Blockchain Technology: Unfolding New Opportunities By Janifha Evangeline

Blockchain Technology: Unfolding New Opportunities

Janifha Evangeline | Wednesday, 31 March 2021, 02:23 IST

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Blockchain - probably one of the most popular enigmas that continues to unfold new wonders with every passing year. By showing real life applications, it has moved past the phase where there would be a need for blockchain tutorial. From hype to reality, it has obviated the need for blockchain definition to be rendered and the talk is all about use cases now. The global blockchain market is anticipated to reach USD 39.7 billion by 2025, registering an impressive growth rate of 67.3 percent over the forecast period. The growing demand for simplifying the business processes and increasing need for supply chain management applications, integrated with blockchain technology is anticipated to bolster the blockchain market.   

Estonia - a shining example for adopting Blockchain-based solutions

Among countries across the globe that have adopted blockchain-based solutions on a large scale, Estonia has shown how blockchain can drive efficiencies in governance and also ease of doing businesses. Estonia has implemented the KSI blockchain for numerous e-governance services and blockchain is implemented in numerous Estonian digital services. These include digital health records, prescription databases, judiciary, law & order, banking, business registration, and land registration, etc.

Real-world applications

Some of the areas where this game-changing technology can be implemented in real-world scenarios include payment processing and money transfers, monitor supply chains, retail loyalty reward points, digital IDs, data sharing, copyright, and loyalty protection, digital voting, real estate, land, and auto title transfers, food safety, immutable data backup, tax regulation, and compliance, medical record-keeping, weapons tracking, equity trading, managing Internet of Things networks, expediting energy futures trading and compliance, securing access to belongings, and tracking prescription drugs.

Tracing food from its origin to your plate

Among these, some of the most distinguished use of Blockchain is in the food industry. Blockchain can be used in tracing food from its origin to your plate owing to its immutability. Due to this feature, the transport of the food products can be traced from their origin to the food mart or supermarket. Besides, if there is any food-borne illness, blockchain would allow the source of the contaminant to be found considerably quicker than it can be now.

Improve labor policies and constrain employers to honor digital contracts

Blockchain is also used as a means to buttress the rights of workers around the globe as it was found that around 25 million people worldwide, work in forced-labor conditions according to reports by the International Labor Organization. Therefore, Coco-Cola – the American multinational beverage corporation along with the U.S. State Department and other partners is working on a blockchain project/registry that is complete with smart contracts and protocols that helps to verify, facilitate or enforce a contract intending to improve labor policies and constrain employers to honor digital contracts with their employees.

Make your vote truly count

It is important for every citizen of the country to honor the right of voting as every citizen’s vote not only makes a huge difference but also acts as a game-changer and a decisive factor. Although EVMs were introduced by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to address frauds and simplify the electoral procedure, people today are still worried about voter fraud. This is where Blockchain comes to the rescue as blockchain technology provides the ability to vote digitally. Since Blockchain is transparent, any regulators have the permission to view if changes were made on the network and therefore, it blends the ease of digital voting with the immutability of blockchain to make your vote truly count.

“The election commission of India is working with IIT-Madras on using Blockchain Technology for remote voting and considerable development in that direction is expected by 2024 General Elections,” Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said on 26th March 2021.

Although "One Nation One Elections” is desirable, it is not easy to achieve it since it requires amendments of existing laws and political consensus.

The Election Commissioner said that they are doing a Blockchain project with IIT-Madras, Chennai, and some of the eminent scientists. "We are very hopeful by 2024 Lok Sabha elections you will see a lot of fundamental differences in the way we (Election Commission) is working, including this (e-voting),” Arora replied when asked if the EC is working to introduce app-based e-voting for the convenience of citizens to vote remotely.

Arora also stated that Election Commission is also working on linking the Aadhaar card with voter id as part of electoral reforms and on “One Nation one Election,” - the existing laws will have to be amended in order to undertake the gigantic exercise that requires political consensus.

“It’s a desirable goal, difficult to achieve till the basic laws are amended. Unless you align the life of Parliament with the life of the state legislatures by amendments of the law, you also need certain political consensus across the spectrum,” he said when one of the probationers asked if ‘polls for all at one go’ is possible.  

Revolutionizing the Travel industry

Although already preluded as a game-changer for numerous and diverse industries, blockchain is now emerging as a powerful technological force that is set to revolutionize the travel industry’s status quo.

For the travel industry, blockchain-based services are already providing solutions to major pain points, and are working to address and resolve common challenges. This is achieved by focusing on streamlining processes and by building a more equitable ecosystem that evades gatekeepers. The impact of blockchain technology is more speculative with various new businesses emerging to disrupt several nodes on the industry’s supply chain.

Travelers have to spend hours waiting in queues at airports and this is an oft-cited example of the annoyances of traveling across the globe. Anticipating the volume of air travellers to grow 50 percent over the next decade, airports across the world are likely to face even greater congestion, adding to time spent in queues for security, customs, and passport control. Therefore, Security needs are also trumpeted as one of the reasons behind tighter controls and oversight, contributing to a frequent traveller’s headache.

Intending to overcome the aforementioned challenges and expedite the security processes, one of the world’s leading consulting firms has developed a trusted, decentralized, and interoperable identity platform enabled through technologies such as blockchain, biometrics, mobile devices, and cryptography. This blockchain platform is designed to collect and host identifying information from frequent international travelers, which will also enable a freer flow of data between travellers and custom agents to smoothen the clearance process.

This not only helps travellers gain control over their digital identities with better security but it also helps airports and airlines to benefit from accelerated processing and better security, which will help shorten lines all while alleviating one of the biggest traveller pain points.

5 verticals to be impacted by the blockchain technology

The five verticals that blockchain will impact most are supply chain, finance, healthcare, retail, and government. However, the largest market share is anticipated to be contributed by the banking and financial services application area in the blockchain market. This is because the banking and financial services application area has realized the significance of blockchain technology which helps secure transactions for customers. The other reasons why blockchain technology in this sector is anticipated to experience rapid growth globally is mainly owing to numerous factors that include high compatibility with the financial services industry ecosystem, rising cryptocurrencies, and initial coin offerings, and rapid transactions. 

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