Most of the talks and discussions about blockchain technology tend to revolve around the extreme volatility of cryptocurrency. There is a misconception among many that blockchain is cryptocurrency. But, in reality, it is only a subset of blockchain.
Well, this misconception arises from the fact that cryptocurrency was the first application that uses blockchain and who can forget the volatile market of bitcoin. Since its launch, it has been on the roller coaster ride. It gained 1,390 percent in 2017 (up as much as 1,935 percent when it hit a record high of $19,666 in mid-December) — and then plummeted to a low of $5,950 in January 2018. Now, it stands strong on 11.370.
Now, almost every industry has recognized its peerless potential. Many business leaders and entrepreneurs are vouching for it and looking to integrate it into their very operations. This will impact every major area of businesses from accounting to operations, and there is strong evidence of its unprecedented use.
Now it comes to what it is. And why has it become quintessential for the future of business? A blockchain is an electronically distributed ledger or list of entries — much like a stock ledger — that various participants maintain via a network of computers. It uses cryptography to process and verify all the transactions and ensures high transparency and high-end security.
Now, many organizations are considering it as a way to become digital. Here are the 5 ways blockchain technology is disrupting the way we do business:
Accounting
Accounting is the textbook case study for a business field that has been set to benefit from blockchain technology. You know tax code is very convoluted and to deal with millions of transactions to ensure their accuracy and precision is very difficult. And with the blockchain, this can be effectively managed. But how? It provides transparency to all transactions for the approved users. It sheds the workload of the auditors and allows them to focus more on controls and anomalies.
Meanwhile, opportunities are emerging for CPAs to use blockchain technology as they expand their assurance services to areas such as cybersecurity and sustainability.” Many entrepreneurs are harnessing it with their businesses and making it large. Like Winklevoss twins (Facebook fame) have already been advocating for blockchain and they become the first billionaires through bitcoins.
Even the lottery market is making it big through it. Prime Ball, managed by Ethereum smart contracts, will be among the first fully decentralized and transparent lottery platforms using blockchain. In this system, all the winning results are recorded publicly and distributed on the Ethereum blockchain without any interference from third-party involvement.
Advertising and Marketing
- Monetization: On the way to make the process of marketing more rigorous and efficient. blockchain content distribution platform Decent announced the launch of Public, a “rewarding” process that will let writers and creators distribute content on the blockchain and get paid immediately.
- Advanced TV: Comcast’s advanced advertising group introduced a new technology that allows brands to make ad buys on both broadcast and OTT TV using blockchain technology. It brought big names like Disney, Altice USA, the U.K Channel 4, and TGI Group and let marketers, publishers, and programmers share data without coming to the pool in one place.
- A CPG marketer, for example, would be able to use data from a content producer like Hulu to evaluate the behavior and understand how to target its ad buys without getting access to the actual data.
Human Resources
Human resources professionals plan, direct, and coordinate the recruiting, and interviewing when in the hiring process. They tend to consult with the top executives on strategic planning and handle operations in relation to employees’ compensation, benefits, and training. And if you are relating to the ‘human’ world. Don’t confuse, as there is a great deal of technology behind hiring, retaining, evaluating, compensating, and even termination employees.
According to the Society for Human Resource Management, blockchain will play a huge part in terms of modernizing hiring. It will allow HR professionals to verify the credentials of candidates and existing employees with a great deal of efficiency. The blockchain system will also reduce the chances of third-party companies providing inaccurate data about a candidate. Since individuals have greater input and control over data, as it has already been verified by multiple parties.
Blockchain tech also will affect payroll, with the greatest impacts in multinational corporations or businesses with foreign employees. The technology easily can handle the back-end work to simplify and standardize payments in multiple currencies.
“Not only is blockchain technology changing how companies are compensating employees, but it is also changing how employees save for retirement, diversify their investment portfolio from a dependency on U.S.-dollar linked financial products, and exert a greater degree of control over their personal assets,” says Travis Parker, COO of IRA Bitcoin LLC . The company helps investors purchase and hold cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and Ripple in Individual Retirement Accounts or 401k plans.
Information Technology and Cybersecurity
You must have heard about highly publicized data breaches at Yahoo, Equifax, and more organizations. It comprised hundreds of millions of names, addresses, birth dates, and other information. Today, companies of all sizes are increasingly focused on protecting their networks, computers, programs, and data from attacks, damages, and unauthorized access.
David Schatsky, Managing Director at Deloitte U.S., sees the potential for blockchain technology to help revolutionize the $122 billion global cybersecurity market. He recognized that technology can provide a way to record transactions or any digital interaction in a way that can be more secure, transparent, highly resistant to outages, audible, and efficient.
This is even recognized by Lockheed Martin and the US Department of Defense. Now, both organizations are looking for the attributes of blockchain in terms of protecting critical intellectual property.
Management and Operations
- The reinvention of processes: Blockchain will remove data silos and duplicative processes and thereby enable manufacturers to overhaul how they can actually harness the data.
- Productivity with quality enhancements: By integrating blockchain with mutualized data sources, manufacturers and their partners no longer need to duplicate efforts to stay in sync. Thus it eliminates one-off data updates, exceptions, and reconciliations.
- Transparency: Connecting all the data sets with the value chain, blockchain will provide improved transparency and real-time sharing across all parties, boosting trust, increasing knowledge, and mitigating the risk factor.
- Blockchain technology is changing the way businesses have been operated in other staid industries. The tech is creating operational efficiencies and new opportunities in some new markets competing with instability, political instability, and corruption.
The Road to Conclusion
Certainly, blockchain is not a new component of the technology block. But still, for the early adopters, it really feels like Silicon Valley in the early 1990s. The abilities it carries for all the industries are just amazing and have the potential to change everything.
Its practical applications entirely rely on the effort of the entrepreneurs and visionaries who will use blockchain technology to transform their companies. And leaders who make strategic moves will profit mightily from the upheaval and disruption of traditional business models.
