By Sandra Quinn
Last week in our weekly blog we looked at different ways in which you could incorporate blockchain technology into your business and how it could make your business more efficient, while saving time and money and increasing productivity by streamlining operations.
This week, we are going to look at some of the ways in which the blockchain is used across different industries;
- Over the past two years, there have been a number of data breaches where personal data and more worryingly, medical information has been publicly released. Using the blockchain, the healthcare industry can protect against this by preventing data breaches through the use of a secure and reliable method of recording, storing and sharing sensitive data.
- As discussed last week, every step along the supplier communications trail can be documented and verified with the blockchain and in this way it can be used as a form of authentication and verification to legitimise things like diamonds, authentic sources, or supply chain authenticity.
- Every business deals with contracts at some point, but smart contracts eliminate the need for a middle man while providing all parties with verifiable, complete and authentic contracts, which they know have not been tampered or interfered with.
- Within the finance sector, transferring funds across borders and international waters has always been a slow, complicated and costly process. Blockchain technology can speed up, simplify and reduce the costs of such transactions.
- In terms of share trading, blockchain technology can be used to ensure greater trade accuracy and a shorter settlement process.
- In a world where most of our daily business is done online, verifying the identity of the other party facing their own computer screen on the other side of the world can lead to problems such as impersonation, identity theft or fraud and this can be combatted via identity management on the blockchain.