Blockchain: Understanding The Buzz

A technological point of view across industries.

Several emerging systems have captivated as much attention as blockchain. The technology behind the cryptocurrency of Bitcoin has rediscovered itself as a fresh disruptive pressure that is meant to “do for transactions what the web did for marketing communications”. Using our unique position at the crossroads of technology and business, we talked to your experts at DataArt to see what drives the hype in major industries and whether blockchain maintains its promises.

Finance

With major finance institutions such as JP Morgan Chase and global tech companies like Microsoft joining forces in the Ethereum Alliance, blockchain is coming old as a technology for financial services. It gets the potential to be always a game changer: the technology has left out its bitcoin roots and today stands, as a good tool for conference real business needs. Utilized properly blockchain is not ‘tech for tech’s sake’, but a remedy that may bring real gain for financial services and change complicated intermediate functions on the market, such as:

· Reputation and Identity.
· Remittances and Payments.
· Stock exchanges.
· Insurance and risk management.
· Audit and taxes functions.

Furthermore, as the blockchain ecosystem grows, new and exciting uses are getting to be developed. Probably one of the most interesting is the idea of “Preliminary Coin Offering.” This would allow companies a new route to funding than the traditional angel and IPO route. Instead of calling traders and/or floating on the stock market, technology companies can create their own crypto-currency, issued independently blockchain and sell ‘cash’ to improve capital. Once we see multiple industries, including financing, already rely on blockchain as well as others will capture up soon. Now a very important factor is for certain: blockchain is here now to stay.

Healthcare and Life Sciences

Nowadays blockchain moves beyond bitcoin and the financing industry. The health care sector seems to greatly take advantage of the use of blockchain technology. Large companies have previously started exploring the uses of technology and are positively working on health care blockchain systems, devices, and prototypes. For example, Microsoft and accenture have created a blockchain ID prototype, whereas Bowhead Health designed the World’s First Blockchain-Powered Medical Device and IBM Watson Health built a secure exchange for data. The team of the Health care and Life Sciences Practice at DataArt happens to be investigating the benefits of the new technology for future years projects and knows the problems to handle and solve.

The simplest & most obvious application of the technology in healthcare is the creation of the medical file, in which a continuous history will be kept in a card of every patient. Blockchain will make it possible to create not only a lifelong medical card for each person, but also allow any doctor or nurse mixed up in treatment to review information and enter new data. Furthermore, ensuring the security of patient information and enhancing the conversation between different organizational divisions are just a few possible use instances.

The blockchain technology, as a drivers for transformation, has sparked an extreme debate on its adoption and evolution in the healthcare industry. However, even if there can be found huge opportunities, the potential risks should still not be underestimated, as there are numerous constraints hampering the introduction of blockchain systems in healthcare. Personal privacy is one of the very most frequently talked about complexities of blockchain systems, as there are many questions about restricting data usage of only those models that require to have admission.

Critics argue that the storage space capacity of blockchain will never be able to deal with the huge level of clinical data and blockchain identification may be found out because of general public access.

Retail and Logistics

Blockchain has already been changing the digital scenery of retail and ecommerce industry to provide greater transparency, simplicity, and trust. Its software is seen in the three pursuing areas.

Supply string management. The retail ecosystem includes an enormous quantity of individuals: the suppliers, the merchants, the regulatory government bodies, and the consumers. Such a big amount of individuals requires trust, simplicity and transparency of the procedures, especially in source string management. Blockchain can help the suppliers meet this problem. What sort of data is documented and stored and the impossibility to improve it following the record has been made allows tracing the info throughout the complete supply chain instantly for all those blockchain community users.
Blockchain also allows product authenticity tracking and anti-counterfeiting. It could be used for tagging products, ownership and certification, intellectual property rights tracking, for caution if the merchandise has been taken and has been resold, and enables the dog owner to track the merchandise. Blockchain reduces the probability of fraud credited to data corruption, since it is immutable by its character.

Furthermore, blockchain-enabled, decentralized, direct record exchange between all source chain individuals facilitates faster delivery.

Warehouse management. A mixture of IoT devices and blockchain can offer all individuals with different data in near to real-time manner. For instance, with blockchain it’s easy to monitor the temperature and humidity of your wine cellar. When it deviates from the arranged value, the transmission immediately involves the blockchain and each person in the blockchain community can easily see it. With blockchain and linked sensors it is simple to monitor the temperature of the meals box in transit or the amount of jolting when shipping and delivery fragile products. This ensures reduced product harm or reduction, and thus leads to costs cost savings or assists with resolving disputes.

Loyalty management. Blockchain can help merchants improve their loyalty techniques. The technology ensures higher data storage ability due to details of how data is documented, stored, and guaranteed.

Digital currencies, like loyalty points, can be easily tracked instantly. It enables confirmation of loyalty factors and aids in preventing them from being exceeded to another person when prohibited. Real-time consumer data insights allow individually tailored offers and therefore greater customer satisfaction.
The other way to improve customer loyalty is by supplementing paperwork. Blockchain systems can be utilized for digital product guarantee management, digital receipt for in-store purchased products allowing easy and paperless come back and refund procedures.

Blockchain is still in the beginning of its journey.. We’ve uncovered a great variety of uses that the technology can be employed to, and a colossal potential to shift the long-standing business and income models in many exciting new ways. Nevertheless, it's important to comprehend that no technology is a common panacea for all those woes. It needs a careful evaluation in every individual case to determine a way to successful adoption. Much like many encouraging new systems, the right partnerships and proper implementation are fundamental.

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