By Masha Balanovich, External Communications Manager at Drofa Comms.
The fintech heads are running into each other, speculating and predicting the future of blockchain and the crypto industry. In 2021 fintech was the one leading venture investment industry, with more than $130 billion in start-ups worldwide. Alas, the global fintech financing in 2022 fell more than 40% year-on-year, with the numbers continuing to decline as the year progressed. And many don’t pass up the opportunity to mock crypto enthusiasts (Gen-Z “Cryptok” included) pending another collapse story.
Jokes aside, I want to remind myself and others why we’re in this boat and why we’re in this industry and believe in it by going back to the bigger picture. While talking about blockchain, most people, including industry professionals, overlook uses of this technology other than crypto and financial services. But the collapse of FTX reminded us that the most valuable asset in the blockchain is not finance, but technology at its core and how it applies to different areas of life.
Let’s take a look at talking about crypto and dive deep into three realms. I consider excellent examples of how blockchain can benefit society and successfully do so today.
Healthcare without Borders
Healthcare has been one of the best performers industries for global VC finance since the outbreak of COVID-19. In fact, it ranks first in attracting venture investment in Q3 2022, ahead of fintech in second place.
And yet, many countries still struggle to provide secure data management for healthcare clients, meaning patients and healthcare providers have an incomplete picture of medical history. It can easily lead to unintentional medical errors and, in the worst cases, to casualties.
Integrating blockchain-based solutions into the medical industry can revolutionize record keeping and improve the performance, security and transparency of medical data sharing.
For example, Taipei Medical University Hospital and Digital Treasury Corporation (DTCO) issued the personal Health Records Operating System (phrOS) a few years ago to improve medical record keeping. phrOS encourages healthcare-related entities to co-create ecosystem applications that already provide outstanding benefits for insurance claims, safety and patient care. In this way, global eHealth initiatives can secure medical records while making healthcare systems more efficient and responsive to patients’ needs and expectations.
Imagine a future where the doctor from your hometown can easily share medical records with a colleague in Italy where you went on vacation and got sick. Imagine having control over your personal data instead of letting tech companies collect it for free and sell it to third parties for profit – this is the future of healthcare blockchain.
Revolutionary relations with the energy
While the carbon footprint and environmental impact of blockchain may be a concern for many, Ethereum’s recent transition to the less energy-intensive proof-of-stake consensus may influence other companies to follow suit.
In addition, the latest studies have shown that blockchain solutions for the energy transition have high application potential as the distributed driving brain of an energy community. This concept would revolutionize the energy sector and make the system more intelligent, efficient, transparent and secure in the long run.
As far as customers are concerned, ‘transactions’ in energy trading can be registered and settled almost immediately without an intermediary. And one day we will enjoy informal P2P energy transactions between users of the decentralized electrical system to “share” household generators and electric cars. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Transparency in government policy
It wouldn’t hurt to mention a few cases that illustrate government, Big Brother, or what it might look like with mainstream blockchain adoption.
For example, Estonia has e-services in every area where a citizen interacts with the state: e-health record, e-prescription database, e-law and e-court systems, e-police records, e-banking, e-Commercial register and e- Cadastre.
KSI Blockchain, Estonia’s backbone technology, ensures data is free from compromise while maintaining full data privacy. And the backbone of democracy, i.e. the voting industry, can gain significantly by following suit, as we are seeing internationally. Tsukuba became the first Japanese city to suggest blockchain digital voting in 2020. South Korea is on invest millions of dollars in a blockchain voting system, and India is schedule to implement a blockchain-based e-voting by the 2024 general election.
Blockchain integration in voting enables citizens to vote from any computer anywhere in the world, while providing unprecedented security measures and eliminating outdated voting methods such as printed ballots. It can also boost youth attendance.
In Estonia, 16- and 17-year-old citizens have been allowed to vote in local elections since 2017. And historically, no less than 36% – and sometimes almost 64% – of young voters Participate in the i-Voting system. In comparison, 27% of US citizens between the ages of 18 and 29 form a vote in 2022, the second-highest youth turnout in nearly three decades. So a blockchain-powered system could become a better way to encourage young voters, especially in times of lawmakers issue a number of laws that make it more difficult to vote.
Final thoughts
These are just some of the successful applications of blockchain technology known to the modern world. All the better, let more and more experts tone down the agenda, write about fascinating cases and share achieved results.
I just want to emphasize that crypto is not a goal or panacea. The goal of blockchain is decentralization and transparency in all aspects of our daily lives. It undoubtedly has the potential to fundamentally change the way we work as a society in the future. So let’s stick to it and invest in healthy growth.