The origin of blockchain technology can be traced back to the 1980s when David Chaum, an American computer scientist, and cryptographer, developed the first blockchain-like protocol. Stuart Haber and Scott Stornetta further developed the protocol in the 1990s. However, the real breakthrough came in 2008 when Satoshi Nakamoto, which some say is an anonymous person while some argue him as a group, designed the first decentralized blockchain.
Blockchain is a digital record-keeping technology that creates a decentralized network and operates through a set of protocols that ensure authenticity. The digital records inscribed in the blockchain are nearly impossible to alter, making it a powerful tool with the potential to revolutionize many aspects of daily life. While blockchain technology was initially developed to enable the use of cryptocurrencies and challenge existing finance and payment systems, it has the potential for many other uses as well. For example, an advanced use of blockchain technology has already been implemented within the archival sector, addressing issues related to digital-born documents and the need to ensure their security and authenticity.
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So, Let’s Explore Top 7 Applications of Blockchain in Real World
- Cryptocurrencies
At the top of the list are cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin, which have gained immense popularity among investors due to their increasing market capitalization. Investors have been attracted to the diversification opportunities that cryptocurrencies offer, and have explored the possibility of using Bitcoin as a hedge for various assets in their portfolios.
Cryptocurrencies have quickly become popular among investors looking for new international monetary alternatives, as well as traders and hedgers searching for better investment opportunities. However, experts caution that Bitcoin should be considered a speculative financial asset rather than a currency or alternative to fiat money.
Investing in Bitcoin can increase the yield of an investment portfolio and generate income. Additionally, investing in cryptocurrencies can provide significant benefits for diversified portfolios with exposure to a wide range of industries, protecting them against high volatility due to the high profitability and low correlation with traditional assets.
- Identity Verification
Around the world, over 1.1 billion people don’t have any proof of identity, and nearly half of them are among the poorest 20%. This is mostly due to cumbersome identification paperwork, high costs, lack of access, and limited knowledge of personal identity, which create significant barriers to entry into traditional identification systems. Meanwhile, 15 countries are home to over 60% of the global unbanked population, where 607 million people own a mobile phone but don’t have a bank account. This presents an opportunity for blockchain-based mobile identity solutions that can cater to the needs of vulnerable citizens.
One such solution, DoCChain.io is a digital credentialing platform that utilizes blockchain technology to issue and verify tamper-proof and self-verifiable digital credentials. With DocChain.io, companies can issue and verify digital identity documents. This can help to prevent identity theft and fraud.
- Document Verification
Blockchain technology is gaining traction in Document Verification due to its ability to provide a secure and transparent way of managing documents. In fact, in the 1990s, Stuart Haber and Scott Stornetta started with the idea of blockchain to solve the problem of verifying the authenticity of digital documents.
One of the primary challenges faced by businesses, including banks, in document verification, is ensuring data security, storage, retrieval, and access. To address these issues, blockchain technology has emerged as a solution that offers a common platform for storing, retrieving, and accessing documents. The distributed and shared nature of blockchain technology allows for open ledgers that can be verified by all, providing a secure and transparent way of managing documents.
- Healthcare
Blockchain can be used in the metaverse to establish a virtual economy and in healthcare to ensure data privacy and security, track pharmaceutical sources, and simplify clinical trials. Various healthcare companies are using cryptocurrency rewards to encourage patients to achieve their health goals.
Healthcoin, a U.S.-based platform that runs on blockchain technology, rewards users with HCN, its cryptocurrency, for making healthy choices. Users can earn HCN tokens by completing health-related tasks like taking medication on time, tracking fitness activities, and eating nutritious foods. These tokens can be redeemed to buy healthcare products and services within the Healthcoin ecosystem.
- Supply Chain Management
Blockchain allows various companies to complete transactions directly and without third parties. It also enhances the integration of financial and logistics services for robust data collaboration between stakeholders. By leveraging blockchain, it’s possible to reduce fraud for valuable products like diamonds and pharmaceuticals, as companies can track the movement of goods through each subcontractor. This reduces the risk of profit loss due to counterfeit and grey market trading while increasing confidence in end-users by ensuring the authenticity of products.
Last year, Walmart, in collaboration with IBM and Tsinghua University National Engineering Laboratory for E-Commerce Technologies, announced the use of blockchain to track its products from China to the U.S. Blockchain technology enables Walmart to track every asset leaving its operations, including products returned from stores, providing real-time insights into its global network and allowing for early detection of disruptions or delays.
- Copyright and Royalty Protection
When it comes to organizing information about copyrighted objects like music and photos, a lack of transparency and a central database can lead to issues in identifying owners’ rights and arranging their use. That’s where blockchain comes in, with its potential for widespread use in copyright protection and management.
Adoption of blockchain can significantly lower the cost of digital copyright protection, improve efficiency, and offer new methods for collecting evidence, trading digital assets, and safeguarding copyright owners’ rights. Compared to traditional publishing technology, blockchain offers greater transparency and centralization, with immutability that cannot be altered easily, resulting in major advancements in all aspects of copyright protection technology.
- Transfer Contracts and Wills
Family quarrels on inheritance issues are nothing new, but in recent years they have become the main content of the news. Interestingly, blockchain along with smart contract technology has a solution to this too. Smart contracts can be deployed through blockchain to ensure the integrity of an electronic will. Smart contracts make the lengthy and complicated process automated, open, and transparent, reducing process costs and solving trust issues.
Conclusion
Blockchain technology is gaining recognition as a result of its numerous applications, including cryptocurrencies and document verification. It is possible to eliminate intermediaries and enhance the accuracy, efficiency, security, and cost-effectiveness of business and governmental procedures thanks to blockchain.
Blockchain can make any document truly digital on a private or public blockchain. Using this extraordinary capability of the technology, DOCCHAIN.IO makes any document truly digital on both public and private blockchains. This innovative approach creates a trust infrastructure for issuing digital documents that address real-world challenges through the power of blockchain. DocChain.io platform creates the trust infrastructure for issuing digital documents and solving real-world problems with blockchain.