Is 2018 the Year of Blockchain?
2017 was the year bitcoin's value grew by leaps and bounds, from slightly below $1,000 at the beginning to roughly $20,000 by the end. For every pundit declaring bitcoin a fad, there are multiple people investing with confidence – some projections even predict its value will reach $1 million per coin by the end of 2020. But for all the optimism, it might be bitcoin’s underlying technology that holds the most potential for the future.
Blockchain, the foundational element of cryptocurrency that functions as decentralized transaction ledger, is being applied creatively in diverse fields far beyond bitcoin as people embrace its transparency, efficiency, and security. Among the industries implementing blockchain are:
Investing
Initial coin offerings, or ICOs, allow entrepreneurs and startups to raise capital by issuing their own variety of coins or tokens directly to the public. These tokens allow companies an efficient way to get funding without giving up equity or being saddled with repayments at a high-interest rate, and the tokens can ultimately be used to purchase goods or services from the issuing company.
Media
The same tokens used to raise capital for a platform can also be used to incentivize participation with it – users can receive tokens for uploading content to a video website or adding friends to a social network. These tokens benefit the network and the people who the network is composed of, a crucial difference from current network-focused business models. There are companies competing with heavy-hitters like YouTube and Wikipedia, as well as interesting organizations like Civil, a journalism platform built on blockchain.
Public records
Blockchains are secure because of their decentralized nature – hackers would theoretically need to hack every computer in a network, spread around the world, to make a change to the ledger. This makes it a natural fit for record-keeping, and several countries like the Republic of Georgia and Estonia are experimenting with uses like putting land titles on the ledger and giving citizens access to medical records, respectively.
Foreign aid
Because blockchain records every step of a transaction, it can help eliminate fraudulent payments for aid agencies like the United Nations’ World Food Programme. They can even be used for conditional aid payments, where recipients only receive money upon confirmation of their identity. UNICEF and the World Bank will both be releasing blockchain projects in 2018.
The sky is the limit for blockchain. In addition to the previously-mentioned examples, the technology is making a difference in health insurance, voting reform, medical data, and more. Blockchain has the potential to help humanity in ways far beyond cryptocurrency, and 2018 may be the year these innovations start to enter our lives in increasingly-prominent ways.
