Blockchain is a shared, immutable ledger, distributed over an endless amount of hosts. It records the history of transactions through the Internet or another alternative distributed network.
It allows all sort of transactional applications that establish trust, accountability, and transparency. From contracts to deeds and payments, a lot of possibilities become available. All this because it removes the need for a trusted third party to guarantee the transaction.
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Bitcoin it’s the most famous application of the Blockchain worldwide. In fact, the Blockchain was a derivative of the Bitcoin initiative; its creator didn’t even use the term Blockchain. The original idea was to create a peer-to-peer version of electronic cash.
Other Uses of Blockchain
Even so, there are plenty of projects using Blockchain out of the finance world. Such is the case of the supply chain management field. With startups like Hijro, Blockverify, Skuchain, and Provenance, that grant transparency, all transactions are documented in a permanent and decentralized way. Thus, Blockchain can reduce time delays and human mistakes. To understand the environmental impact of the creation of goods, or the cost of products, it tracks the accounting items of the supply chain. Furthermore, it can help you verify the authenticity or fair trade status of products by tracking them from their origin.
In the same way, all businesses have the potential to be transformed by the Blockchain. Forecast with Augur, Insurance with Aeternity, Private transport with La’zooz and Arcade City. These are only a few examples of the potential applications for the Blockchain.
Blockchain in the Actual IoT World
Samsung and IBM have their initiative called ADEPT (Autonomous Decentralized Peer To Peer Telemetry). It uses three protocols of the Blockchain:
- BitTorrent(file sharing)
- Ethereum (smart contracts)
- TeleHash (Peer-to-Peer Messaging)
These are used to create a decentralized way to manage the communication amongst IoT devices. But it also allows them to communicate directly, manage bugs, update software, and monitor energy usage.
Filament is another Blockchain startup in the IoT world. It offers the service of deploying long-range wireless networks anywhere. It acts by combating one of the biggest issues of IoT, security. Filament offers a wide range of potential applications for their products. Smart vending, for smart vending machines. Asset tracking, using GPS. Health and Safety, by placing lightweight devices on safety vests or hard hats, to track the people or the surroundings.
Visa is partnering with IBM to make the IoT commerce friendly. They connected the Visa token technology and the Watson IoT platform. This project aims to provide access to 20 billion devices utilizing the Blockchain to allow the products to be commerce ready. One example can be a smart washing machine that runs out of detergent. It can use the Blockchain smart contracts to buy more, and the Visa token pays for it.
Most of the papers, articles, and posts that can be found over the web mention the Blockchain technology as something as big as the Internet.
There are hundreds of startups and companies creating initiatives to use the Blockchain technologies. Most of them with no more than five years of history. Every day are emerging new ideas, concepts, and applications of those. It’s a significant opportunity for entrepreneurs and investors to create new profitable companies. But also, for business owners to upgrade and become more efficient, secure and profitable producers.
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