Top 6 Reasons Why Blockchain Will Disrupt Your Industry

Blockchain technology and cryptocurrency have reached an inflection point for enterprise adoption fueled by the combination of technological advancement and successful pilots for business use cases in financial services, global supply chains, government, healthcare, and many other industries. Enterprise adoption is still in the beginning phases but will ramp up quickly as innovators continue dreaming up more ways to use blockchain to disrupt and reinvent traditional business models. Industry leaders ahead of the curve on testing blockchain solutions have already experienced significant business benefits, including greater transparency, better collaboration, faster traceability, enhanced security, improved operations, and reduced costs.

1. Greater transparency

The distributed ledger nature of blockchain technology is enabling more transparent transaction histories. Each participant in the network receives a full copy of the blockchain (as opposed to maintaining individual copies), and they must all agree on the entire data history and each new transaction through consensus, or mutual agreement. If anyone tries to change a previously accepted transaction, the network will immediately recognize the update as invalid and reject it. The majority of the network would have to collude to change even a single transaction record. Thus, data on a blockchain is more accurate, reliable, and transparent than when the data is created through paper-heavy processes. Even though everyone on the network has a full copy of the blockchain, blockchains like Hyperledger are developed with enterprise needs in mind and include built-in securities features that can be set up to only share the information with certain people.

2. Better collaboration

Current enterprise solutions involve localized ERP or other information systems. Localized data quickly becomes fragmented in complex global supply chains. Each link in the supply chain updates its own database on its own timetable which causes the separate copies to drift out of sync, creating inconsistent data that is very difficult to track or trace.

In contrast, blockchain provides an accurate, single instance of encrypted data that is always up-to-date and online, eliminating conflicting information created by data silos and system fragmentation. Because each network participant has a full copy of the blockchain, the network will never experience downtime. Always up-to-date data creates the shared efficiencies in the entire network, including simplified supply chain management and financial reporting.

3. Faster traceability

Any company with products that are a part of a complex supply chain understands how difficult it can be to trace an item back to its origin. Using the blockchain to record exchanges of goods creates an audit trail that offers instant visibility into the entire supply chain from origin to destination and every stop in between, reducing the need to rely on third parties to share information. This historical transaction data also can be used to prevent fraud and verify the authenticity of assets.

4. Enhanced security

The distributed, immutable blockchain technology offers inherent security advantages over traditional record-keeping systems. Every transaction must be agreed upon before its recorded. Once recorded, every process, every agreement, every payment, and every task have a digital signature and record that can be validated and identified. This provides an unequivocal source of truth for streamlined auditing, records management, and compliance processes.

The network itself is secured by a consensus mechanism for verification. This effectively makes it impossible to for bad actors to launch attacks on networks at scale. Multiple participants with a copy of the blockchain ensure that the network is resilient and guarantees permanent up-time.

5. Improved operations

Any business function that relies on traditional, paper-heavy processes is prone to human error and often requires validation either internally or externally. Blockchain technology offers widespread application across nearly every business function to add trust and transparency to any transaction and disrupt current back-office processes through automation. This facilitates transactions being completed must faster and more efficiently. For example, because the blockchain serves as a single digital ledger shared by all participants, the need to reconcile multiple ledgers among several parties is eliminated. Since everyone is the network has access to the same information, fewer intermediaries are needed to resolve disputes over conflicting data.

6. Reduced costs

Reducing costs is a priority for any business. On top of cost reduction through automation, blockchain can also reduce the need for many third-party services. Because trust and transparency are inherent in every transaction, businesses can stop relying on third parties to settle trade disputes and instead trust the data on the blockchain. Businesses can also significantly reduce the scope of internal and external audits since data is verified in real time before being recorded.

Blockchain Disruption in Your Industry

The application of blockchain’s benefits extend to any industry. The decentralized nature of the ledger makes it impossible for a single party to control the information or manipulate the data to their advantage, and the immutable nature of the blockchain makes it nearly impossible to compromise. The implementation of smart contracts and IoT connected devices unlock even more possibilities. For example, parties on the blockchain can create rules to accept delivery based on timing and shipment condition. If the stated rules are not met, i.e. the delivery is late or goods arrive damaged, the delivery will be rejected.
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