Blockchain technology has garnered wide popularity over the last few years owing to its several advantages such as higher transparency, instant traceability, and robust security, to name a few. Finance to healthcare - not only has it transferred diverse sectors but the way we do businesses significantly.
As stated in a recent market report, the global blockchain market is set to reach $163 billion by 2027 creating unlimited growth scope for the business players from various sectors. But what does blockchain do, or how is it changing the business sectors - you need to have a clear idea of all these, to utilize the blockchain technology, especially if you are running a business or planning for one. In this blog, we will walk you through all you need to know about what blockchain does, and how it is transforming global businesses in multiple ways.
What Does Blockchain Do?
Blockchain is defined as an immutable, shared, or distributed record-keeping technology for easy and secure data storage and access. What makes blockchain technology unique is the robust security that makes it impossible to alter, forge, or breach the data or hack the system where data is stored.
Be it sensitive financial information or confidential medical data, blockchain technology provides optimum security for storage, access, or retrieval. A blockchain is a digital ledger of transactions that is distributed across the computer systems network. Simply put, a blockchain implies a chain of blocks that store information. For instance, a Bitcoin blockchain implies that the blocks store information related to the senders, receivers, and related Bitcoins transactions securely.
There are different types of blockchain networks such as private blockchain networks, public blockchain networks, permission blockchain networks, and consortium blockchains, to name a few. However, all these types of blockchain work on the same blockchain technology.
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What Does Blockchain Do to Transform Businesses
Now comes the most asked question - what does blockchain do to transform businesses? Well, blockchain technology is widely adopted in various business sectors, and it plays a significant role in each of them. Let’s see how.
Marketing & Advertising
The marketing and advertising sector has been transformed with the introduction of blockchain technology in it for a while now. And it tends to become more prominent with each passing year. Research says that 45% of the U.S. companies have experienced the incidents of data breaches and marketing & advertising companies form a significant part of such companies. And not only that, digital marketing and advertising agencies tend to have a loss worth $68 billion globally by 2022, which is a sharp rise from $59 billion in 2021.
No wonder that the companies are getting more aware of it and are opting for blockchain technologies at an increasing rate. As discussed before, blockchain technology assures high security for confidential data. As digital marketing & advertising agencies need to deal with a lot of data and information as well as have higher chances to be vulnerable over the internet, blockchain technology helps in protecting from any type of data threats.
Also, it minimizes the risks of click fraud helping digital marketers and advertisers reach the authentic target audience. Click fraud is when a computer program, bot, generated script, or human repeatedly clicks on a pay per click (PPC) ad to generate charges in fraudulent ways.
Management & Operations
The role of blockchain technology in management and operations has become prominent in recent years. You must be wondering, what does blockchain do to transform the businesses in this sector? Well, we will see it now.
Blockchain in management plays an important role by storing all the management related information, transactions, and sensitive data securely. This in turn improves the overall management process, helps in safeguarding the crucial data in the management system and helps streamline the operational activities. Not only the new businesses but also the established and leading ones are strengthening their management and operational activities by adopting blockchain technology.
To give you a glimpse, Eastman Kodak, a global technology company has opted for blockchain technology to come up with KODAKOne management platform to create a highly secure digital ledger of rights ownership equipped with blockchain technology. Founded more than 120 years ago, this legacy company is transforming its management system with blockchain technology.
And not only this, a lot of legacies as well as new companies have already adopted blockchain technology such as Microsoft. IBM, Walmart, FedEx, Huawei Technologies, and the list goes on. No doubt that blockchain technology is taking the management and operational processes to a whole new level and the companies are adopting this technology to improve the related activities.
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Human Resources
What does blockchain do in human resources? It helps in the whole HR process and activities at certain levels. Be it storing and accessing candidate information, or processing payrolls - blockchain technology protects all the confidential information and ensures the data stored in blocks are unaltered and not compromised.
Also, it simplifies the hiring and onboarding process simpler and makes them more efficient by letting the HR department verify the candidate's work experience, expertise, and other related information. The cases of false candidate work experience, as well as data breaches, are quite common in this sector, especially if there is the involvement of the third party in the hiring process. But adopting blockchain technology reduces such risks, while improving and streamlining the overall process flow related to HR.
Accounting & Finance
The application of blockchain technology in banking, accounting, and finance is well-known. Financial and accounting businesses and institutions are leveraging this technology to improve their record-keeping and other data storage processes. But what blockchain does in this sector is even more than that.
Not only it safeguards various transactions, related data, and minimizes the risks of online frauds associated with these activities, but also provides a much faster and more effective solution for online transactions. Banking sector as well as businesses focused on accounting and finance have adopted this technology to streamline banking and lending services, reduce issuance & settlement times, and minimize counterparty risk to name a few.
From a security point of view, it helps implement real-time verifications of various types of financial documents, authenticate crucial accounting documents through KYC/AML data, and hence reduces overall operational risks significantly. This explains well why the businesses in this sector are getting inclined to blockchain technology. If you are from this sector, then you must adopt this blockchain technology to leverage its potential and improve your security measures.
Information Technology and Cybersecurity
The information & cybersecurity sector is one of the main sectors, where businesses are opting for blockchain technology prominently. Not only has the adoption rate grown noticeably over the past few years but is set to grow even further in the near future. No wonder the managing director of Deloitte U.S., David Schatsky stated that blockchain technology has high potential to improve the efficiency of the global cybersecurity market that is worth over $130 billion.
In this digital era cybersecurity and blockchain technology come hand-in-hand. The cybersecurity sector needs to deal with the safety and security of various confidential data. And blockchain technology gives an optimum solution to implement high security in various use cases.
Blockchain technology ensures secure recording of digital transactions while providing maximum transparency and resistance to any possible outages. This in turn makes the cybersecurity processes more efficient and lets the information technology sector establish impenetrable security.
Medical & Healthcare
Medical and healthcare sector is another prominent sector where blockchain technology is changing the way security and safety takes place. Patients’ medical history, health vitals, diagnosis, personal details, and other related information and data require high security. At the same time such sensitive data must not be altered, modified, or hacked at any cost as that may lead to fatal consequences.
Also, the data breach incidents in the healthcare sector increased drastically. Statistics say that the healthcare data breaching incidents increased by 19% in 2021, while the mid-sized hospitals claimed a loss of $45,700 per hour on an average due to cyber attacks as of 2021. And not only this, more than 50% of the hospitals that use normal internet are vulnerable to cyber threats.
Blockchain technology comes to the rescue here. It provides a compact safety and security solution to ensure that all such data are stored securely and cannot be altered, hacked, breached, or compromised. This in turn ensures better effectiveness as well as streamlined and efficient workflow related to the data and information. Some of the top healthcare companies that have adopted blockchain technology are MedicalChain, Avaneer, RoboMed, Chronicled, BurstIQ, Factom, Akiri, and many more. The leading hospital chains and healthcare institutes have already adopted this technology and the day is not far when it will replace the traditional system completely.
See More: 10 Evolving And Emerging Applications of Blockchain Technology
Wrapping Up
Blockchain technology has been getting the spotlight for a while now, and the way it’s changing the businesses in multiple sectors shows its potential on many levels. Not only does it improve safety, security, and data protection manyfold, but improves the related operations, and functional activities. As discussed above, blockchain technology is apt for diverse businesses from diverse sectors. And if you are operating in any among these, then you must utilize it for your business security and related activities.
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