It is easy to conclude that the global cryptocurrency business had a rough year in 2022. It started with the steady fall in the price of bitcoin from its all-time high of around $69,000 and ended with the unexpected collapse of crypto exchange FTX and the arrest of its disgraced founder and former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried. In the midst of these events, the algorithmic stablecoin TeraUSD crashed, along with crypto hedge firm Three Arrows Capital and crypto lenders Voyager Digital and Celsius.
While 2023 seems to be the year when the financial authorities give the crypto sector some guidance to help establish consumer confidence, the fact is that cryptocurrencies, including potential central bank digital currencies, are still a long way off. Are, with far-reaching implications beyond their current use cases. The world’s awakening to the disruptive influence of blockchain technology, which underlies it all, is not far off.
We are already seeing how blockchain technology has the potential to disrupt some of the world’s most vital businesses, particularly banking and global finance. Blockchain technology is expected to have such an impact on global finance that former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton has stated that its successful adoption is critical to the future of our financial system. David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs, also complimented the technology’s impact on financial markets, claiming that it has “far-reaching implications for the global economy”.
But what about outside the financial world? Could tokens or self-executing contracts ever have a far-reaching influence beyond money? In fact, I feel the answer is unequivocal.
Here are three examples of how blockchain technology is driving global transformation:
Cancer research
Blockchain technology helps researchers use artificial intelligence to correctly predict the presence of cancer in patient tissue samples.
A recent study from the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom used a swarm learning system to train an AI algorithm to detect cancer-indicative patterns in photographs of tissue samples taken from patients with intestinal tumors. to recognize exactly. The researchers used Ethereum smart contracts to enable three physically independent computers to update AI model weights at specific times without the intervention of a centralized authority. “In this setup, the blockchain contains global state information about the model,” the researchers said.
We have shown that swarm learning can be used in medicine to train independent AI algorithms for any image analysis task,” said study co-author Phil Quirke. “This means it’s possible to eliminate the need for data transfers without institutions having to give up secure control over their data.”
Additional research has shown that genomics and big data researchers can benefit from the distributed ledger and trustworthiness of blockchain. For example, the Cancer Gene Trust is established by the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health. The Trust stores and distributes anonymized patient data on a blockchain to enable secure distribution of clinical data for the benefit of all cancer researchers.
Government
Blockchain technology helps governments secure their data and improve many services.
The Estonian KSI blockchain, which the tiny Baltic nation has been using since 2012 for everything from generating smart ID cards to storing health data, is a much-cited example. Blockchain technology also supports Estonia’s land tenure registration system, enabling citizens to claim property rights by building a secure and publicly verifiable registration system. Similar blockchain-based cadastres currently exist or are maintained in countries such as Brazil, India, and Russia, among others.
In recent years, the UAE has also been active in the field of blockchain technology. In 2016, it launched the Dubai Blockchain Strategy, an ambitious proposal to use blockchain technology to conduct all government transactions and establish the world’s first “blockchain-powered city”. Under the Emirates Blockchain Strategy 2021, the government has set an even more ambitious goal of completing 50% of all projects by 2018. Blockchain technology is used to enable national government transactions.
California stated in January that it will integrate its car title database into the Tezos blockchain, allowing drivers to store their car titles as NFTs and speed up title transfers.
Logistics
As the global supply chain becomes more congested, blockchain technology helps logistics companies track goods.
In principle, blockchain’s distributed ledger and the ability to track every movement of shipping containers could help the entire logistics enterprise. Oracle offers Intelligent Track and Trace, a SaaS product that provides enterprises with a turnkey blockchain application to track shipments from start to finish.
Oracle blockchain network that is decentralized Chainlink goes one step further, allowing hybrid smart contracts to interact with real-world data and services that are not part of the blockchain network. Chainlink enables blockchain-enabled companies to access off-chain data sources while maintaining the security and reliability of blockchain. This means that logistics organizations that use one blockchain to track shipments and another for payments, can share messages and data across the two blockchains, resulting in more efficient and reliable procedures.
Blockchain dominance seems inevitable in most, if not all, of the world’s major industries. Technology will make for more secure, reliable and efficient systems, and companies should look for opportunities to implement technology wherever possible. Governments should also prioritize technology to simplify bureaucratic operations and preserve individuals’ personal information and other national records.
Companies and governments aggressively leveraging blockchain technology will realize business benefits as they lead the way from Web2.5 to Web3.
Source: Forbes Technology Council
