Use cases of blockchain technology

The application of Blockchain is not limited to cryptocurrencies. There are many other implementations of it, such as:

• Banking and Finance — although this was the first sector to benefit from the advantages brought by the blockchain, it is somehow also the most endangered. Currently, the cryptocurrency market is constantly growing, and centralised banking systems are in a position to adopt the new technology, or to be taken over by it.

• Currency — it’s not only about some cryptocurrencies, or some countries that are acting cool and adopting their “official” cryptocurrency. One day one currency may emerge as the only currency. And we do not even know if “currency” will be a proper name for that representation of value, or “that currency” may be the value itself.

• Healthcare — healthcare and data privacy are becoming more and more correlated. Worldwide systems are relying on electronic systems to store data, which are vulnerable to attacks, or to data loss. A decentralised approach may even have implications in the integrity of priority lists for vaccinations, access to medication, and so on.

• Data privacy — probably one of the hottest topics of the moment that is changing because of the blockchain, and this is only the beginning. There will be the increasing need to securely store data when healthcare services and processing DNA become widespread.

• Records of Property Ownership and Transfer — public notary, lost or burned papers, or forged documents must become history soon, and blockchain has the capability to change all of these.
  Smart Contracts — when it comes to contracts we can even think further, about laws, constitutions of sovereign states, public declarations or international agreements.

• Supply Chains — humans are moving objects daily from one place to another, from country to country and keeping track of all of these may be challenging and vulnerable to many types of fraud.
  Voting — although voting is the basis of democracy, there are still no bulletproof electronic systems that may prevent fraudulent voting. This is a very complex topic and probably deserves a dedicated article on its own. Fortunately, I can recommend two very well made videos discussing this: Why electronic voting is a bad idea and why electronic voting is still a bad idea.