Most people know blockchain as the technology behind Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and other popular cryptocurrencies, but there is much more to the blockchain revolution. In fact, many experts predict that the transformative power of the blockchain will be far more important, and much more long-lasting, than the virtual coins it originally enabled.
To understand the transformative power of the blockchain and why it is already disrupting entire industries, it helps to know what the technology is and how it works. Explaining the technical details of the blockchain would take many pages, but in simple terms, blockchain is a type of ledger, one that holds a permanent record of every transaction.
Unlike paper ledgers, transactions recorded on the blockchain cannot be altered, overwritten or erased. It is this permanence that makes blockchain technology, and the cryptocurrencies it powers, so secure. That same security is an integral part of the blockchain, and disparate industries are already benefitting. Here are 10 industries that will be transformed in the coming years, all thanks to the power of the blockchain.
1. Corporate training - From centralizing training materials to holding completion certificates to enabling payments for instructors, blockchain technology could make corporate training easier, cheaper and more effective.
2. Real estate - The world of real estate could be transformed by blockchain, and the ledger could be used to store property records, safeguard home titles and permanently record every real estate transfer and transaction.
3. Education - In the coming years, teachers could use blockchain technology to lead virtual field trips, access a new 3D internet and learn from the newest sources of information.
4. Financial planning - The cryptocurrencies blockchain makes possible could give financial advisors a new product to sell and their clients a new investment opportunity.
5. Marketing - The power of blockchain technology is already changing the world of marketing, facilitating direct interactions between buyers and sellers and creating a sense of trust among participants on the ledger.
6. Banking - Big banks are finally taking blockchain seriously, and they have been investing billions of dollars in this emerging technology. Those financial institutions recognize that blockchain could lower their costs, speed up their processing times and allow them to serve their customers more effectively.
7. Legal services - The blockchain may not replace lawyers and paralegals, but it will change the way they do business. From facilitating smarter contracts to making enforcement actions easier and less expensive especially for startup equity distribution and vesting, this technology has the power to totally transform the world of legal services.
8. Online commerce - This one is pretty self-explanatory and already well underway. The cryptocurrencies the blockchain made possible have given online sellers a new way to get paid, and buyers a secure and relatively anonymous way to pay.
9. Healthcare - From facilitating the secure storage of healthcare records to making data sharing easier, blockchain technology could benefit patients, doctors and everyone else in the industry.
10. Elections - Public service is not supposed to be an industry, but it has certainly become one. Politics is big business, and it is already being enhanced and transformed thanks to the power of the blockchain. Future elections could be far more secure and transparent once every vote is indelibly recorded on the ledger.
The world is already being transformed by technology, and each new advance comes with its own set of benefits and challenges. Blockchain technology is already one of the most powerful tools out there, and it is becoming more important with every passing year. Unlike many competing technologies, the blockchain ledger is already transforming whole industries, disrupting longstanding business models and changing lives. The 10 industries listed above are just the tip of the blockchain iceberg, and there is surely much more to come.