The decentralized network’s capability to solve problems across a wide range of industries is undisputable. Yet we are in the beginning of the beginning of blockchain. And if that’s the case, then the $10 billion in revenue that has been predicted of blockchain companies by ABI Research in the next few years is very possible.
According to Nick Szabo, distributed ledger technologies are decentralized and trustless. Innovations in social scalability include technological and institutional improvements. The improvements move functions from mind to paper or to machines and lower the costs while increasing the value of the flow of information.
Statistics from Data Corp estimates that the compound annual growth rate for the next 5 years will reach 76%.
Value Transfer
Like the bitcoin network, blockchain can itself be a secure medium of value transfer. And nodes can agree on the public ledger status. Altcoins on the other hand appeal to smaller niches. For instance Free Coin, a small crypto project encourages unbanked people to switch from fiat to digital currencies. Their technology allows peer to peer payments featuring low fees.
A much more sophisticated project is Global Digital Assets that focuses on merchant banking services. The blockchain venture seeks to raise funds and gain liquidity through public markets and venture capital. GDA also assists firms in structuring their security token offerings (STO) and utility.
Securing Data
Outside the use case in cryptocurrencies, the decentralized ledger also has uses in securing voting and supply chain tracking. The World Economic Forum estimates a 5% increase in global GDP and a 15% upsurge in trade volume.
The technology is great at preserving and tracking data. Combine that with physical hardware like RFID tags and you have improved sipping, logistics and warehousing operations.
In a time that there are rising concerns in voting interference, e-voting, powered by blockchain is proving to be more private and secure. The ZCoin has been applied in late 2018 large scale political election in Thailand.
Some blockchain networks also make it easier to comply with regulatory frameworks. For instance the Know Your Customer and Anti Money Laundering protocols which extend beyond digital currencies. Blockchain have the capability to make the AML and KYC identification more efficient while also preserving user privacy.
Data Protection
The decentralized ledger system also has an excellent data protection capability. Such is the project Veridoc which targets at disrupting document management. Its applications include the verification of passports, education certificates and land titles. Its recent partnership with DocuSign brings the innovation to small businesses.
Projects like Contentos seek to transform how videos are shared and monetized. The projects also applies the peer to peer model for revenue distribution and a decentralized approach for traffic distribution. The firm also authenticates copyrights and records user credit scores securely.
DLT is finding use in both social media and retail. The implementation of the technology includes frictionless transactions, tamper-proof record keeping while at the same time enabling data privacy. No wonder 41% of executives are expecting their organizations to implement the technology within a year or so.