What Is Blockchain Technology and How Businesses Use It
The economy is changing and Millennials are looking for new ways to transact and make money.
If you have been following banking, investing, or cryptocurrency over the last ten years, you may have heard the term “blockchain,” the record-keeping technology behind the Bitcoin network.
What is blockchain technology?
Blockchain is a system of recording information in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to change, hack, or cheat the system. A blockchain is essentially a digital ledger of transactions that is duplicated and distributed across the entire network of computer systems on the blockchain.
The simplest way to think about blockchain is that it is a database – or a storage infrastructure for data secured by encryption or decentralisation. This allows for many copies to be spread across multiple locations and enables all information to be simultaneously updated.
Blockchain is an exciting new alternative to traditional currency, centralized banking, and transaction methods that are not only changing the way we handle financial transactions but also alternative uses that will change the world.
How to use blockchain technology in a business?
Blockchain technologies are beneficial for transactions where values and timestamps are key and need to be securely recorded. The technology, however, is also helpful in tracking the movement of data between parties, for example, contracts, trading, supply chain, and logistics.
Here are a few applications that may help you to improve your business with blockchain technology.
4 Blockchain business applications
1. Blockchain for vaccine tracking and distribution
During the development of the Covid-19 vaccine and its rollout across the globe, blockchain technology has become a vital tool in providing solutions, demand forecasting, supply chain management, and authentication.
2. Enterprise blockchain
Enterprise blockchain, also often referred to as private blockchain or permissioned blockchain, is a type of blockchain that can be used to streamline business processes at scale, such as track supply chain goods or settle global payments.
The focus is on deployments that fall under a centralised “owner”, usually the company that has deployed the chain. This is entirely unlike the old flagship of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.
3. Blockchain for NFTs
NFT (Non-Fungible Token) is a digital currency for collectibles or digital assets like music, code, contracts, and pictures.
What does non-fungible mean? If something is non-fungible, it means it has unique properties so it cannot be interchanged with something else. With money, for example, you can swap a £10 note for two £5 notes and it will have the same value.
NFTs are “one-of-a-kind” assets in the digital world that can be bought and sold like any other piece of property, but they have no tangible form of their own.
The digital tokens can be thought of as certificates of ownership for virtual or physical assets.
Many Millennials and industrious folk are now utilising the benefits of NFT’s.
Large tech companies think that this technology will have far-reaching implications for the future of blockchain technology in a wide array of business markets.
4. Blockchain for cryptocurrencies and stablecoins
A cryptocurrency is a decentralized digital currency that can be exchanged online for goods and services. Cryptocurrencies are run on blockchain technology —a distributed ledger enforced by a disparate network of computers.
Why people buy cryptocurrency? People like the fact that cryptocurrency removes central banks from managing the money supply since over time these banks tend to reduce the value of money via inflation.
A “stablecoin” is a type of cryptocurrency whose value is tied to an outside asset, such as the U.S. dollar or gold, to stabilize the price – this makes it more predictable and hence easier to use for everyday people. A stablecoin can be pegged to a cryptocurrency, fiat money, or to exchange-traded commodities.