Blockchain Uses Other than Currencies

In this blockchain tutorial, we will learn about the use-cases of blockchain other than currencies. We will talk about other sectors using blockchain, especially in the United States of America. Also, we will cover these topics.

Blockchain in Internet Of Things (iOT)
Blockchain in Health Sector
Blockchain in Finance
Blockchain used by Government
Blockchain in Media

Contents show

Blockchain in Internet Of Things (IoT)

Internet of things (IoT) involves both software and hardware to fulfill some tasks. In this section, we will see how blockchain helps in the Internet of things.

IoT is deﬁned as a network of physical devices that act smartly if connected to the internet and can be controlled remotely. These devices are smart enough to make human life easy. These devices can be a car, air conditioners, television, or other sensory devices.
IOT devices can be a physical devices or wearables like smart watches but all of these perform 4 functions.
- Sensing is performed by sensors
- reacting is performed by actuators
- collecting is a function of various sensors
- communicating is performed by chips that provide network.
All these functions require internet. In other words, internet is the limit for IoT devices.
IoT with blockchain technology helps the businesses to save costs, improve performance based on the data provided by the IoT devices all of this help business to make vital decisions.
When huge amount of data is collected from IoT devices then using machine learning it can be analysed and product’s smartness can be improved.
For example, let’s say light consumption in a particular area decreases after between certain hours. So this insight can be used and that power can be provided to needful areas.
Blockchain provides a simpler, more cost-eﬀective infrastructure compared to traditional complex PKI networks.
In healthcare, major issues such as privacy compromises, data breaches, high costs, and fraud can arise from a lack of interoperability, overly complex processes, transparency, auditability, and control.

Read Pros and Cons of Blockchain

Blockchain in Health Sector

Health is another sector that is majorly benefitted from blockchain technology In this section, we will learn how blockchain helps in improving the health sector.

Health sector maintains a record of patients, doctors, medicines, prescriptions, surgery records, etc.
These crucial informations are being gathered from many years & this data is helpful in training of doctors, recoginising deseases, providing medication, patient’s previous record helps in resuming the treatment, etc.
So to safegaurd these things blockchain can provide an immutable, auditable, and transparent system that traditional P2P networks cannot.
Blockchain in the health sector provides several beneﬁts like cost savings, high availability, increased trust, the faster processing of claims, minimized chances of operational errors due to complexity in the operational procedures, preventing the distribution of counterfeit medicines, etc.

Read Digital Signature in Blockchain

Blockchain in Finance

In this section, we will learn how blockchain is contributing to the Finance sector in America.

Finance is the anticipated industry change in even single factor can leave a an impact over the finance. It is the most happening industry.
Everyone cares about their finance, buying andselling of commodities need a system that is trustworthy, fast and cost saving.
Blockchain technology offers more than what it requires. It saves cost, prevents financial crimes by providing transparency, regulates fast settlements of trade and insurances with smart contracts in blockchain.
Let’s discuss more about how the blockchain helps in insurance, post-trade settlement, and financial crime prevention & payment.

1. Insurance

Insurance is a guarantee provided by the company to compensate for the loss. This has various terms and conditions to make sure that a legitimate claim is made.

There can be two possible loopholes in the insurance that can cause inconvenience.
- False Claim
- Delay in settlement
False claim is when the damage do not meet the terms and conditions of the company but user tries to prove it by any means.
When all the formalities are fulfilled but the insurance company do not issues the compensation, that creates delay in settlement.
Boht of these involves various factors due to which the process remain incomplete. Blockchain comes with solution for both the issues and fastern the process.
Blockchain combined with IoT can help in indentifying the false claims & fraduelent activities. Sensors and other recording devices can present the proofs that can help both the parties (company & customer).
Blockchain speeds up the claim processing and enable transparency all of this at less cost & efforts.
The insurance process can be automated using blockchain wherein IoT devices identifies the damage and issues claim automatically. Smart contracts helps in fixing any dispute. This saves time, efforts and builds goodwill of the insurance company.

2. Post-trade Settlement

Post-trade verifies the details of a transaction and it occurs after the trade is complete.

The post-trade settlement involves matching the details of the buy and sell orders, shifting records of ownership, and authorizing payment.
Most of the companies adopting blockchain technology to save cost, time, simplify, automate and speed up this process.
The trade involves three processes:
- Execution involves the trading between the parties.
- Clearing involves matching of buyer & seller’s account.
- Settlement is the final step in which security is exchanged for payment.

3. Financial Crime Prevention

Financial crimes are very common these days, government and companies keep on sharing pieces of awareness to keep their customers safe.

KYC (know your customers) and AML (Anti Money Laundering) are the two methods used to prevent financial crimes.
In KYC, an agent visits the customer’s place and get the verification done. This way companies keeps the legitimate copy of customer’s information.
The drawback of this process is it is time consuming. The process demands that verification can only be done at the provided address which is home address & customer spend most of their time in the office.
Blockchain technology solves this problem by securely sharing a distributed ledger between all ﬁnancial institutions that contain veriﬁed and true identities of customers.
This ledger can only be updated by consensus between the participants, thus this provides transparency and auditibility.
Customers and companies both can save time and cost by completing kyc online.
Money Laundering refers to converting the money earned through illegal sources to clean money.
In Anti money laundering (AML), regulatories can access the private blockchain wherein they can access & monitor data related to reported issue.
Evidences are fetched from various legacy and disparate systems, and then aggregated and formed together for reporting purposes.
Blockchain technology provides single share view of all the financial transactions in the system which saves lots of cost and time.
Criminals need time to hide their crimes but blockchain technology speeds up the investigation process which helps in preventing financial crimes.

4. Payment

Payment is the transfer of money or equivalent from one party to another (buyer to seller) in exchange for goods or services.

Payment can be collected via online or offline mode but the record is each trasaction made is stored in a centeralised server and government has access over it.
The payment gateway uses third-party services thate expensive and since additional step is added to is time taking too.
Blockchain technology provides decentralised servers which do not require any third party service. So they are fast and non expensive.

Read Cryptography in Blockchain

Blockchain used by Government

In this section, we will learn how blockchain is being used by the government.

Government has introduced e-governement model in most of the countries like United States. Wherein everything related to government is provided on the same portal.
Citizens can view new schemes launched by government, cast e-votes, file complains, give suggestions, etc.
This e-government scheems aims at securing border, providing e-voting facility and issues citizen identification (ID cards). And blockchain technology is used in each process to overcome the flaws.
Border control involves a security system than can prevent trafficking of human or resourses across the borders.
Passport authorisation keeps of record of every individual crossing the border. In case of fradulent passport document the entity is liable to punishment.
Blockchain technology can speedup this process by adding the entity documents to a blacklist and share it with other departments immedietly. So that if the same entity tries in future he/she can be caught immediately.
e-voting has been successfully implemented in most of the countries. The loophole in e-voting is the machine. The machine can be manipulated which ultimately leads to incorrect cast of vote.
Blockchain technology can create an ecosystem wherein each individual can cast their vote and these votes will ultimately give a true leader to the country.
Using zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) anonymity of each voter can be maintained. Immutability feature of blockchain will assure single vote per person. And remaining necesassry rules can be written using smart contract.
Issuing Citizen identification (ID cards) will help the citizen to use one card for all the purposes. This card will have all the information of an individual and can be used as a means of proof infront of any regulatories like bank.
blockchain technology can be implemented to improve cost and eﬃciency include the collection of taxes, land ownership record management, beneﬁts management and disbursement, life event registration (marriages, births, death), motor vehicle licenses, and registration.

Read Decentralized Applications in Blockchain – DApps

Blockchain in Media

In this section, we will learn how blockchain helps media to run their activities more efficiently.

The media industry revolves around content distribution, rights management, and royalty payments to artists. Media involve pdfs, audio files, video clips, etc.
This media is not safe from hackers. Hackers find the way to download copies and then they distribute it in the market.
Using Blockchain technology media content can be secured from piracy. Cryptography can be applied on the files and only legitimate user will be able to access the content for a defined time (if any).
Smart contracts are used to set a logic for downloading the files.. This way payment will be automatically made based upon the smart contract logic sychronised with number of downloaded copies.
So this is how blockchain can help the security of media. Apart from that it also regulates easy and cost saving ways of distributing content to buyers.