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Blockchain technology has the potential to fundamentally revolutionize the way we do business and transfer value. With its unique ability to safely record and transfer data and assets without involving a central authority, blockchain is revolutionizing a wide range of industries from finance and healthcare to real estate and supply chain management.

However, as the underlying technological driver for digital currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others, blockchain has garnered somewhat of a mixed reputation in our current cultural zeitgeist. With the surge of players rushing in to stake their claim on a cryptocurrency market that was growing exponentially, an inevitable spate of high-value disasters followed. Exchanges were hacked, customers were defrauded, and a lot of people lost a lot of money.

This is unfortunate because regardless of the consensus about cryptocurrency, it only represents a small fraction of the seismic potential of blockchain technology. In this article, we will attempt to shed light on the far-reaching uses of blockchain and explore the incredible changes it is bringing about in a range of different business sectors.

How Blockchain is shaping the future of business worldwide

Food Industry

The food industry has been using blockchain to improve the sustainability, safety, and transparency of the global food supply.

Consider the IBM Food Trust for example, which is a blockchain-based platform for tracing and tracking food products throughout the supply chain. The platform enables transparent and secure information sharing about the movement, origin, and condition of tracked food products, helping improve overall food safety and reducing the risk of foodborne infections. (Source: IBM)

Some additional use cases for blockchain in the food industry are:

1. Supply chain management: Blockchain can be utilized to streamline the efficiency and transparency of the food supply chain, allowing better coordination among all of the stakeholders – suppliers, manufacturers, and retailers. 
2. Developing new products: Blockchain can be used to securely store and manage data and intellectual property related to the development of new food products, enabling collaboration among researchers and other stakeholders.
3. Reduction of food waste: Blockchain can be used to track the movement of expired and surplus food, allowing these products to be redistributed efficiently to those in need.
4. Food safety certification: In an industry where compliance to regulatory standards is imperative, Blockchain can be used to store and manage food safety certifications and auxiliary regulatory information, thus increasing the confidence a customer feels about their food being safe to consume.

ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) Initiatives

While there may be a lot of press given to how Bitcoin (and by association, blockchain) is increasing carbon emissions, there is far less talk about the potential of blockchain to be an important force in bringing about a net-zero carbon emission economy.

Blockchain is an inherently powerful solution for one of the most important considerations for ESG compliance – the issue of proof and accurate reporting. A lot of organizations simply misreport their metrics, making it difficult for consumers to trust that they are behaving ethically.

With blockchain, there can be an undeniable certification and automation of various data points that are important for tracking ESG.

Here are some of the ways in which Blockchain technology can bring about powerful ESG changes.

1. Ethical and sustainable product sourcing: With the use of blockchain, a completely transparent and auditable trail of the movement and origin of materials throughout the supply chain can be maintained, thus ensuring that they are being sourced from ethical and compliant sources.
2. Decentralized carbon markets: With decentralized, voluntary carbon markets (VCMs) and peer-to-peer trading made possible by blockchain, individuals, and organizations can buy and sell carbon offsets to reduce their carbon footprint and support sustainability projects all over the globe.
3. Streamlining the supply chain: With a transparent and verifiable record of how goods move through the supply chain, blockchain can help spot inefficiencies and eliminate wastage.
4. Empowering the renewable energy movement: Blockchain-based smart grids can be used to solve a lot of the problems with conventional power grids, leading to more integration of green and renewable energy technologies into our cities, neighborhoods, and homes. (Source: Internet of Things Journal) 

Government

While blockchain’s usage in governmental operations is still in the nascent stage, there have already been a few interesting real-world applications of the technology by governments around the world.

One of the most high-profile uses of blockchain in the U.S. Government was by the state of West Virginia. In the 2022 election, West Virginia became the first state to implement a blockchain-based online voting system in the interest of fairness and transparency. Other, smaller elections in the U.S. such as town meetings, political party conventions, and student government polls have also been run on Blockchain recently. (Source: Govtech)

Other ways in which governments are exploring Blockchain technology are

1. Making public procurement more transparent and efficient: Governments have been using blockchain to build fully transparent records of public procurement processes, enabling stakeholders to track and verify how government contracts are awarded.

2. Building decentralized public services: Governments are exploring the use of blockchain to enable the creation of decentralized public services, which will allow them to service citizens directly without any need for intermediaries.

3. Transparent government operations: Governments have been testing blockchain to create publicly auditable records of their operations, allowing citizens, groups, and organizations to ensure that their public officials hold true to their promises.

Healthcare

Blockchain has been steadily changing the medical industry for years, empowering healthcare providers and patients alike. For some reference, studies show that by 2025, healthcare companies worldwide will save a whopping $100 billion dollars yearly due to their adoption of blockchain. (Source: BisResearch)

Here are some of the most important healthcare applications of blockchain

1. Better patient data management: With blockchain encryption in place, patients can feel much more comfortable disclosing sensitive information to a healthcare provider knowing that it is very unlikely to be tampered with. With the development of healthcare APIs powered by blockchain, patients will have full control over who gets access to their medical data other than their doctor. For doctors, secure access to patient data will enable better diagnosis and treatment.

2. Managing the drug supply chain: The National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) has estimated that somewhere close to 10% of all drugs in the global supply chain are counterfeit. (Source: NCPC) This counterfeit market, estimated to be close to $200 billion in value, represents a threat to patient health and safety. With blockchain’s immutable transactions and complete traceability, fraudulent drug transactions are much easier to identify and deal with.

3. Better research and clinical trials: Researchers obtain a lot of test results, quality reports, and important statistics while working on clinical trials for new medication. Blockchain ensures that all this data is secure and safe from unauthorized access. Blockchain-based smart contracts and timestamps can be used to create structured protocols that are adhered to by both the trial participants and the research team. 

Wisely

Heading into 2023 and beyond, cybersecurity has become one of the most prevalent concerns for businesses of all shapes and sizes. When customers experience even the faintest possibility of foul play, they are much less likely to make purchasing decisions.

Wisely was developed to solve this very conundrum. With the rise of Web 3.0, blockchain, and AI, we were finally able to realize our vision to build a holistic platform for secure digital experiences. Built in collaboration with Microsoft, Wisely delivers edge-to-edge trusted digital experiences with three distinct and complementary solutions.

1. Wisely Network: Powered by a slew of cutting-edge technologies including blockchain, cryptography, AI, and ML, the Wisely Network is an enterprise-grade platform that seamlessly integrates into a business’ existing application stack. The platform is incredibly scalable and fully capable of secure omnichannel communication using channels such as SMS, RCS, voice, email, WhatsApp, Facebook, etc. through a single API. Since its inception, the platform has improved conversions by 20% and slashed customer complaints by 30% for our enterprise clients.

2. Wisely Platform: The blockchain-powered Wisely Platform provides an environment that businesses can use to find and collaborate with the global supplier network. Both suppliers and enterprises are verified on the network, and blockchain’s transparent communication capabilities make it possible to generate zero dispute settlement reports for all parties involved.

3. Wisely Insights: The Wisely Insights feature was developed to address the trust deficit that looms over the messaging landscape, negatively affecting telcos, consumers, and everyone in between. With Wisely Insights, the entire journey of a message can be easily traced to ensure that no fraudulent activity takes place along the way.

Trubloq

Trubloq is another exciting blockchain-powered use case that has significantly impacted the communications sector. We feel strongly about combating spam, fraud, and any kind of Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC) and Trubloq was built from the ground up to curb UCC in a ruthless fashion.

Trubloq uses blockchain, machine learning, and AI to identify suspicious behavior, eliminate unregistered entities and maintain the privacy and accountability of transactions. Customers benefit from Trubloq by ensuring that their data consent preferences are respected and that they do not get swamped with irrelevant calls and messages.

Till date, it is the single-largest deployment of blockchain-powered use case processing. In 2021 alone, it processed upwards of 350 billion transactions. In fact, we hit a single-day milestone of 1.1 billion messages scrubbed by Trubloq in 2021. Trubloq developed to comply with TRAI regulations, is now an integral part of the Indian regulatory system and processes close to 70% of the entirety of India’s A2P SMS traffic.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the potential of blockchain technology is vast and reaches across the commercial and social landscape. From ensuring elections are transparent to making sure food is sourced in the right way, it is an incredibly versatile technology. Blockchain-powered decentralized energy systems stand to change the way our cities (and by association, our very lives) work.

As the technology evolves and it gains more widespread adoption, we will start seeing more innovative uses for blockchain emerge, driving ethical businesses and improving the lives of individuals and organizations worldwide.

Don’t be swayed by the crypto naysayers. Blockchain is here to stay.

To learn more about the incredible potential of blockchain in action, take a look at Wisely and Trubloq.