‘Blockchain’ is entering the dictionary of business terminology at a rate of knots: in a one- year period, Google reported a 250 per cent increase in search requests using the term. Yet until relatively recently not many people had heard of Blockchain, and even fewer understood it.
Cryptocurrency has gone mainstream – it can be used to pay for a multitude of goods and services both online and in a physical point of sale environment.
In turn, the rise of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin has brought Blockchain into the public consciousness, because it’s the technology that underpins these digital currencies.
What is Blockchain?
Simply put, it’s a digital transaction ledger that is made highly secure in that only new information can be ‘written’.
Previous information cannot be altered or edited due to the use of cryptography to link contents of a newly added block, with previous blocks all connected in a chain. Any changes made to a previous block would render the data in blocks coming after it invalid. This means it’s decentralized, so no one person or entity can control it.
But how can it help businesses?
Payments and transfers
As mentioned above, cryptocurrency is a valid way of paying for various goods and services, from coffee to a luxury watch.
The beauty of Blockchain tech is the way funds can be sent quickly and securely to just about anyone anywhere at a very low cost. This can obviously help businesses both pay others and receive money efficiently.
Costs are a factor, too. Many financial transactions, from credit cards to PayPal, incur fees, but paying with cryptocurrencies promises much lower fees.
Fraud prevention
Due to its decentralized nature, Blockchain lends itself very well to help fraud prevention in an environment where it costs industry some $18.5 billion per year.
Blockchain could help to address the weaknesses of traditional password-controlled environments that are usually managed by a single entity; the tech could provide networks with high-strength digital ID and signature verification security as opposed to vulnerable passwords.
Networking and the Internet of Things (IoT)
Networking relies on various computers being securely connected, so using Blockchain to provide a ledger for each machine added to the network could enhance security and reduce costs by cutting out the need for a network hub.
Similarly, Blockchain could help streamline the process whereby various devices are connected together so they can communicate, as in IoT technology.
Marketing
Blockchain could play a significant part in marketing and may even change much of what types are undertaken.
Presently Google and Facebook dominate the online advertising arena, but this could change as organizations replace ad spend on these platforms by interacting with their markets directly, while effectively paying them for engagement.
For example, a business could pay users a small amount to download their app and then a little more if they’ll allow monitoring such as location tracking. As people use their app, the business may pay them – it could be in the form of credits or loyalty points, for example.
As time goes on, the business puts tailored offers and incentives in front of their app users as they learn more about their individual preferences. All the while Blockchain tech is keeping user information secure while monitoring and delivering payments to the user.
Blockchain can track and verify ad engagement to stop overdoing ad serving and re-marketing to those who could become annoyed with it.
Transport logistics
The need to track progress with goods in transit so as to ensure the fastest possible delivery and accurate notification of the customer can be enhanced with Blockchain.
While sophisticated methods currently exist to track and monitor transportation, Blockchain is seen as a way of making this still less-than-precise science far more accurate.
The Blockchain revolution?
Some say Blockchain will revolutionize industry, while others are adopting a ‘wait and see’ approach. But one thing’s for certain: the speed at which cryptocurrency has developed into a mainstream product since its inception with Bitcoin in 2009 shows what the possibilities are.
