In the last few years, we have observed a rapid growth of the blockchain. It is touching new heights with each passing year and the valuation is also increasing year by year. Just in 2022, the valuation of blockchain technology was $7 billion and now as per recent estimates, it has the potential to reach $94 billion in 2027. The CAGR is 66.2% which is quite high in comparison to the growth rate of any other technology. However, still, there are many who are unaware of the potential of blockchain technology or are just familiar with blockchain as a service but as a part of crypto technology.

When blockchain came into existence, it was only a decentralized ledger whose purpose was only facilitating peer-to-peer cash systems. But now it transforming all the industries which are having a centralized system. The properties of blockchain like immutability, decentralized nature, security, and transparency, are together making it a popular technology and bringing innovation to many different industries. Businesses are identifying and exploring the benefits of blockchain technology such as speed, high efficiency, and security in certain use cases.

In this article, we will go deep into various aspects of the blockchain, its applications, use cases, and much more. Currently, blockchain is being used in many industries primarily in finance, healthcare, real estate, supply chain, and others. But before delving into the blockchain use cases, let’s understand the basics.

What is Blockchain Technology and Blockchain Use Cases?

In traditional payment systems, there are central agencies that facilitate transactions such as banking systems. However, blockchain is a decentralized ledger i.e. everyone connected to a blockchain has fractional access. This distributable nature of blockchain revolutionizes the way how information is recorded, stored, and shared. Although it is just a chain of blocks in which every block has a transactions list, the decentralization nature of blockchain makes it different. There isn’t any central authority who is controlling the blockchain but instead, the transactions are verified by all the participants within the network. Since the transactions are being verified by multiple people, it is highly difficult to tamper with the transactions or commit fraud.

Due to such high security in transactions, blockchain is highly employed in cryptocurrency transactions. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, resulting in a chain of blocks linked together. This makes changing a single block nearly impossible without affecting all following blocks, resulting in an immutable and transparent record of transactions.

Read more: Best Blockchain Development Platform

Market Statistics and Facts of Blockchain Use Cases:

We have already mentioned the growth forecast of blockchain technology, which is a whopping 66.2% by 2027. As per the Statista forecast, in 2024, it will reach a valuation of $19 billion. Gartner has estimated that the technology will generate a business value of approximately $3.1 trillion by 2030.

Statista also reports that the financial market accounts for more than 30% of the total blockchain market, while other rapidly rising verticals include manufacturing, agriculture, distribution and services, and the public sector.

25+ Blockchain Use Cases and Examples Across Industries:

The blockchain usage is not just limited to cryptocurrencies but its applications are far beyond. There are many industries which have realized its true potential and now leverage its benefits of security, transparency, and decentralization. Here are the 25+ major blockchain use cases:

Financial Services:

The core application of Blockchain was in financial services, as it can simplify transactions, reduce costs, and provide better security. It helps in issuing digital securities within a shorter period of time at lower costs and at high customization. With blockchain, you can create digital financial instruments especially curated for the investors’ demands. This helps in market expansion for investors, less costs for issuers, and reduces counterparty risk.  Here are the major use cases of blockchain in financial services:

1. Capital Markets:

Blockchain revolutionizes the capital markets by eliminating a single failure point through decentralized utilities. It streamlines the processes of capital markets activities, reduces costs, and decreases settlement times. There are fewer chances of operational fraud, human errors, and overall risk. It also digitizes the financial instruments, so that they are programmable and it is easier to manage and trade these assets. Tokens provide more market access due to enhanced connection and the possibility of fractionalized ownership. This leads to higher liquidity and a lower cost of capital.

2. Asset Management:

Blockchain can effectively streamline asset management by allowing automated fund launches. It streamlines the engagement of stakeholders with digitized assets and services. There is automation in fund administration, and transfer agency in asset management. Digital assets also program voting rights and other shareholder rights, minimizing the chances of human error. Additionally, blockchain creates and enforces incentive mechanisms to promote participation and punish nefarious activities.

3. Global Payments and Remittances:

There are multiple intermediaries involved in global payments and remittances that also charge for their services. The exchange of $200B between nations takes 2 to 7 days and costs, on average, 6.94% worldwide. This indicates that fees, middlemen, and financial institutions directly cut remittances by $48 billion. Blockchain can expedite remittance and payment procedures, cutting costs and settlement times dramatically.

4. Banking and Lending:

Blockchain can streamline banking and lending services, reduce counterparty risk, and decrease issuance and settlement times. Blockchain can help in authentic documentation, reduce operational risks, and allow real-time verification of financial documents. It also streamlines credit protection and credit scoring markets.

5. Trade Finance:

In trade finance, blockchain can digitize the entire process with high security and efficiency. There will be highly transparent governance, reduced processing times, low requirements of capital, and fewer chances of fraud. It facilitates the creation of efficient financing structures through shared secure networks and digitized processes.

Supply Chain and Logistics:

The supply chain and logistics industry has been running with many traditional processes and now it requires automation to a great extent. Blockchain can make things easier, and transparent, and increase efficiency. The core principles of the blockchain which are immutability, transparency, and decentralization make it a perfect technology for the supply chain industry. All the manual, sluggish, time-consuming, and error-prone tasks can be replaced with quick and end-to-end digital processes with blockchain. This will also result in high visibility and transparency. The major use cases of blockchain in the supply chain industry are:

6. Tracing and Tracking:

Blockchain helps in tracing the sources of food and tracking each product on a real-time basis. This improves the transparency of the supply chain industry. IBM’s Food Trust is a blockchain-based app that traces food products from end-to-end and from origin to customers. It ensures the safety and quality of the food products.

7. Remove Friction:

A major problem in the supply chain industry is friction between partners, suppliers, and other entities. There are third parties through which these entities interact with each other. But with blockchain, all the transactions made between these parties can be verified, recorded, and coordinated autonomously without involving any third party for verification.

8. Food Traceability:

For the food industry particularly, blockchain can be used to identify and isolate contaminated products to ensure food safety guidelines. There are many applications like Walmart which even track the origin and journey of food products for boosting product quality and consumers’ trust.

9. Optimization of Logistics:

The decentralization nature of blockchain makes it a perfect technology to optimize logistics. It boosts efficient coordination and makes communication easier. A great example is the Vechain app. The Vechain app employs blockchain to optimize the supply chain. It results in very less inefficiencies and better logistics management.

10.  Anti-counterfeiting:

The product industry is facing a huge problem of counterfeiting. By employing blockchain in the supply chain industry, anti-counterfeiting measures can be deployed by checking the supply chain records of the products. It will help in establishing the authenticity of the products.

11.  Sustainable Sourcing:

With the increasing awareness towards the environment, many customers now want to know how their regular products are being sourced. As an organization or a business, you can identify the source of your products using blockchain. Blockchain correctly finds the product origins.

Healthcare:

There are a plethora of ways by which blockchain is transforming healthcare sector. Generally, patients find it quite challenging to keep their files and medical health records organized, secure, and undamaged. The problem gets worse when they have to get checked by multiple doctors. The health information exchange (HIE) digitally mobilizes the healthcare data and can assist in tracking medical records. However, it is still vulnerable to security and privacy issues.

However, blockchain technology can securely store patients’ data with easy access. The data will be accessible at any instant and easily be updated whenever the patient visits a physician. The blockchain technology is also helpful in tracking pharmaceuticals. This eliminates the possibility of counterfeit drugs from the medical supply chain. Here are the other major use cases of blockchain in the healthcare industry:

12.  Medical Records Management:

As we mentioned above, blockchain technology is beneficial for the secure storage of medical records, and it also gives interoperable access to patient data. A good example is the MedicalChain application, which is a blockchain-based solution for safely securing and sharing medical records.

13.  Pharmaceutical Supply chain:

As we mentioned in the use case of blockchain in the supply chain industry, it helps in maintaining the integrity of the supply chain of pharma companies. With blockchain technology, pharmaceutical companies can overcome the issues of counterfeit medicines.

14.  Clinical Trial Management:

At the clinical level, the trials proceed for better-improvised solutions and the data of each trial must be secured properly. Blockchain facilitates the secure storage of the data for enhanced transparency.

15.  Personal Health Records:

Personal health records are highly exploited by certain companies particularly insurance companies to know about people’s health for their own benefit. However, these records should be secure with utmost importance. Blockchain can help in the secure management and exchange of these records without any compromise in security or access.

16.  Genomics and Precision Medicine:

Genomic data is highly important in the healthcare industry which requires high level of security during its exchange. Using blockchain, you can facilitate its exchange with no compromise. It helps in accelerating the development of certain high-precision medicines. A great example is Luna DNA. This company leverages blockchain for securely sharing genomic data.

Read more: 25 Top Blockchain Development Companies

Government and Public Sector:

There are a plethora of cases of blockchain use in the government and public sector. It utilizes its core features like decentralization, transparency, and immutability to enhance various processes. Here are the major use cases of blockchain technology in the government and public sector:

17.  Secure Identity Management:

Blockchain offers a safe and untameable database for recording citizen identities, which has the potential to completely transform identity management systems. Every citizen might have a distinct digital identity that is kept on the blockchain, protecting their privacy and lowering their chance of fraud or identity theft.

18.  Transparent Voting Systems:

Blockchain Voting system development provide a way to improve the integrity and transparency of elections. Because every vote is registered on the blockchain, it is impossible for it to be tampered with or changed. This guarantees the validity of election results and aids in the prevention of voter fraud. Voatz uses blockchain for secure mobile voting, providing a resilient solution against fraud and manipulation.

19.  Efficient Public Records Management:

The government has to deal with huge piles of documents of different kinds like entitlement of land and real-estate property, birth certificates, business registrations, and many others. The storage of these records is a crucial task. Blockchain can help in secure and easily accessible storage. The records will be stored without any tampering access. It is also possible to update these records in real time, reducing administration and real tape.

There are a lot of documents the government has to manage, such as land titles, birth certificates, and business registrations. Blockchain can store these records and make them easily accessible and tamper-proof. They can also be updated in real-time, reducing administration red tape.

20.  Tax Compliance and Fraud Prevention:

Blockchain’s ability to provide transparent and traceable transactions helps expedite tax collection procedures and stop tax evasion. Tax computations and payments can be automated with smart contracts, which lowers mistake rates and guarantees adherence to tax laws.

21.  Secure Data Sharing:

Governments sometimes need to communicate sensitive information across departments or with other government organizations. Blockchain-based solutions offer secure and encrypted data sharing while protecting data integrity and confidentiality.

Other Industries:

Above, we have discussed the major industries in which blockchain has gained deep roots, but it is also paving new ways in other industries as well. Let’s go through these industries as well.

22.  Insurance:

The insurance industry still works with traditional working procedures, and it involves difficult ways to submit a claim. There is a substantial need for the paperwork and ongoing communication with the insurance agent. The blockchain can securely store data that must be authenticated in order to process a claim, which speeds up the claims settlement process. After being uploaded to the blockchain network, the claims are communicated to the appropriate parties. The parties issue the insurance after reviewing the information.

23.  Regulatory Compliance Checks and Audits:

Blockchain solutions provide the opportunity for real-time regulatory compliance. That is possible because stakeholders share a common source of truth, which is constantly updated as needed.

While enterprises can get real-time notices on changes, the regulator can be in a position to monitor compliance easily.

24.  Anti-money laundering (AML):

Criminal activities have also evolved with the evolution of advanced technologies and money laundering is no exception. According to a report by Zippia, there is a whopping $300 billion black money laundering taking place in the US alone.

By employing blockchain technology, anti-money laundering measures can be applied through a smooth KYC process. It will help in tracking, finding, recording, and confirming each transaction in a public blockchain ledger. This ledger is distributed and no one can alter it.

25.  Non-Fungible Tokens:

When going for the blockchain app development the technology also has a use case of converting digital assets like art, music, or video into sovereign assets. This means they can be sold and distributed as rare assets without relying on a central system to keep them scarce.

For example, it is now feasible to email an image without keeping the original copy on your smartphone. In simple words, it means that only one person could have the original work of art at a single time. In order to achieve this, the blockchain must produce digital assets as non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

26.  Assets Tokenization:

Blockchain technology allows for the tokenization of a variety of real-world assets, as well as digital assets and company shares. Users can also transform tangible goods into digital assets, which can subsequently be represented on the blockchain using fungible and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Almost any item, including artwork, sports teams, and racehorses, can be tokenized, as can traditional asset classes such as bonds, real estate, venture capital funds, and commodities. There are numerous advantages that you get with asset tokenization, such as 3^rd parties removal, no borders, transparency, and many others.

27.  Cyber Security:

The blockchain industry is highly employed in security e-commerce websites and other applications. If the data is kept decentralized, then there wouldn’t be a single point of entry, and the jeopardy would be distributed across all different nodes. A lot of businesses across the globe prefer to use centralized systems for data storage which now is not a good practice. It is always recommended to keep the data decentralized.

With blockchain, the security of DDoS and DNS can also be optimized as it offers a distributed and decentralized structure. Blockchain can also benefit other elements in terms of security, such as communication. Furthermore, immutability stops fraudsters and hackers from stealing data.

28.  Gaming:

In the gaming industry, blockchain has found a use case for how the digital assets of the game are owned and interoperable. Blockchain allows users to achieve actual ownership of in-game assets like skins, weapons, and characters, which can be securely stored and exchanged on decentralized marketplaces. This promotes a more transparent and equal ecology, giving people more control over their virtual belongings. Furthermore, blockchain offers cross-game compatibility, allowing gamers to seamlessly transfer their assets between gaming platforms. This interoperability improves the user experience and increases player engagement by allowing gamers to leverage their investments across several titles.

Blockchain also makes the game fairer with no biasedness and ensures transparent and verifiable distribution of rewards, loot, and digital currencies within the game environment.

Wrapping Up:

In this article, we have gone through all the major use cases of blockchain technology in different industries. Blockchain is an evolving technology and is find deep-rooted use cases and applications in almost every technology. The blockchain application makes the mechanism transparent, fair, and secure. At Octal IT Solutions, the best software consulting services in USA, have expertise in blockchain app development. Let us know your requirements.