Blockchain is steadily growing past the tech industry and making its way into other sectors
Delving into the tech world isn’t just about keeping up with the latest developments, but to closely understand how they will shape up the world in the coming years and take necessary actions to make this process feasible.
This can only happen if you learn about these technological developments well before they flourish. One such development that’s been creating a lot of buzz for the past few years is blockchain.
Many business leaders, tech scientists, and researchers believe that blockchain holds the key to the future of the technology-rooted industries. And the way it’s growing, their claims seem to make complete sense.
Initially, it was thought to be useful just for the IT world, but a score of recent announcements and developments show that blockchain is steadily growing past the tech industry and making its way into other sectors. Here are some examples that prove this point and give us a glimpse of what the blockchain-led future looks like.
Also read: Beyond consumer targeting, here are 3 ways blockchain fosters customer engagement and loyalty
Blockchain In Healthcare
According to research carried out by Ponemon Institute and IBM, the average cost of data breach incident that occurred in a major organization in the year 2017 was $3.62 million. This number was much higher in the healthcare industry. In a nutshell, the cost of every compromised patient record in the health sector was $380, about 2.5 times the global average of data breach incidents that took place in other industries.
Going by these numbers, one thing is pretty clear — data breach is a major problem for the healthcare industry. However, there is more to it. Another problem that the healthcare sector is facing at this moment is privacy. The personal healthcare records of patients along with their birthdate, payments, social security numbers, etc., are some of the highly protected information in the world. Millions of lives can be at risk if these details are compromised.
As of now, there is no centralised system or technology that can fix both these problems at once and save billions of dollars that healthcare companies end up spending on finding and fixing the error. With the inclusion of blockchain, this scenario will completely change. It can not only make patient records unalterable, but also reduce pharmaceutical theft, bring down the number of insurance frauds, and improve data exchange in clinical trials for better results.
Many startups have come forward to be a part of this growing revolution. The recent partnership between EXOCHAIN and Jireh Group is a great example to understand the sincerity with which the healthcare industry has started thinking about implementing blockchain. With the passage of time, we are likely to see more such names joining the league.
Blockchain In Entertainment
There was a time when the entertainment industry used to revolve around large movie production houses and studios. This is not the case anymore.
With the launch of Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other digital entertainment platforms, you can carry thousands of movies and TV shows right in your pocket and watch them whenever you like. No need to be dependent on movie studios and TV channels for your entertainment need anymore.
The emerging technologies like augmented reality and virtual reality coupled with blockchain could take the existing digital content browsing and gaming services to the next level. It’s like you not only play your favorite game, you can be in it and have a real time experience of all the adventures, kills and passes. Apple demonstrated this fantastic service last year during their 10th anniversary launch event. This technology will only get better from here.
Blockchain in digital entertainment and iGaming will change the way how we have always thought about them. However, that time is still far from the reality. A lot has to be done before we can witness blockchain revolutionizing the entertainment industry. One major challenge that companies have to overcome as soon as possible is user acquisition.
Also read: 3 startups that can turn blockchain tech into an everyday tool for Asian users
The Southeast Asian startups and Silicon Valley tech ventures are constantly making efforts to improve this situation so that things can change sooner than expected. Clovr, a blockchain project in the field of iGaming, coming out of stealth mode and founded by a team of former executives and developers from King.com, Uber, and Y Combinator, considers user acquisition as the single biggest reason blockchains and cryptocurrencies could fail. According to its co-founder, Mike Cribari, “We realizsd that many blockchain protocols and cryptocurrencies might soon face extinction unless the application layer is further developed.” The company is building a cryptocurrency for iGaming players. The plan is to initially integrate 3.4 million players from an existing licensed online iGaming platform and incentivize users to adopt and use their tokens.
The pace at which the blockchain powered digital entertainment industry is growing is commendable. The VR market that was valued roughly at $2.6 billion in 2015 has gone past $20 billion in a short span of time and is likely to reach $66.68 billion by the year 2022 at a CAGR of 58.3%. The tide is all set to turn towards mass adoption of AR/VR technology, which will transform how people play video games, view digital content and receive adverts.
The inclusion of blockchain in the digital entertainment industry is not only going to improve the user experience but also bring down the overall cost borne by the end users, which at present, is very high due to the presence of a number of intermediaries between the content producers and end users.
Blockchain In Other Sectors
Along with the healthcare and entertainment industry, there are many other sectors that will benefit from the inclusion of blockchain. The first on this list is finance. We have already seen how disruptive can cryptocurrencies be in the long run. Despite receiving a mixed response from many countries, bitcoin is currently trading well over US$6,000. This is just the beginning; soon we will see cryptocurrencies being accepted universally as an alternative to the traditional banking services.
Some other industries that are going to witness a huge reform due to blockchain include education, agriculture, insurance, supply chain management, transportation, etc. The revolution has already begun and soon will start improving the everyday life of end users.
Do you have any question regarding the adoption of blockchain by different industries and its long-lasting effects? If yes, please share them with me in the comments section below.
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