11.1 Blockchain Applications in Real World: An Overview
The legacy system allowed central authorities, banks, stock exchanges, and other trusted intermediaries to become indispensable in all spheres of life, from registration of birth to education, employment, finance, and land acquisition; and with the passage of time, they transformed from middlemen to gatekeepers. They restrict access, charge for everything, create friction, stifle innovation, and consolidate their dominance.
In such a setting, blockchain can neither promise to make a user a billionaire overnight, nor can it provide a way to protect his financial activities from politically motivated governments. But what is certain is that it can significantly reduce the cost of trust through a radical, decentralized approach to accounting and provides an innovative way to structure economic organizations.
Thus, blockchain has unlimited applications for almost every industry in the real world. Ledger technology can be applied to verify credentials or track one’s past in education or finance; it can also securely share patient’s medical records among health-care professionals and serve to track intellectual property for scientists, researchers, and authors. At present, blockchain is mostly used in the financial sector, but there are many traditional industries where blockchain-based solutions provide an exceptional functionality (see Figure 11.1; Table 11.1; Garg, 2021a, 2021b):
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