- Potential for blockchain technology to bring about widespread change has been predicted since 2011 and the emergence of Bitcoin
- But it was this year when the concept really started to capture people’s attention
- Blockchain-focused financial services startups raised $240 million in venture funding during the first half of the year
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The potential for blockchain technology to bring about widespread change has been predicted since 2011 and the emergence of Bitcoin. But it was this year when the concept really started to capture people’s attention.
Perhaps spurred on by the meteoric rise in price of Bitcoin – the first tangible example of a blockchain technology – hype grew around encrypted, distributed ledgers in the financial sector.
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Blockchain-focused financial services startups raised $240 million in venture funding during the first half of the year. However, its potential was beginning to be recognized across other sectors and industries.
2018 is likely to see a continuation of this trend of innovation and disruption. Here are the five key ways this is likely to happen.
- More use outside of finance
While it’s implications for the financial sector might seem most apparent, any industry or organization in which recording and oversight of transactions is necessary could benefit. In healthcare, IDC Health Insights predicts that 20% of organizations will have moved beyond pilot projects and will have operationalized blockchain by 2020, so 2018 should see significant progress in that direction.
In recruitment and HR, blockchain CVs have been developed which will streamline the selection process by verifying candidates’ qualifications and relevant experience.
Legal work which involves tracking transfer of ownership – for example intellectual property law, or rea estate deeds – will also be made more efficient through implementation of distributed ledgers. Next year we should expect to see inroads by innovators in the legal field making this a reality.
Meanwhile in manufacturing and industry, the Blockchain Research Institute, the founders of which include IBM, Pepsi Co and FedEx, say it expects blockchain to become the “second generation†of the digital revolution following the development of the internet. It has highlighted work by electronics manufacturer Foxconn to use blockchain to track transactions in its supply chain.
- Blockchain meets the Internet of Things
Though this sounds like a clash of the buzzwords, serious thinking is going into how these technologies could be made to work together to improve business processes, and day-to-day life.
Security is one reason they are a good fit – blockchain’s encrypted and trustless nature makes it a viable option when it comes to keeping the ever-growing number of connected devices in our homes and offices safe. Research envisages that blockchain compute power that is used to “mine†Bitcoin could be put to use safeguarding our smart homes from a new generation of cyber-burglars looking to break in and steal our data.
Another proposed use is that the cryptocurrencies built on blockchains would prove ideal for automated micro-transactions made between machines. As well as recording machine activity on the ledger for record-keeping and analytical purposes, machines could effectively “pay†each other when smart machines operated by one organization interact and transact with those owned by others. This is likely to be further down the road, but it is likely we will see research and breakthroughs in this area in 2018.
READ MORE: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2017/11/22/5-essential-blockchain-predictions-that-will-define-2018/#17b415a37c93
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