initiate any sort of action in response to your application.
Among other things, blockchain is going to create a more robust inheritance system, where such documents will be more difficult to dispute. That’s especially true when it comes to digital assets (such as Bitcoin) that more and more people own.
The Healthcare Industry
A part of delivering cost-effective healthcare relies on a streamlined and secure process of data sharing. It’s the necessary condition for ensuring a scalable healthcare system that’s robust and impervious to error.
However, the reality of shifting medical data to more advanced, server-based methods of storage has been nothing but trouble. The core principle of healthcare professionals, which is doctor-patient confidentiality, has been breached too many times to count. Centralized healthcare databases proved to be quite vulnerable, causing many data leaks and subsequent litigation against doctors and healthcare institutions.
Blockchain promises to prevent all errors of the sort thanks to its decentralized nature. A comprehensive database will store all patients’ data, and they’ll have control over who has access to their medical records. The technology will allow for the identification of people based on their records, as well as authorization of medical procedures.
One more interesting aspect of how blockchain will influence the healthcare industry is the tracking of hereditary diseases. It could lead to a permanent medical record storage system that allows medical history to be passed down to future generations.
The Automotive Industry
If you’re new to blockchain technology, you’d be surprised how prevalent it is in the automotive industry. Some aspects of the tech are already transforming the industry, and some are yet to reveal how influential blockchain is.
Let’s start with the changes already made to the car industry. As you may or may not be aware, some high-end car manufacturers, such as BMW and Tesla, already accept Bitcoin. Individual car dealerships can also decide to sell their vehicles for Bitcoin, as they often do.
But there’s far more that blockchain can do for the automotive industry than let you exchange cryptocurrencies for cars.
The technology itself allows for the collection and processing of enormous amounts of data. That data can then be used to speed up the development of driverless vehicles. In other words, blockchain will get us to the future of autonomous vehicles much faster.
The distributed digital ledger enables the quick transfer of valuable data between drivers, researchers, and car manufacturers. That, in turn, makes car sales or owner transfers much faster, with far less bureaucracy involved.
Speaking of bureaucracy and documentation, blockchain technology ensures better data access to all parts of the supply chain. It provides the necessary traceability and transparency that is required to keep a complete record of all the assets within the supply chain.
The Web Hosting Industry
If there was any industry to accept the blockchain technology first, it was, without a doubt, the web hosting industry. Hosting companies were among the first businesses to recognize the value of decentralized and immutable databases.
In general, European hosting providers were the first to start adopting Bitcoin, but the trend quickly spread through the entire industry.
They were also the first to recognize that their customers are also going to appreciate what blockchain has to offer. Thanks to that realization, it seems that we can hope for a future with far less government involvement.
After all, no central body or organization controls the blockchain, and we can expect the same to be true for hosting providers. That alone suggests that decentralized hosting will grow even more popular in the coming years as users demand transparency, security, and clarity from technology.
Blockchain has already made it possible to reap the benefits of hosting websites on bitcoin VPS. Whether you’re going offshore because you need adult hosting, a new audience, or less censorship doesn’t really matter. Blockchain makes it possible to pay for anonymity with Bitcoin, and that’s something everyone can appreciate.
Conclusion
Blockchain technology has already proven it has the capacity to change how we do business on a global level. Industries worldwide have felt the rejuvenating effect of blockchain, and you can rest assured that more are to follow. The result? Data handling and security have already begun to improve for everyone involved.
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