Beyond bitcoin, the blockchain technology as an advantage for companies.
In addition to cryptocurrencies, the use of blockchain in companies is a trend of impact. It enables near-instantaneous storage and sharing of data. In the case of digital coins, it’s used to record the transactions made and store them in a computer chain.
Data saved in chain form a very secure storage network, which it’s called blockchain. Many types of data can be stored and shared, enabling each user to use unique access keys that identify them.
If you consider that we’re at a crucial moment for process of the 4th industrial revolution and that the data use is at the heart of the process, it’s possible to imagine the importance of applying blockchain. Learn more about what’s behind it!
Advantages of blockchain for companies
The speed at which blockchain allows you to run business outweighs the capacity of any traditional model. To get a glimpse, just compare the weeks required for international bank transfers and Bitcoin compensation, which is almost instantaneous. See the other benefits we mentioned.
Cost reduction
The same banking transactions depend on intermediaries, generate fees, and require bureaucracies for the control and security of the process. Blockchain dispenses with intermediation and lowers the resulting costs. For many deals, the impact may not be very representative individually, but, on a scale, the gain is exponential.
Data protection
All features used to make it difficult to hack into a server are not often definitive obstacles to hackers, but simultaneously changing a database replicated on multiple computers is much more complicated.
Blockchain allows data to be encrypted individually, and its access depends on the use of a custom key. For entering the system, all access codes are required. Is it Impossible? No! Nothing is 100% secure, but the security level is higher because the compromise on part of the block is not capable of causing data across the system.
Transparency
In Denver, in the United States, consumers can know the exact origin of coffee they take. A pilot program uses the blockchain system to trace the product source and inform anyone interested.
By means of a QR code available on packaging, it’s possible to check the payment made to the producers, learn about all intermediaries throughout the chain, the quality classification, and other identification details.
It’s a business trend, since the same transparency can be achieved in various negotiations and occurrences, as in the case of investments focused on digital marketing, for example.
The blockchain record makes it possible to know for which agent in the chain the money was sent, in which volume, on which frequency, if it really was for the public to which it was intended and with which result. Everything is traceable and protected.
In addition, blockchain allows you to store applications that can run services automatically, such as a transfer. The effect of this type of role on the customer experience causes many companies to seek alternatives to encourage customers to access information about their transactions.
Because they can be easily tracked, the experience of taking this control over is a powerful tool for increasing consumer reliability based on transparency.
Blockchain applicabilities in companies
There are still technological barriers to overcame for the broad use of technology, which may take a few years, but nothing stops it from being used to accept Bitcoin payments, for example. Find out below other possible blockchain solutions!
In marketplaces
Just like the coffee cases example in Denver and the management of a digital communication campaign, a marketplace can provide its customers with information about products origin, individuals in a negotiation, and intermediaries labor policies, for example.
In this scenario, brand reliability and responsibility take on another level, which reflects on improving the relationship, loyalty and customer experience.
Quality control
Just as consumers in a marketplace, companies can use the information about what happens in the production chain to improve quality and control over raw materials and products.
From the operational point of view of a parts recall — very common in the automotive sector — there is a positive impact on efficiency, agility and costs. After all, vehicle buyers can also be registered, making it possible to direct warnings and automate parts exchange schedules at dealers.
Walmart already uses blockchain technology as a traceability resource to identify the source of problem products, eventually contaminated batches, and their location in stores.
In financial transactions
The most well-known application of blockchain couldn’t be left out. Mainly, because it is not limited to Bitcoin and other digital currencies. Large banks rushed to test this technology in payment control.
In Brazil, Banrisul, Banco do Brasil, Caixa Econômica Federal, Santander, Itau and Bradesco are examples of institutions that bet on blockchain as an alternative for transfers.
In 2018, Itau already used the technology to store data on guarantee margins contracted by investors. Since 2016, Febraban (Brazilian Federation of Banks) has maintained the blockchain working Group, which brings together the Central Bank and the largest banks in the country to deal with the adoption of the technology.
In the data log
Even the UN invests in blockchain, more specifically in an identification project. Registration systems capable of identifying people and transactions are fundamental to the financial system and the democratization of access to it.
A more efficient system can help reduce bureaucracy in opening up bank accounts and even make a difference in humanitarian crises.
In Canada, banks and the government have mobilized to create a company that uses blockchain to lower costs, increase security, and ensure the privacy of banking customers.
In smart contracts
Smart contracts are programs that store contractual rules and automatically execute them. A simple example for a better understanding is when a person makes a payment commitment.
If registered in this type of application, on the due date, the system checks whether the payment has been processed and performs the corresponding action — which, in this case, may be to charge the buyer or, if paid, to write it off.
With blockchain on a scale, there are no limits to what can be automated with the adoption of these contracts, since different information can be accessed in the chain to apply the planned action.
In this scenario, we can picture a future in which a tenant candidate who, using virtual reality glasses, checks out an apartment without leaving home. At the same time, he decides for the lease, proves his identity with an encrypted key available in blockchain, signs the contract and makes the first payment.
As soon as he arrives in front of the property, the smart contract is triggered by the mobile phone, it confirms that he is at the door through face identification and releases the door locking device. Does it seem like fiction for you?
How ever it goes and as long as it takes, the fact is that blockchain in companies and their large-scale use by the consumer can change reality, as the internet has done in recent decades. It will be behind sites, devices, platforms, and applications making everything happen faster and safer.
