3 Industries that Blockchain Will Undoubtedly Disrupt

The most popular online business periodicals have been populated with articles that detail the many ways in which blockchain is expected to change the world. While many people still think of blockchain as synonymous with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, its expansion as a technology has expanded beyond the exchange of funds.

 

According to some business professionals, no industry will be left untouched by this modern technology, and evidence supporting this assertion continues to manifest itself across many different sectors. Following are three industries that blockchain is sure to change in the near future.

 

1. Banking and payments

 

Leaders from some of the world’s most powerful banking institutions are moving quickly to leverage the power of blockchain to their advantage, with one recent survey from Accenture, a business management consulting company, indicating that 90 percent of the banking executives surveyed confirmed that their firms are investigating the potential use of blockchain in business. Further, research performed by IBM indicates that around 15 percent of the world’s banks are expected to implement blockchain by the end of 2017, and the reasons are clear: the technology has wide-reaching potential for reducing costs, streamlining operations, and offering better products to customers. Blockchain could help to reduce the incidence of fraud due to its resilience against cyberattacks and the ease of compliance with current regulations, as well as lower costs, while providing better security when it comes to facilitating payments for clients.

 

2. Private transport and ridesharing

 

The ridesharing industry has seen a lot of change in the last several years, with companies such as Uber and Lyft revolutionizing the way that people around the world arrange private transportation. Blockchain may yet further change the industry in the near future, as it could pave the way for peer-to-peer ridesharing and private transport services that eliminate the need for management by a corporate third party. Currently, drivers and passengers alike rely on a centralized platform controlled by companies such as Uber, which has set the standard for the ridesharing industry and its cost for both parties. The company ultimately profits from the transaction by recouping a fee for facilitating services. Blockchain could allow individual car owners to arrange for the provision of ride services directly with passengers after both have digitally verified their identity. Then it could be paid for using cryptocurrency exchanged via e-wallets owned by both the driver and the passenger and protected through smart contracts that outline the terms of the ride. This use of blockchain could put power directly in the hands of users via peer-to-peer networks.

 

3. Online music

 

As with the ridesharing industry, the peer-to-peer capabilities enabled by blockchain hold enormous potential for the online music world. In current practice, the artists who actually create the music that is then distributed through various mediums end up seeing very little of the profits. This is particularly true in an age when file sharing between listeners and streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music have overtaken traditional music-buying habits. Consumers are no longer purchasing music. Even when they are, it often takes years for payment to reach musicians, leaving most of them unable to make a living off of their craft. However, because blockchain acts as a decentralized distributed ledger, it holds significant potential for artists’ ability to share their music in several ways. First, blockchain technology could establish a database that accurately records the digital rights of individual songs, which is a problem that the industry struggles with. Second, by uploading music to the blockchain, the copyright information could be unalterably encoded into a song’s file, with smart contracts detailing the percentage of royalty fees paid out to each contributor each time a song is played. Artists could then be compensated fairly and immediately for their work, without the need for management through and payment for a third party.

3 Solutions That Blockchain Can Provide to the Telecom Industry

Over the last two decades, the telecommunications industry has grown significantly, driven by the adoption of new technologies. According to one Colorado-based research firm, the sector, which is expected to generate $2.4 trillion in revenue by 2019, currently services a market of around 4.7 billion mobile users.

However, some industry experts suggest that companies within this sector may find that the telecom industry is reaching a tipping point in the near future, with many firms losing ground to competitors who offer simpler, streamlined services that overtake more traditional telecommunications options. In order to avoid becoming a victim of digital transformation, experts suggest that one thing telecommunications executives should be doing is looking for ways to modernize their operations, such as through the implementation of blockchain technology.

Blockchain is a secure digital ledger technology that allows for the distribution of information without replication. It can carry out transactions quickly and efficiently while protecting the sensitive information contained therein, allowing individuals and organizations to interact anonymously through a system that relies on collective transparency in order to keep business dealings honest. With regard to the telecommunications sector, blockchain technology can offer three solutions that will help modernize the industry and allow companies to develop in the digital age rather than fall victim to it.

1. Simplify and streamline internal processes

The telecommunications industry hinges on cooperation between a complex web of customers, vendors, distributors, and providers. The use of blockchain technology could allow firms to develop a more efficient business model by streamlining Operation Support System (OSS) and Business Support System (BSS) operations. In the digital age, efficiency is crucial, and blockchain is a tool that can facilitate quick dealings between a large number of parties within a single transaction, which includes accurate and efficient billing. Blockchain could also create faster on-boarding processes for new customers when a client’s new telecommunications provider operates within the same blockchain as the previous provider.

2. Reduce the incidence of roaming fraud

Each year the telecommunications industry loses revenue to fraud, approximately $6 billion of which stems from roaming fraud, which occurs when a mobile user automatically connects to the services of another network provider in the event that his home network is unavailable. The use of a telecommunications service while roaming incurs a greater expense for customers and is a major source of revenue for telecommunications companies. However, call data often does not appear on the user’s home network for days or weeks, providing a window of opportunity for fraudsters to attack. Many subscribers who commit roaming fraud have used a visiting network and then feigned ignorance about using roaming services. They deny requesting roaming services or insist that they were not educated on the charges that roaming services can incur. Industry experts suggest that the best way to curtail the incidence of roaming fraud is to reduce the time that it takes for the two networks to exchange data, and blockchain is the perfect tool to make this happen. Blockchain can serve as a platform for systems that provide subscribers with a pathway to use roaming services after authenticating their identity, and can track the data usage in real time so that the window of opportunity that allows people to make fraud claims is greatly reduced.

3. Help telecom companies reduce costs

Apart from the money saved from streamlining operations, blockchain can help telecom companies cut costs in many ways, which includes using smart transactions to allow customers to purchase digital products, including music, gift cards, and mobile games. Blockchain can facilitate the purchase of these types of products through cryptocurrency, which incurs a much lower cost to companies than transactions undertaken with credit or debit cards.