Blockchain is the innovative technology that became famous by Bitcoin and other cryptographic coins, has become a watchword in the technology and business sectors. Many industry giants, from Microsoft to IBM, made huge investments in the blockchain, suggesting that it could become an integral part of business development. As a small business owner, you may be wondering how you can use blockchain technology.
In this article, I'll discuss five potential blockchain uses in your business. But first, let's quickly see what a chain of blocks is and why we consider using it.
What is a blockchain?
A blockchain is a digital list of records protected by advanced encryption. The data in a blockchain is divided into blocks called blocks. Each block in the chain includes a cryptographic hash on the previous block, which essentially means that each block is very well connected to the previous block.
Since each block refers to the block that precedes it, switching to a single block also requires changing each block after the target block to ensure that the blocks always refer correctly. This structure makes blockchains extremely difficult, if not impossible, to modify the blocks added once.
Its resistance to modification is the reason why blockchain are so useful. Blockchain are really good for use cases that require accurate time. Each data block includes a date and time record, which means that blockchain are inherently linear in the way they store the data. Therefore, Blockchains offers businesses an unchanging record of data over time.
Now that we know what a blockchain is and what its strengths are, we can talk about possible applications in the real world of your business.
- Paperwork and Recordkeeping:
The most obvious application for block chains in business is paperwork and record keeping. Contracts, correspondence, proposals, memos, receipts and other documents can be digitally stored in a chain of blocks, which gives companies a clear picture of what happened and when. The advantage of a blockchain in traditional servers, in this case, is to ensure that the data has not been modified by malicious agents.
Several large companies use blockchains for this purpose. One such company is IBM, which has partnered with industry leaders including UPS, FedEx and Maersk, all members of Blockchain in the Transportation Alliance. Shipping companies quickly realized that blockchain technologies were a natural solution for keeping cargo status records transparent and up-to-date. In particular, the blockchain must be an effective means of document management, which currently suffers from administrative errors and fraud.
- Transaction Histories:
Since the blockchain was first introduced as the basis of Bitcoin and other cryptographic currencies, it is not surprising that block chains are also useful for maintaining transaction history. In the case of Bitcoin, the blockchain acts as a public record of all transactions on the network. Everyone can access the book and clearly show each transaction as it goes.
Blockchain is distributed, meaning that it is not held by any trusted entity. Instead, it is maintained by a network of nodes that validate each of the blockchain independently. Once a block is added, each node updates its personal copy of the blockchain. Nodes communicate with each other to ensure consensus on the blockchain's accuracy. Concurrent transactions or event sequences are canceled if they conflict with the majority registry. This structure allows Bitcoin to achieve one of its founder's main objectives: to ensure a precise transaction history without relying on a trusted third party (such as a bank) to play the role of validator.
Implementing a chain of blocks in your small business to track transaction history may not require such a decentralized structure. Instead, a blockchain could serve as a detailed record of debts and credits, which again would benefit from the assurance that the data can no longer be falsified after they have been entered.
- Supply Chain Management and Quality Control:
Another innovative use of blockchain technology is supply chain management and quality control. Walmart, for example, has partnered with IBM to use blockchain as a method to manage supply chains to and from their stores. Walmart products make a lot of stops between the manufacturer and the stores, and these stops offer many potential points of failure. This refers particularly to food products, which may be contaminated by bacteria and other diseases. In collaboration with IBM, Walmart is developing a blockchain that would track all stages between the producer and the stores, allowing you to track any product to its source in just seconds.
Possible applications of this include reducing the risk of E. coli epidemic by drawing a product on the farm from which it comes. A preliminary test of this application showed that the system could follow every step to produce a bag of mango slices in about 2 seconds, a process that would have brought the company 6 days with the previous technology.
Small businesses could use block chains in the same way as a powerful quality control tool. If a product sold by your company does not meet quality standards, finding the point of failure can be as simple as entering the product serial number and investigating the intermediate steps of your production.
- Coordinating with Other Businesses:
The speed, accuracy and security of block chains make them very useful for companies in industries that require effective coordination with other companies. One such industry is air transport.
Airports and airlines rely heavily on simplified data exchange to keep flights on schedule and keep traffic flowing. Sometimes, however, there are gaps in coordination. According to Kevin O'Sullivan, senior engineer at SITA, an airline technology company, each company maintains its own flight database and often does not share relevant information with all parties involved. "Separate copies tend to be out of sync" and the results can be expensive.
Last year, British Airways, in partnership with London's Heathrow airport, Geneva and Miami international airports, participated in an experiment called FlightChain, during which the different parties joined their flight data into a shared blockchain. The result was a unique database that secured complete and unquestionably true information. A shared registry like this has the potential to significantly reduce confusion and ensure smooth coordination in the airline industry.
Companies in sectors that require similar coordination could also benefit from investing in a shared blockchain. Keeping all the parts on the same page can help a lot in preventing problems that negatively affect your customers. And in case of coordination failure, the blockchain can serve as an unchanging record to hold the appropriate parties accountable.
- Decentralized data storage:
Finally, the ability of block strings to be protected by a network of nodes, rather than a single server, makes them useful as a decentralized method of data storage. Decentralization has several advantages over traditional server-based data storage.
On the one hand, a decentralized network will not have downtime due to server failures. Each node saves a complete copy of all data. Therefore, if a single node loses power or experiences other technical failures, the data will still be accessible from other nodes in the network. In other words, there is not a single point of failure that could lead to a service outage.
Decentralized data storage is also useful for increased data security. Data stored on a single server can be manipulated because there are no alternative data records for comparison. On the other hand, each node of a decentralized network maintains an independent copy of the network data. In case of a conflict in data records between nodes, for example, if a malicious actor can edit the blockchain on a single node, the other nodes in the network can replace the damaged registry. Decentralization makes blockchains incredibly safe even harder to compromise.
EXTRA Below are some of the best-known ways to generate income with Blockchain
- Mining bitcoin:
The extraction of Bitcoin was relatively simple and the first miners managed to extract thousands of Bitcoins using their personal computer. However, in today's highly competitive and highly volatile market, miners buy expensive parts of computers that the consumer has little access to, which gives them greater processing power to exploit more complex algorithms. . Since this is a race that can solve the blockages more quickly, the miners join what we call mining groups, where they combine their processing capacity to solve each transaction first. The reward comes mainly from the expenses of several children, so they are shared by the members of the group.
- Help others, get tipped in bitcoin:
You can also get advice on bitcoins by helping other people. One of the most notable platforms in this regard is the bitfortip, a trick that encourages bitcoins to help people. Bitcoin is a new technology and there are people who are really passionate and enthusiastic about what will follow. Incentives like these help create a positive atmosphere in the community and also help people solve their problems.
- Gambling Bitcoins:
While this is not recommended for anyone, if you are self-aware enough, the Bitcoin gaming market can be a good source of income. Like any form of gambling, people usually lose and casinos keep earning, but as the bitcoin game is almost inaudible, you can get a great bonus for your membership or even several rounds of your environment. Sites like Bitstarz and mbit are the main players in the gaming industry.
Conclusion
These are just five potential uses of blockchain in business and ways to generate income. Because blockchain is still a very new technology (bitcoin and blockchain were first introduced in 2009), blockchain uses will continue to grow as more and more companies and developers start working with it. If one of these uses is suitable for your business depends on many factors that only you know. Those of you seeking to keep your business at the forefront of technology would do well to consider the blockchain.
so take a deep breath, grab my hand, and well take this ride together.....
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