After weeks of stagnation, Bitcoin (BTC) finally crossed the $ 60,000 mark and hit a new price record in mid-April 2021. The cryptocurrency recorded its highest market value to date, worth $1.19 trillion.
The news boosted the price of Ether (ETH), which also reached a new historic high. In 2021, Bitcoin has already accumulated a 117% appreciation, driven by the growing institutional demand and inviting more people to buy bitcoin.
Tesla and MicroStrategy, for example, made billion-dollar purchases of crypto throughout 2021. Right now, digital currency is scarce while there is a lot of demand.
However, all this success raises an important question – behind all the hype, what is the real value of blockchain technology?
Blockchain’s Real Value – Transforming the Concept of Sharing Economy
Companies like Uber or Airbnb are identified as part of a sharing economy, but they are a success precisely because they share nothing. Actually, these companies are service aggregators. But what if Uber or Airbnb were an application distributed on a blockchain?
Airbnb could be called B-Airbnb, or Blockchain-Airbnb, for example. Then, you would find a place to spend a few days, using only a Blockchain-based database, without intermediaries.
You could automatically create a Smart Contract with the landlord, appear on-site, open the door, and a partial payment would automatically be recorded in the contract. Then, at the exit, you would simply close the door and the full payment would be sent and recorded.
When you reunite blockchain technology and sharing economy, there is no need for a company like Airbnb to act as an intermediary, as everything could be done by the interested parties themselves.
Next Level Solutions for Supply Chain
Nowadays, the supply chain represents a $64 trillion market around the world. However, there are still many problems that plague the sector, especially in terms of logistics and processing speed.
In this sense, blockchain technology could revolutionize the supply chain, reallocating and organizing all the data to expedite services and upgrade the trading experience as a whole. Solutions like CargoX aim to solve this issue, making it a good investment opportunity because its cryptocurrency price could rise in the following years.
Essentially, the supply chain is not more than different people doing transactions and trusting each other. This way, if they could have a shared network with each other’s transactions, companies that do not have money to pay suppliers would pay by their own network of suppliers.
Simpler and Smoother FinTech Mechanisms
Despite the numerous upgrades in the last decade, the fintech sector is still too complex to deal with.
For instance, let us say that someone uses a credit card to pay for a product in a certain store. Then, a set of messages is sent to several different companies, each with its own computer system, and days later the message comes back with the account being settled.
Blockchain could easily solve this type of problem, eliminating all the time and bureaucracy required in the settlement of simple transactions.
In such a case, the solution could be eliminating the necessity for parties/entities to assess the risk of each transaction with the use of blockchain technology and smart contracts, without any cost for each action and delay in the process.
Ensuring Public Matters Actually Matter
Blockchain can change the people’s viewpoint on democracy, ensuring that government entities are less corrupt and less expensive.
Blockchain technology allows governments can become digital platforms. Dubai wants to be the first government to run entirely on Blockchain, and the Estonian government has transferred the identity of several citizens to a blockchain network.
Nowadays, several companies believe in the blockchain revolution to provide better services to society, such as CarbonX.
CarbonX’s idea is simple – if a company can benefit financially by reducing its emission of gases into the environment, so can an individual. Using a company exclusive token, CarbonX collects carbon credits, which users can eventually exchange or sell as if they were a digital currency.
Another problem that could be easily solved through blockchain technology is the voting subject and the electoral system as a whole.
That way, any vote could be taken online if based on Blockchain, as only this technology can guarantee the security of a vote since registration is immutable. This would end major voting problems around the world (e.g., Trump vs Biden controversy).
Blockchain Beyond the Hype – Final Thoughts
Definitely, blockchain technology is not just another hype train. Although blockchain is a technology associated only with cryptocurrencies and financial transactions, it goes far beyond that.
The benefits offered by technology surpass any temporary trend. Over time, people generate more and more data and the number of digital services only increases, meaning that organizations in all segments will need to adapt to survive the new world.
