There are more uses for the blockchain than just bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Because of how well Bitcoin has done, it has become a synonym for all blockchain development applications.
But this isn't true because more blockchain applications are being made to be used in many different industries to cut costs, make things more fair and transparent, and improve the efficiency of those industries.
Some ways that blockchain applications can be used are:
Supply Chain and Logistics
Because there are so many logistics companies in the supply chain and logistics industry, there is a lot of confusion and lack of communication. Also, data is skewed or changed because each logistics company uses its own terms, which makes it hard for people who aren't experts to understand.
Accenture and DHL did a study together and found that there are more than 500,000 shipping companies in the US alone that make it hard to share information and keep track of it. The report says that blockchain can solve many problems in supply chain and logistics management.
Healthcare
Even though it's still early, blockchain is already showing some promise in the healthcare field. Early blockchain solutions have shown that they have the potential to lower the costs of healthcare, make it easier for all parties to access information, and streamline business workflows.
A sophisticated ecosystem for collecting and sharing private information could be just what the medical and health care industry needs to cut costs in an already overpriced industry. One example is the Estonian X-Road solution, which connects different information systems for different services.
Retail and Online Shopping
The Ethereum virtual machine is the most common blockchain technology used in e-commerce. This is because it gives e-commerce brands a place to manage their blockchains. Customers can use Bitcoin to buy things from sites and apps that accept Bitcoin as payment.
Because blockchain applications make online financial transactions more secure, brands and customers both benefit from their use. In addition, it helps cut costs, improve business processes, speed up transactions, and make the customer experience better overall.
Finance
Blockchain could have a huge effect on the financial services industry because of all its benefits.
Blockchain can make payment processes more efficient. For example, blockchains like Polygon and Solana and side chains like Arbitrum can settle transactions in a few seconds for $0.01 or less, which is a lot cheaper than Visa, Mastercard, and Amex. Applications for the blockchain that are used in finance, like Ripple, help financial institutions and their clients and customers save money. Finance blockchain applications help banks save money on international transactions. By 2030, banks could save up to $27 billion on international transactions.
Property and Real Estate
Everyone will be able to invest in real estate, which was once only available to a few. For the first time, real estate-based security tokens allow people to own a piece of land or a building in parts. This makes the market more open to everyone and gives developers new ways to get money.
Another thing that real estate blockchain applications can do is use anonymous and comparable data to evaluate property investments in a very efficient way.
Media
The media has a lot of worries about data privacy, paying royalties, and stealing intellectual property. Deloitte's research shows that the digitization of media has led to a lot of people sharing content and breaking copyright laws. Deloitte thinks that blockchain applications for the media industry can give it a much-needed makeover in terms of data rights, piracy, and royalty payments.
NFT Market Applications
Since the beginning of cryptocurrencies, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have been the most popular way to use blockchain. In the past few years, the number of these digital items that are taking the world by storm has grown.
NFTs are unique tokens that can't be copied and are used to prove ownership of digital, physical, or intellectual property.
Heavy Industry and Manufacturing
As factories around the world become more connected to each other, blockchain is becoming more important. The factory of the future is made up of a whole network of machines, parts, products, and people in the value chain, such as logistics companies and companies that sell machines. Manufacturers and heavy industry have to worry more than ever about sharing data securely inside and outside of factory walls.
Music
Applications based on the music blockchain will save the music industry billions of dollars by changing the way rights and royalties are handled. This will make sure that writers, artists, publishers, and everyone else involved in the music industry are paid what they deserve.
Adding blockchain applications to the music industry would make it easier to keep track of royalties and rights because each artist's work would have its own version, regardless of where it was made or who owned it. This would help musicians get paid faster and for the right amount.
Games
Just like in an online role-playing video game (RPG) like World of Warcraft, World of Freight, or Fortnite, there are familiar, special, unique, epic, and legendary parts to the game. Rarest are the legendary items.
In blockchain-based games and blockchain-based game apps, you can set a number, like 25, for how many legendary items are in the game. Once this number is reached, no more legendary items of this type can be made. Even if these 25 things are all the same, each one is special because it will have a full record of how it has been used.
Wrapping Up
From a business point of view, it helps to think of blockchain technology as a type of business process improvement software for the next generation.
Collaborative technology, like blockchain, promises to make it easier for companies, organizations, and people to work together by lowering the "cost of trust" by a huge amount.
Because of this, every dollar spent on adopting the technology of tomorrow will give a much higher return.