Summary– Have you ever considered what blockchain technology could do for your business? Now is the time to explore! The blockchain era is upon us – with its capacity to reinvent traditional business processes and even whole industries. Futuristic technologies such as blockchain are the only way forward for modern enterprises amidst an ever-changing landscape. Gartner estimates that the business value added by blockchain will grow to more than $3.1 trillion by 2030. Statista is forecasting revenues from Blockchain technologies exceed USD 39 billion in sales revenue globally within about five years, reaching a market of how many billions of US dollars! Rushford Business School’s DBA in Finance Program will give you a relevant understanding of blockchain when you switch to digital transactions.

Ever wonder what blockchain technology could mean for your business? And if you think it won’t, it’s time to consider! Blockchain is not just a buzzword to describe accounting; it changes our business practices and, slowly or quickly, resets whole industries.

Modern enterprises are entangled in a web of changes, which is their backdrop and surrounds them relentlessly. How can they adapt and build from here? The answer to this lies in the implementation of futuristic technologies that overreach monotonous tasks and lay down a path for an efficient, secure & collaborative future era.

Gartner, a Technological research firm, estimates the business-added value to be around USD 3.1 trillion by the same year and that up to 10%-20% of global economic infrastructure will eventually deploy blockchain-based systems.

Concept of Blockchain

Think of a digital ledger distributed across thousands of computers, with transactions recorded cryptographically and visible worldwide. That’s exactly what blockchain is! 

Every block in the chain contains critical information, such as a cryptographic hash of the previous block, transaction data, and a timestamp when a block is added to the chain, an unchangeable record is created, guaranteeing the accuracy and immutability of the recorded data.

This makes every transaction on the blockchain authorized with a secure and unique digital signature, which acts as a digital identity reference. The account owner will only be able to make transactions with their digital signature, providing a further layer of security.

Even more interesting is that a network of peers confirms blockchain transactions through mathematical algorithms. These peers are unique bodies that come to an agreement related to transactions and other critical operations. The network comes together like a team, with their participation in establishing the accuracy and reliability of the blockchain network.

Therefore, blockchain technology provides a safe, transparent, and completely decentralized solution for recording these transactions. Thus, it is innovation at its finest.

Let’s Discuss the Different Categories of Blockchain 

There are three basic categories of blockchain: Private, Permissioned, and Permissionless. The differentiating factors are its access control, governance, development origin, transaction speed, cost, efficiency, and use cases. 

Permissioned blockchains are those where access and permission to the same are defined for each role within an organization. Thus, it also supports centralized control by having varying levels of governance, unlike fully decentralized.

Private blockchains are permissioned and controlled by a single entity or consortium of related organizations. Participants must have explicit consent to join the network. They enable maximum control over speeds & compliance post-deployment but are coupled with lower interoperability than other blockchain solutions on this list. 

Public/Permissionless blockchains are the best fit for Consortium Networks. Anyone can join a permissionless blockchain. Public blockchains are decentralized and better at protection but slower in transaction formation with more energy consumption. Other types of needs are served by different types, from (primitive) enterprise solutions to open global applications.

Table of Differentiation

Here are six ways in which Blockchain Technology can Transform Businesses: 

• Transparency and Security in Entrepreneurship

One of the leading benefits of blockchain technology is making business transactions transparent and secure. Because all networks are completely decentralized, anyone with access has the same information as everyone else, and intermediaries can help avoid fraud or manipulation of prospects.

This trustworthiness is the best standout feature of blockchain, which became apparent after being applied in several areas and getting excellent outputs. Take the supply chain management case, where blockchain technology has brought about a massive revamp. Businesses can track the entire journey of a product on the blockchain, thereby keeping their goods authentic and traceable. This enhances consumer trust, reduces counterfeiting, and improves general supply chain capabilities. The trust the proliferation of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies created is rooted in blockchain technology.

• Security, Privacy, and Immutability

Due to the security features of Blockchain technology, there are limited possibilities for hacking practices. This is because of its end-to-end encryption, which creates a verifiable and secure ledger of activity that eliminates fraud risk or unauthorized access.

The use of a blockchain and its decentralized nature also increases security compared to traditional systems that rely on central servers. Moreover, blockchain provides privacy by transforming data into an anonymous format and restricting access control while maintaining immutability.

In today’s digital age, privacy and ownership of data are top of mind for businesses, consumers, and citizens. Blockchain technology facilitates the resolution of privacy issues and offers an alternative for bearing all sensitive information on its own. With the power of blockchain and cryptographic methods, entrepreneurs can make personal information more secure so that it is only used by individuals or entities with verified identities. This allows individuals to retain control over their data, a significant breakthrough in the trust businesses are attempting to build with their customers.

Healthcare startups are an example of a situation in which blockchain solutions help safely store and share research data so that measurements can be compared across multiple healthcare providers without violating patient privacy.

• Efficiency in Supply Chain Management

Through blockchain technology, companies can track products/services from production until distribution and customer receipt. Blockchain provides transparency and immutability, enabling businesses to resolve counterfeit problems and delivery-related delays. Furthermore, it strengthens process security guards.

Walmart uses a blockchain system in its food supply chain to ensure transparency of operation throughout the decentralized ecosystem. This has helped the company to trace the origin and quality of imported pork items from China and resolve issues with specific batches from a particular location.

• Improved efficiency and Cost savings

Now, business owners are always interested in optimizing their operations and reducing costs. Blockchain technology provides a variety of functionalities that can improve business approaches and increase operational efficiency. The use of blockchain technology could enable businesses to save money by reducing transaction processing times and alleviating the friction associated with time-consuming manual processes like data collection, manipulation, reporting, and audit.

Integrating networks with a blockchain can bring cost savings, allowing for the removal of costly intermediaries such as vendors and third-party providers. With the help of blockchain development firms, businesses can exploit these cost-saving avenues.

• Smart Contracts

Business transformation is driven by smart contracts, a leading application on a blockchain network. These agreements can be self-executing codes by which the terms and conditions between parties to the agreement can be verified. These codes are stored in a secure manner on the decentralized blockchain network, which makes them highly immutable. 

When the predetermined conditions are met, codes run by themselves, and any dissent means the return of services or assets to the entity without violation. It eliminates the middlemen—intermediaries like regulators and government officials are not needed to resolve disputes, thus saving businesses time and money.

• Opportunities for Decentralized Funding

Traditionally, entrepreneurs found it hard to get capital from venture capitalists or even banks and other financial institutions. Nevertheless, blockchain technology has created opportunities for decentralized financing, i.e., Initial Coin offerings (ICOs) or token sales.

Entrepreneurs can raise capital by selling digital tokens or cryptocurrencies to investors through ICOs. These tokens quite often represent a share in the project or access to a product/service. By using a decentralized fundraising model, startups can bypass traditional routes of securing capital and open up access to credit and ideas.

For example, ICOs enabled projects like Ethereum and EOS to raise massive sums by creating apps and platforms that disrupt future fund models.

Conclusion

Blockchain is based on a peer-to-peer architecture, meaning it heightens transaction transparency for increased data resilience and safety while decreasing operating costs. Media supply chain expedition with blockchain is achieved by a decentralized ledger, which aids in better security, data analytics, and control mechanisms to mitigate copyright violations.

This has made it capable of disrupting every field, such as healthcare, logistics, manufacturing, and IT, providing a real-time solution to existing problems. Blockchain combined with AI (Artificial Intelligence), Big Data, and Cloud are the most transformative technologies that promise to disrupt several business ecosystems. Hence, businesses must recognize the plethora of opportunities this technology can bring them.

At Rushford, we are incorporating blockchain education into our finance offerings and grooming learners for the future of the fintech domain.