Last year saw a lot of banks in the finance industry adopt blockchain-based solutions and as the technology blockchain becomes more sophisticated, it is expected to spread across various industries throughout this year. Trying to predict the future isn’t an easy thing to do but the guys over at Forbes asked Technology Council members to predict which industries will get involved with blockchain next. If you work in one of the following industries then you should probably start to think about how your company might be able to get on the blockchain bandwagon to assist your growth. Education So there are a lot of industries that are looking into blockchain as a potential technology to help bolster them above the competition and here is why education should look into it too. There are a lot of big organisations that have got common interests and wish to enable transfer of credentials which could greatly benefit from a common blockchain. Storing the credits you’ve earned through this method could help preserve and ensure liquidity for the data by helping both students and institutions. For crypto projects, Ripple is the best one for this field as they have recently partnered up with 11 universities from across the globe. This results in Ripple having 29 partnered institutions in the field. According to Ripple Insights: “In education, we’re partnering with leading universities around the world to support increased research and innovation in blockchain, cryptocurrency and FinTech through the University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI), launched in June.” Power Power and energy supply firms aren’t usually thought of as using bleeding-edge technology but blockchain might be something that stands out. Blockchain technology is able to assist real-time transactions like energy trading, which could speed up the whole process because a third party verification isn’t needed. This should also be the result in greater transparency and cost reductions. Online Commerce As you would expect, online commerce, e-commerce, is something that occurs online. There is always the worry about cybersecurity and online payments with e-commerce and that there is always that extra step in order to prevent security breaches. Blockchain technology is known for being very hard to hack into and so people are able to feel safer as e-commerce make bigger and more complex fiscal transactions online. When Bitcoin wallets eventually get adopted, the process will be a lot smoother. Crypto projects like Bitcoin is one of the biggest currencies for this industry. With Bitcoin ATMs on the rise across the world (more than 4,000 in the US), being able to spend your Bitcoin is easier than it has ever been! Healthcare The healthcare industry is always busy and new technologies like blockchain could help make processes in the space a lot easier. There is a lot of test work that has been executed in the health industry such as supply chain, slow payments and the claim dental issues in revenue cycle management value-based contracting arrangements for bundled payments, referral management and patient record sharing. Throughout this year, a lot of this test work will be most likely moved towards a production level. The crypto project that will tie in with healthcare is VeChain. During China's tragic vaccine scandal, it was reported in August that vaccine manufacturers in the nation provided hundreds of thousands of faulty and falsely documented vaccines to Chinese school children. The scandal has incited widespread fury in both China and abroad. VeChain introduced their drug and vaccine traceability solution last year which was developed in partnership with DNV GL and leveraged public blockchain technology to quickly advance drug traceability, security, monitoring and auditing. Agriculture As reported by Forbes, food contamination issues can damage businesses and whole. Supply chain traceability can recall precise losses as well as putting a cap on them too. Blockchain and in-field Internet of Things devices enable high granularity of traceability from the field block and picker to the consumer. “Expect this first for leafy greens and later throughout agriculture.” IoT Speaking of Internet of Things, this is something that blockchain would be perfect for. A key use case for blockchain will be in solving problems of identity management. While digital certificates provide a first factor of authentication there are a lot of other factors that don’t apply to machines such as biometrics. Blockchain allows transaction history to be used as an alternative method to establish confidence in a machine’s identity. Delivery Last but certainly not least is delivery. Shipping and logistics is a potential domain where blockchain could be used. Currently, there is a lot of bureaucracy involved when consignments are delivered from one source to another which can result in a loss of consignments as well as a manipulation of proper records. “Blockchain could provide the solution for secure recording of data and transactions.” Hopefully from this you have gained some insight into some of the other applications for blockchain technology. Remember, the blockchain is far more than just cryptocurrency, it’s a technological revolution!