Why as a Common man, I Need to Know about Blockchain?

It’s here and it’s here to stay for good. Back in 2017, when I got involved in the blockchain world, I couldn’t have guessed how it’s going to impact our day to day lives in the coming years. Well, it is pretty clear now, isn’t it? Blockchain technology is opening new doors to the next stage of human evolution every single day. Let me try and break this down so it’s easy to digest.

Money

It is changing the way how we perceive money. We look at banks as custodians of our life savings. Cryptocurrencies as we know them, are changing that viewpoint and it’s not just that, they are also providing the alternative solution at the same time. Removing the need for a central authoritative figure from all money games is a big change in how people have known banks for centuries. It is inevitable, that cryptocurrencies will become part of everyone’s life. It may not be in the exact form as it exists today, because every government will customise how they adopt CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies). As a common citizen, I will use cryptocurrency on day to day basis. It will change the way how people think about investments, savings, loans, invoices, payments, and the list goes on, basically anything involving money. It is the underlying Blockchain technology that makes it possible.

ART

You may have heard of NFTs by now. If not, you soon will. Although it started in 2014 it has become mainstream in 2021. Beeple sold his “Everydays: the First 5000 Days” NFT for a whopping $69.3 Million. Three are a few more noticeable NFTs that have sold in multimillion dollars. Anyway, the point is, ART industry has changed as we know it. Creative artists who used to be on the sidelines are now the central point. They get the real reward for their art piece and Blockchain has made it possible that they get enough royalty when their art piece is sold in the secondary marketplace. More artists are coming forward and converting their art into NFTs to reap the rewards. While more artists coming into the mainstream, that means it’s shaping how art is being perceived, sold, or bought.

Fashion

The fashion industry is adopting NFTs and Blockchain technology faster than we think. Recently Gucci joined up with Superplastic and released 10 of their initial NFTs SuperGucci. What does it mean though? That means fashion brands recognise the power of digital wearables. Every day there are new e-commerce stores popping up experimenting with digital fashion wearables. These will be used in Metaverse worlds on your digital avatars. Nike buying Rtfkt is another evidence that Metaverse and the digital world are not going to be left behind as far as fashion is concerned. NFTs are even part of 2022 fashion week in Paris.

Parenting

No one talks about parenting in the context of changes Blockchain is bringing in our kids’ lives, but as a parent of 2 kids (9 years and 4 years old), I am feeling it already. Maybe not many people have realised it yet, kids will have an immersive digital world where they are interacting with friends, community, and even strangers. Games like Fortnite and Roblox are examples of these but this is an early stage. Metaverse games are going to be more interactive and immersive than they are today. Your kids, from a very early age, will have a digital version and a physical version. This brings in an area where it would impact a common person’s life. You would need to be aware of how these games/experiences and the digital world works in order to understand what your kids are doing and how they are getting impacted by their digital identity.

Shopping

of course, it is going to change how we shop. Major retailers are now coming to a realisation that accepting cryptocurrencies is in their best interest. Big companies like Microsoft, Tesla, Expedia, eBay, CheapAir, Amazon (not directly yet), and even Apple considering or already accepting cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrency cards will be normal. Companies like Mastercard are paving the way through for this where every common person can use cryptocurrency cards on day to day basis.

Music

Very similar to Art, the music industry is adopting NFTs and changing how royalties are paid to the artist directly. Artists are realising that NFT or underlying blockchain technology can remove the middle man and reward them better. This is changing how music is released and consumed.

Real Estate

Blockchain will change how we buy the property and the paperwork for buying/selling real estate. Recently a house in the US sold for $650K as an NFT. Imagine a world where real estate can be bought in a similar process you buy an NFT removing weeks or months or sometimes years of legalities and paperwork. Well, the NFT token will be a little more complex, so it represents the ownership of the physical asset in the real-world but the process can be very much simplified.

Wills

This is an obvious area where blockchain technology can add a number of improvements. Smart contacts can execute the will as required by will writer. There are a lot of complexities in will execution depending upon which country you live in. There is a lot of paperwork and legalities involved. Laws may not change but the execution of will could be very much black & white based on a smart contract on the blockchain.

Insurance

As of today, there is a lot of subjectivity when it comes to insurance. There are chances of fraud on both sides, either claimant or the insurance provider. Claimant and claim something which they have made up or did intentionally to win big insurance money. Sometimes, providers pull something out from thin air to invalidate the claim. This can be thing of the past when an insurance contract is written as a smart contract. The claim is processed as long as all the conditions are met and that is decided by code and not by a person. This is as black & white as it can get.

Digital Identity

Digital identity is becoming more of a need in today’s world and blockchain can make it robust and fraud-proof. As blockchain provides a natural trust mechanism, it’s the big differentiator between existing technology and what Blockchain can bring to the table. This will reduce the cost of verifying all digital records belonging to an individual or an organisation and at the same time increase reliability.

Education & Learning

Blockchain gives students ownership of their academic records. This makes the verification of credentials much easier for anyone who is interested in a student’s background verification. This could also shape how students are evaluated in the coming years.

Mortgages

Most of us have had mortgages in our lifetime. The way mortgage applications are processed is time-consuming and long-winded. This could all be changed by the use of smart contracts, underwriting process where digital identities will help make the decision backed/ trusted by a distributed ledger.

Supply Chain

The supply chain is one of the obvious areas where blockchain is penetrating. You can track where the beans were grown for the coffee you are drinking because that’s all tracked through distributed ledger on the blockchain. The whole logistics will have the tracking of goods at each touchpoint. It’s not just this, but there is a whole host of other applications of blockchain in the agriculture industry.

Medical Industry

This can change how medical records are kept and linked to the individual in a secure manner and overcome the issue of healthcare data breaches.

This is just scratching the surface. As I mentioned above, new doors are opening every day, and currently, we can’t even imagine what other areas, this technology is going to impact. It may take some time but there is no doubt that blockchain technology is going to touch all our lives directly or indirectly so we better start to know about it.