From Trading Cards to Cannabis, Blockchain Applications Are Endless

We’ve previously written about the potential for blockchain technology to revolutionize the ways in which small businesses operate. The last three years have seen the advent of many blockchain-based products that provide real-world advantages for the small businesses that adopt them. While I admit the adoption was not as broad and quick as I expected, many blockchain use cases have come to market, with many more still attempting to overcome legacy hurdles and switching costs.

We’d like to highlight a couple of blockchain business applications to illustrate the power of this technology to help small businesses overcome obstacles, boost efficiency, increase security/privacy and save money.

1. Asset Digitization

One of the most interesting new components of the blockchain is its ability to track and transition ownership of digital assets. This feature, implemented through non-fungible tokens (NFTs), is used to benefit digital asset sellers. NFT popularity is exploding, as creators and license holders digitize and sell their assets. It is only a matter of time before real world assets are fractionalized on chain and sold to the market of owners.

Additionally, as a small business owner, you can now provide for a better engagement with your users. For example, a busy celebrity could sell NFTs, and whoever holds one NFT at a certain time and date gets a meeting with her.  Another example: NBA Top Shots is selling NFTs of video clips for short moments in NBA history (such as a LeBron James dunk) and making digital, tradable cards.

Other companies are fractionalizing artwork to sell and own. By creating NFTs for a digital work of art, many collectors, investors and fans can own—and possibly trade—a piece of the artwork. Much like owning a rare trading card, the supply of the fractionalized tokens is fixed. Presumably, the price would increase with demand.

2. The Cannabis Industry

To succeed, the legitimate cannabis industry must wrestle market share from unlicensed sellers. At the same time, cannabis consumers must juggle fears of government harassment and problematic supply from unscrupulous growers and distributors. Blockchain can help by solving many supply chain management problems, such as safety and quality assurance.

Blockchain systems can prove that companies all along the supply chain have followed standard operating procedures that comply with government regulations. For example, a cannabis farm could use the blockchain to verify and record items like origin, pesticide usage, nutrient solutions administration, sanitation, storage conditions and so forth. By supporting distributed, immutable records of compliance, the blockchain can satisfy demands from government entities, producers, distributors, retailers and consumers.

[Editor’s Note: Want to learn more about blockchain and its benefits for supply chain management? Check out this clip from our webinar Blockchain and Supply Chain.]

Hundreds of Blockchain Use Cases Exist

We’ve barely scratched the surface of current and future blockchain applications to solve problem in dozens of industries, including:

• Data management—Blockchain systems protect against data theft and forgery, improving the perception and reality of data integrity, security and transparency.
• Data sharing—Facilitates the identification of data silo problems and supports the connection of silos to share data. This reduces the costs of data reconciliation, corruption and workflow automation.
• Healthcare—Blockchain solutions can connect providers, insurers, regulators and patients while maintaining HIPAA-compatible privacy protocols.
• Other—Blockchain already has significant presence in the many use-case categories, including finance, manufacturing, storage, retail, government and cybersecurity.

The influence of blockchain technology is exploding across the entire economic spectrum. Businesspeople increasingly understand that blockchain is not Bitcoin, but rather a much bigger concept with the power to solve problems for businesses of any size.

Additionally, as the new crypto bull market enters into its next growth phase, we will continue to see more attention and adoption of the technology, getting us closer to my original predictions.

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[Editor’s Note: To learn more about this and related topics, you may want to attend the following webinars: Blockchain and Smart Contracts, Digital Assets and Cannabis Investment: Successes, Failures, & Strategies for the Future.]

©All Rights Reserved. April, 2021.  DailyDAC^TM, LLC d/b/a/ Financial Poise^TM