Thanks to the violent price swings of Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies attracted frenzied attention. Some companies created the wackiest blockchain-based digital tokens. However, coins with tangible utility and unique values stayed. And proved that the concept of cryptocurrency is no vaporware.
Indeed, cryptocurrencies and blockchain are in the loop. Today, there is a huge variety of projects on the market. Altcoin Buzz has prepared a round-up of the top 5 business sectors that blockchain and cryptocurrencies are likely to impact the most in 2020.
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ENERGY
The energy sector is a highly important one. More so, since it has an enormous impact on the environment and thus needs to be handled responsibly. For this, it is necessary to introduce a transparent recording system. That’s where blockchain comes in handy.
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Smarter-Consumption Systems
In the US alone 71% of the energy used in transportation, 66% of electricity and 20% of the energy used in manufacturing go to waste. By tokenizing energy, it becomes a tradable commodity that has a defined per unit value. Wherefore, the suppliers and consumers can maintain a transparent demand-vs-supply chain. Thereby, reducing the wastage of energy. And easy payment processing using cryptocurrency.
Real-world Projects
A blockchain-enabled platform that directly connects energy consumers with green energy producers. Thus, it empowers the renewable energy consumption ecosystem.
P2P Energy Trading
The energy sector is trying to decentralize its control over energy. Especially by giving consumers the right to directly sell excess energy. Blockchain allows this to happen.
Real-world Projects
Finally, the idea has been materialized. Conjoule is a blockchain platform that offers an energy exchange community network. To begin with, this network supports P2P trading of energy units in a transparent manner.
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REAL ESTATE
The sector is not often as transparent as it may seem. There are multiple issues pertaining to handling ownership management, outdated legacy systems, high fees, slow cross-border transactions etc. Blockchain has fantastic potential as it facilitates fast payments and eliminates the need for middlemen.
To that end, David Sacks, PayPal’s first COO stated that the $7 trillion real estate market requires tokenization to instill trust. Concurrently, Hilton Worldwide has already started using a blockchain-based property management system.
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Property searches:
For instance, there exists minimum transparency between the owners, buyers, and tenants. A decentralized P2P platform can help fix that. It will make it easier for the market participants to connect using cryptocurrency.
Real-World Projects
A transformational real estate platform for brokers and consumers. It works in a transparent manner. Here, the user holds the complete control of the listing data. So the property seeker always views the factual data.
Crowdfunding in Real-Estate
Almost 55% of the millennials exhibit interest in real-estate, which is why crowdfunding is the next big thing. It interests people to own a fraction of the entire property. Consequently, the tokenization of the property becomes a viable solution. After all, it helps manage records and profit-sharing.
Real-world Projects
Meridio seamlessly connects investors from diverse backgrounds. Furthermore, it allows the creation of a fractional property digital share on the blockchain.
Fighting frauds
Title and mortgage frauds are quite common in this “pen and paper” industry. Besides, it is costly to store all the information in a written form. Blockchain can help tackle that by storing the property lifecycle records on it in a transparent and yet immutable manner.
Real-world Projects
A mortgage lending platform on the blockchain, Block66 enhances transparency. It provides direct access to data like credit scores and property appraisal.
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GAMING
Call it crazy! But gaming enthusiasts have been shelling-off thousands of dollars to procure in-game assets. They range from unique avatar to an environment that enhances the gaming experience. However, the system stands vulnerable to hacks and data stealing.
Additionally, leisure game-time offers players an opportunity to earn rewards. But, there is no trustworthy platform to redeem the rewards into something tangible.
Cryptocurrency is taking the gaming industry by storm.
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Gameplay Incentivized
Blockchain platforms are connecting the games to the cryptocurrency wallet to their gaming. Thus, it creates an ecosystem where the gamer is rewarded for pursuing his/her passion. Blockchain helps maintain transparency in such a system.
Real-world Projects
A blockchain-enabled platform that brings together the gamer, the influencer, and the developer. It redirects all the marketing spend to the gamers and influencers. Because these are the ones who play, watch and refer the games.
In-Game Purchases
At some point, “unique” in-game assets stopped being such. In fact, they have been duplicated. The gamers took it seriously, as they were shelling thousands of dollars to have them in their kitty.
Besides, gaming platforms are vulnerable to hacks. On multiple occasions, hackers managed to steal gamers’ financial details.
Blockchain offers a potential solution to both issues. With in-game asset tokenization, no duplicates can penetrate the gaming platform. Besides, since blockchain has no single point of failure, it is more difficult to hack it.
Real-world Projects
The project started as a blockchain platform. It aimed to enhance the functional, social and economic value of in-game assets. And now has evolved into a thriving marketplace. Here, the users can freely trade the ERC-115 tokens.
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CLOUD STORAGE
Data storage has become crucial. Enterprises entrust almost all of it to cloud storage service providers. Eventually, data ends up on a centralized server, which is highly prone to attacks.
Traditional cloud storage is on the verge of disruption. As a new term called fog computing is gaining traction. This is basically the new decentralized version of the cloud. And here blockchain plays a crucial role in data security. Fog computing might bring down the storage costs down to $2 per terabyte per month. Whereas Amazon is charging $25 per terabyte per month.
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Enhanced data security
A blockchain-enabled cloud storage network promises enhanced security. That’s because the data gets stored in an encrypted manner. Besides, it is decentralized and immutable. It is therefore far trickier for hackers to get hold of it.
Besides, it effectively promises to lower the cost of cloud storage for the network.
Real-World Project
Using its File Sharding algorithm, it ensures data integrity and security. It offers services of this scale at a competitive cost of $0.015 per GB per month.
Crowdsourced Cloud Storage
Many blockchain projects have created a unique storage lending model. Here, users can rent out unused digital storage. These platforms operate in a P2P manner. Thus creating a brand new opportunity for cloud storage crowdsourcing. The storage providers get paid in cryptocurrency for the storage they lease out.
Real-world Project
Filecoin is a decentralized storage solution that uses blockchain. In the process, it incentivizes the platform’s users. They are the ones who put their unused storage space in the marketplace. The users can rent the storage space available on hard drives, disks, racks or entire data centers.
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HEALTHCARE
Healthcare direly needs to organize its data. After all, the magnitude of electronic health records generated every day is massive. Identity fraud and administrative burden also endanger the system.
The industry is functioning on electronic systems that are not interoperable. That said, loads of patient data remain scattered all across the systems. And this is directly impacting the efficiency.
Fraudulent billing, drug counterfeiting, and data protection happen to be the biggest concerns of the healthcare industry. Blockchain fits in like a glove here.
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Health Records on the blockchain:
As the health records move from scattered systems to a blockchain, the patient data becomes accessible across the globe. Plus, blockchain is a more secure technology for data storage.
Real-Life Projects
The project targets to decentralize the healthcare record validation system. It has all it takes to replace the intermediaries that hold the data in a centralized manner. And offers distributed access to any patient data across its validation system.
Fraudulent billing
Blockchain promises to take over the administrative burden of billing. It brings in automated claim processing by matching the data fingerprints. Consequently, it offers a potential solution to the million-dollar frauds that are happening in the health sector.
Real-World Projects
It offers a decentralized payment network for healthcare. The project aims to bring in the advantages of distributed technology and decentralized healthcare economies. And these will be accompanied by the crypto incentives.
Wrapping up
Cryptocurrency has taken its time to evolve and now its time for adoption. Although there seem to be plenty of regulatory challenges, experts believe the inflection point is not too far away. This sphere has been evolving so rapidly that it’s tough to keep up. But staying informed and educated is the only way we can stay ready to embrace the wave of disruption.
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