Which Industries Are Being Disrupted By Blockchain?

Blockchain will impact more than just banking in the future. Despite making finance easier, the technology behind cryptocurrency is remarkably profound. You may already have an idea for a business that could benefit from such a system, and many visionaries are already thinking the very same thing. They have already implemented the tech. But what are some of the industries that this technology is expected to disrupt? Let’s find out...

Banking

Banks serve as the key stores of value and financial transfers. Blockchains are already starting to serve the very same purpose with their secure, tamper-proof ledgers, enhancing the accuracy and sharing of information between customers, service providers, and others along the supply chain; all at a fraction of the cost of traditional behemoths. And beyond mere ledgers, “Virtual Machines” (like that of Ethereum) allow for the automation of financial products such as loans, market making, liquidity provision, tokenization and more. This is by far the biggest industry already in the throes of getting disrupted.

Music

By using blockchain platforms, musicians will be able to deal directly with fans and be in control of their own art. Producers and musicians can upload music and earn 100% of the royalties. They can also split the royalties with other collaborators if they choose, depending on how they structure the smart contracts linked to their media. These kinds of splits will make collaboration with other artists easier to manage and ensure a fair distribution of the royalties.

Furthermore, there is the incentivization aspect for the fans. Musicians like Kings of Leon are already using NFT technology to incentivize their fans to buy exclusive albums, artwork and merchandise direct from their store.

Voting

Another significant industry and societal practice facing disruption. With the security of blockchain tech, users will be able to confidently vote digitally instead of with pen and paper, and trust that once they’ve cast their vote, it will not be manipulated in any way. Traditional digital voting systems are honeypots for hackers because the servers are protected by a single point of failure. The blockchain is distributed, meaning there is no single point of failure (or access in this case), and the votes that are cast are recorded permanently.

Gaming

New blockchain-based developments are transferring ownership of in-game assets from developers to players. Fortnite and PUBG were pioneers of the shift towards free-to-play games with in-game purchases as their way of generating revenue. Most of these assets include skins (new avatars and suits for player characters), additional weapons, extra lives, and so on.

Players of these games invest considerable time and money into them, but they never technically own the assets that they have acquired. Instead, these users are merely receiving licenses from the developers. Blockchain changes this modus operandi but assigns unique cryptographic keys to each user, and each in-game asset is owned by that key.

Another big way that gaming is getting disrupted is the new “Play To Earn” craze sweeping the industry. Players earn rewards and cryptocurrency for progressing in their games, with these rewards attracting new users. More users increase the value of a developer’s game, and so the business cycle perpetuates itself. Games like Star Atlas and Axie Infinity have attracted millions of players, and are only two of an already burgeoning play-to-earn industry.

Insurance

Insurance has always been ripe for disruption, and with the decentralization of cryptocurrency and the smart contract functionality of the likes of ETH, ADA, DOT, and others, this disruption is finally happening. We are seeing users create smart contracts whereby they will fund a pool of cryptocurrency with their friends for when one of them needs it (like a broken down car etc.). The other friends will vote on how much to pay out to their friend in need, and the cryptocurrency will be distributed to that person’s wallet ready to cover the costs of the need—in this example, a mechanic. Insurance on the blockchain is still in its infancy, but as ConsenSys says, "there is ample opportunity."

It is possible to significantly reduce processing time and costs for insurance companies by using a blockchain to create a single source of truth for transactions. The immutability and version control features of blockchain technology enable insurance blockchain initiatives that involve cross-border partnerships and transactions.

Real Estate and Art

The biggest barrier to entry for middle-class investors when it comes to Real Estate and Art is the high cost. Very few middle-class investors can fork out over $300,000 for a new house or even $20,000 for a piece of art. But blockchain technology allows for the tokenization of these assets, thereby fractionalizing their costs and making such assets accessible. As highlighted by Deloitte here, fractional ownership of art is going to be big business in the coming decade, while Fraction Group is already paving the way for real estate investing-along with a myriad of other worldwide.

So you see, blockchain technology is rapidly disrupting almost all industries we can think of, and making the world more accessible for the average person. Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto would be over the moon with this kind of disruption because true, decentralized distribution is what his vision was from the get-go.