Cryptocurrency has been taking the world by storm for the last several years. While it is clear that this amazing use of computers has worked for digital assets, there are far more uses that the technology can be put toward both now and in the future.
Let’s take a look at some of the best use cases for crypto and its technological advances.
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Blockchain Technology
At the core of the crypto world lies its advances in digital technologies. The blockchain technology used to create the buying, selling, and trading world of crypto is the baseline that can also be used in other industries and for other uses.
The blockchain relies on a Peer-to-Peer network (P2P) that is completely decentralized. A public ledger exists in the form of this blockchain, and its users rely on one another to record transactions on the system.
No central authority is in control. No single source of leadership is required.
In other words, there is no bank or governmental entity at the center of the world of crypto. Instead, the “power” is shared amongst the users. This style of operations has been put into uses across many fields since the spawn of crypto assets.
The Benefits of Blockchain
There are many pluses when it comes to the blockchain and its multiple uses. At the center of those values is a list that is versatile and useful in a lot of ways.
- No central entity with authority
- Anonymity of its users
- Minimal governmental control
- A decentralized system
- Minimal transaction fees or penalties
- Transparency of transactions
- Automated processes
- Immutability of its ledger
No matter the business, you can see how these features can help many and in many ways. Here are just a few of the uses that have found this tech to be the answer to its prayers.
Digital Assets
Of course the best-known use of the blockchain technology is through cryptocurrency itself. But, a token such as Bitcoin does not stand alone. Instead, the online world of crypto now casts a large umbrella, encompassing far more categories of digital assets than ever before.
When Bitcoin launched in 2009 as a rather standard for the cryptocurrency markets, it was one of the only types available. By 2013, nine types of crypto existed, expanding the possibilities rapidly. Currently, over 4,500 types of crypto can be found on the market.
As you can see, the world of digital assets may still be in its infancy, but there are plenty of options popping up each day, and no end is in site. Everyone wants a piece of the digital asset pie, and they’re being served up 24/7, 365.
Crypto Assets
The blockchain and its advances has been at the forefront of crypto since its start. Users enjoy not relying on traditional financial products, and have learned to apply crypto assets to many unique fields.
While thousands of products may be out there, there are still a top 10 that seem to maintain the lead spaces on a rarely consistent basis. In a market known for its volatility, this is a stability few last long enough to see.
The usual names stay in the top. Think of it as the Real Estate market. They often say the top 10 percent of Realtors do 80 percent of the work. This is also true in the case of cryptocurrency. Typically, the big hitters remain at the top.
While things can greatly rise and fall at the drop of a hat, the most known brands with the highest current market caps, as well as popularity, seem to float to the top time and time again. Those presently involve:
- Bitcoin (BTC)
- Ethereum (ETH)
- Binance (BNB)
- There (USDT)
- Solana (SOL)
- Cardano (ADA)
- U.S. Dollar Coin (USDC)
- XRP (XRP)
- Terra (LUNA)
- Polkadot (DOT)
Crypto.com Chain (CRO), Shiba Inu (SHIB), Avalanche (AVAX), Dogecoin (DOGE), Polygon (MATIC), ChainLink (LINK), LiteCoin (LTE), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) spent some time also in the top lists of 2021, but as you can see, it is not 4,500 names floating in that arena.
Instead, just a handful typically represent the “cream of the crop” time and time again. Of course, who stays on top, and how low their bottoms go, is always up for possibilities. Just because they have a frequently high value doesn’t mean that entirely safe.
This article is not intended to constitute investment advice, nor should you rely all of your financial services “eggs” being in one proverbial “basket.” Nearly all cryptocurrency sees a wide range of fluctuation.
For example, the Ethereum blockchain works in a native cryptocurrency of Ether. Within Ethereum’s services are a huge range of ups and downs. That individual cryptocurrency may see growth, or it may plummet on any given day, majorly changing in value.
But it is often the tech behind these coins that has the rest of the business world interested.
NFTs and a Value For Art
Another amazing use of the blockchain technology has been a resurgence in valuing art. NFTs, or non fungible tokens, have made possible an entirely new way to sell valuables online. Any digital file can be and NFT, and digital art is only limited by the creativity of the artist.
From a founder’s very first Tweet, to a series of 10,000 images, the blockchain network has been utilized to bring a way for artists to truly sell a digital trade. Not only does the technology bring artists and buyers together, but it allows for the exclusion of a middle man when selling pieces.
Additionally, within the trade NFTs have become quite valuable, with a top earning leaving a Christie’s auction block with $69 million. It is one of the industry leaders most benefiting from the technology. Not only do artists get a cut when they sell a piece, but the use of an NFT means that royalty payments can be made, on a second, third, and … well, infinite amount of sales.
This is putting money into the pockets of artists, and less into the companies they work for to a high degree. Blockchain-based sales of art open new revenue streams, created new art forms, and brought value to the industry overall.
Real-World Assets
While most of the transactions we discuss take place in an online platform, there are ways that crypto has also been tied to real world assets. The tech of the crypto space has made its way into fiat currencies, with the use of the stablecoin.
The Stablecoin
The invention of the stablecoin was an answer to the highly volatile changes in the crypto marketplace. Such drastically high peaks and frustrating low valleys had investors leery to jump on the digital asset train. Enter stablecoin, which is a coin which is backed by the value of another asset, typically fiat currencies such as the US Dollar or the Japanese Yen.
These real-world assets provided a backing that eased the worry of many, and gave a more consistent and stable value. But in its creation, other benefits were found.
For example, the stablecoin also allowed for the trading between crypto tokens to be more seamless and transaction fee-free. Additionally, users in countries with great economic turmoil or political instability found ways to use the stablecoin technology to protect themselves from great loss when their real-world currencies saw massive inflation or change.
Liquidity of Real-World Assets
With the blockchain applications, things called Asset-Backed Tokens also brought benefits across markets and industries. These tokens represent a real-world asset. For example, a token can represent anything from real estate to gold.
By tying value to these assets, the open buying, selling, and trading of such items, even across countries was made far easier and was done with far lesser fees. Additionally, the term “liquidity” saw a boost.
Liquidity is the ability of trading your assets into cash, and doing so quickly is a huge benefit. By creating tokens such as Bitpanda, which represents precious metals stored in Swiss vaults, the ability to liquify such assets into tactile assets or cash became far easier and quicker.
A blockchain also runs 24/7, where most world markets open and close with time zones and business hours. Instead, users of the blockchain can perform and record transactions at anytime. The advances have rocked spaces like the real estate industry, who can now operate in a completely new way.
The Financial System
Of course, one of the biggest players in the blockchain applications and best uses has to be the decreased need for traditional financial institutions. With this tech, users are able to adapt the hottest blockchain application and apply it to their business models, open to a global network.
Financial Services
Crypto has aimed to provide a solution to many of life’s problems. One of the issues it has addressed is also the inequality and process of the banking system worldwide.
Some of the offerings, just to name a few, that tech has helped to replace include the issuing of loans, providing capital (and gathering it to begin with), streamline payments, automate billing, and overall provide an access to finances that was not previously available.
Without central authorities, typically banks, the exchange of cryptocurrency has opened up the most central industry of them all: money. No one power has ownership. Not one authority controls all of finance. Instead, a network of peers now stands at the helm.
Opportunity For All
With the anonymity and efficiency of digital currencies, more opportunity has been brought to the masses. Far more have access to decentralized applications, and can rely on them for starting a new business, fueling an idea, or even protecting their intellectual property.
From the music industry, to finance, many have found the perks of access alone to be a major benefit and one of the base case uses for the blockchain industry.
An Increased Security
If you data is stored in a central bank, or is completely under the oversight of a government or private company, there can be concerns with data. When that same finance data is stored over a shared, decentralized platform, the result is an increase in security.
The creation and use of the distributed ledger technology has in turn created data integrity and security likely unforeseen prior to its invention. With highly complex computations required to even create a block, there are levels of protection in the tech that bring a safety benefit, making yet another stellar pro in the long list of use cases.
The Supply Chain
Supply chain management is another major industry that has greatly benefited from the use of this technology. Smart contracts are the core of this use case.
Smart Contracts
A smart contract offers automation to nearly any process. In the terms of the blockchain, it operates on an “If/Then” concept. If X occurs, then Y automatically can happen.
For example, let’s say you own a potato chip factory. You can create smart contracts in the blockchain applications that state “If Joe’s potatoes arrive by 5 p.m., then release payment of $4,000.”
While that’s lovely that data and computers can automate things, the benefits don’t stop there. The use of such smart contracts help to cut down on costs, reduce required payroll and human power, and makes for faster and easier systems to operate without error and without delay.
A Smoother Stream of Supplies
The benefits for the supply chain don’t stop with animation, either. There are a laundry list of other shortcuts, reductions in cost, and overall improvements that crypto has brought to the industries.
So many require a solid supply chain. If the worldwide pandemic taught us nothing else, the need for a consistent and reliable supply chain is required, no matter who the parties involved include.
From countries trying to do trading, to you needing eggs on the supermarket shelf, most all industries rely in one way or another on a supply chain.
With crypto and its technology, the supply chain stands to benefit by increasing a transparency of goods (see where your products come from more clearly), improving accuracy through automation and decentralized data integrity, and an overall betterment of efficiency across the board.
Benefits For All
The pros for the supply chain are not limited to saving big business a buck. They are also going to save consumer. Consider how many supply chains rely on paperwork (even the tree-saving digital variety).
These same steps require human beings to oversee them, not to mention servers, power, and programming to support them.
If those prices are cut, there is a lesser cost of doing business, and therefore a price savings that is passed along to the consumer. But, uses of the crypto currency tech doesn’t have to stop there either.
Think of all of your electronic devices. Do you know what precious metals were required to create them? Do you know if child labor was used to mine it?
With transparent blockchain applications, you would be able to. This would allow for more ethic-based purchases, and for companies to be accountable for purchases.
Ultimately, and ideally, crypto could be a solution to social impacts as huge as reducing child labor across the globe.
It isn’t all just digital cats and Potcoins.
The Healthcare Industries
You may be scratching your head about how cryptocurrency helps the healthcare industry, but it does. The technology that makes your crypto portfolio operate is the same that can be used to streamline and reduce costs in the healthcare field, too.
Companies such as Enterprise Ethereum, operating on the Ethereum network, are bringing the adoption of blockchain to business models in many fields.
Within healthcare alone, that tech has been used to secure data management in order to keep patients’ confidential information safe and greatly streamlined the requirements and processes required for consent management, medical device disbursement, and drug tracking.
Opening data on a decentralized server may also allow for patients’ full records to be more accessible to a doctor. You may have an ease in the referral request rigmarole typically caused when you want to see a specialist.
By applying these methods to a digital world, there are so many ways they can be helpful, even in health field use cases.
More To Come
As you can see, the applications of the decentralized finance world are just beginning to enter into the rest of the business world. There are countless corners of the world’s industries that are just coming into the picture.
Future advances are said to be coming in the worlds of content creation, real estate, personal identity security, advertising insights, and even voting mechanisms. Use cases are still being created as we speak, and more use cases will continue to be discovered in the future.
One of the many novelties, and likely much of the excitement, about the network of crypto traders is that unknown future that lies ahead. There are things remaining to be discovered, and pluses we have not yet begun to understand.
Cryptocurrency isn’t just about price volatility and strange pictures of monkeys. From social impacts, to advances in entertainment, there is a wide list of benefits that remains unseen.
