13 Blockchain Non-Financial Use Cases and Business Opportunities

For almost a decade, blockchain has come to our attention thanks to Bitcoin, the magical cryptocurrency that is now breaking record after record, reaching values that no one thought possible as recent as last year, but there are many uses to the technology behind Bitcoin, such as these blockchain non-financial use cases and business opportunities.

The first time someone thought of a cryptographically-secured chain of blocks was back in 1991. In 2008, someone (or someones, as it is believed a group may have been involved) hiding behind the name of Satoshi Nakamoto implemented the notion into Bitcoin, serving as a public ledger for all transactions. Bitcoin became the first cryptocurrency in the world and the first currency that didn’t need a trusted authority to overlook everything, or even a central server.

Slowly, but surely, the blockchain technology is starting to be seen as a solution for many industries. Why? Because it’s the perfect ledger – it can’t be tampered with and it keeps an exact history of what happened and when, reserving one block for each transaction.

Copyright: Elnur / 123RF Stock Photo

There is a growing number of big companies using blockchain. For instance, IBM, Nestle, Unilever, Tyson Foods, Dole Food, and several more will run trials to explore how the blockchain technology can help track food supply chains and to improve safety.

Another area that can do quite well with an infusion of this technology is retail, but there is currently a rather low number of retailers using blockchain. Experts, however, believe the number will grow consistently in the next few years as adoption rate grows. Blockchain in the retail industry makes sense given the constant need to deal with the supply chain and the many transactions taking place day in and day out. It has been noted, of course, that Blockchain is disrupting the freelance industry, as well.

Blockchain technology, however, is and will continue to be, the star of the financial industry. Therefore, there’s no surprise we see a continually growing list of banks that use blockchain or that are planning to do so. IBM estimates that some 15% of the world’s banks are using this type of technologies. Deutsche Bank has such plans, while Russia’s Sberbank is already piloting such transactions. If you’re interested in investing, however, you can check out these 12 best cryptocurrency and blockchain stocks to buy

That being said, as the list of companies using blockchain technology grows, we thought it would do us all some good to check out some blockchain non-financial use cases and business opportunities.