A report by world economic forum gives a glimpse into how blockchain technology could change the world. The report predicts that by 2025, 10 percent of world GDP will be stored on blockchain or related technologies. The following are some of the areas where the technology is set to have the greatest impact:
Smart contracts
The good thing about blockchain is that it can be used to store both something as basic as an indicator of value like bitcoin as well as complex digital information such as computer codes. These codes can be programmed to execute once two or more parties to a transaction enter their private keys acknowledging that a binding contract has been entered into. These codes can also read from external data feeds like weather reports, stock prices and news headlines among other things that can be parsed by a computer code. This enables the creation of smart contracts that are executed automatically once certain pre-conditions are met.
Invoice Management
Blockchain based applications can also be set to allow a business to validate transfers based on delivery of service. An example would be where a certain number of buying orders signals to the blockchain based smart contract that the requisite conditions for payment of an invoice have been met. App ecosystems based on platforms like ethereum are already evolving with the aim of giving businesses the toolsets needed to get involved.
Internet of Things
Some experts have suggested that blockchain technology has the potential to provide the value fuel for the internet of things. Devices both at home and in offices could automatically pay for their energy consumption by writing to the appropriate blockchain and transferring value equal to the exact amount of energy consumed by the device.
Smart Power Grid
There is a smart local power grids project based on blockchain technology. The system aims to make it possible to administer the distribution, metering and billing of electricity within the community independent of any external power and finance companies. This demonstrates how blockchain technology could change the world especially for remote communities.
Intellectual property Management
Ascribe aims to solve intellectual property related issues using blockchain technology. By creating a transferable or permanent link between the owner of an intellectual property asset and the asset itself, it will be possible to handle licensing. It will also be possible to create limited editions of digital information effectively controlling the number of times that a piece of information such as an artwork can be shared, copied or displayed.
Election Management
Experts have experimented with blockchain based voting and concluded that it would greatly promote transparency in electoral systems. Under the system, every voter would be assigned one private key representing one vote. There would be no need for a third party election body to oversee the process.
The list is endless but the truth is that the many possible applications simply demonstrate how blockchain technology could change the world.