Financial Technology Changing the World: A Few Ways We’re All Going On-Chain

As mainstream adopters begin to flirt with blockchain technology, the crypto space isn’t even close to achieving its full potential yet – but the future’s getting clearer, and blockchain has a bigger and bigger part.

The Contours of the Blockchain Revolution Have Begun to Take Shape

The future is ever inscrutable, but in the rat race of blockchain start-ups and cryptocurrency innovations, a handful of general trends appear all but inevitable.

The broader trend that authorizes all of these sub-trends, of course, is adoption in general; both individual and institutional investors and innovators are now flocking to the community in droves.

For example, consider how Coinbase just added 100,000 users in a single day, or how the CME, arguably the most significant options and futures exchange in the world, is about to add Bitcoin futures.

So as more users become acquainted with blockchain tech than ever before, so, too, will society’s usage of these blockchain ledgers become more and more entrenched.

The use-cases are limitless, and the major eventualities will undoubtedly change the way we all live.

Making Sure Our Data Is Protected, Guaranteed, and Auditable

Humanity already generates and processes an astonishing amount of new data each and every day—and this is still before the seemingly infinitely productive Internet-of-Things (IoT) has gone live.

With blockchain ledgers, data and transactions will become immutable and transparent. These ledgers will allow users to take greater control of their personal data flow more than ever before.

Gone will be the days of internet providers catching up massive amounts of user data in dragnet collection programs; blockchain’s empower data control.

Premier Cloud Storage Experience Via Blockchain

You don’t have to take our word for it—just consider how tech powerhouses like IBM, Microsoft, and Amazon are all scrambling to actualize Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) ventures in the field of cloud storage.

BaaS will surely revolutionize the cloud, as it makes storage therein affordable, quick, and easy-to-use. Microsoft, Amazon, and the like wouldn’t be going toe to toe in this area if there wasn’t something worth competing over at stake.

Could Dropbox one day transition to the blockchain? Time will tell.

For now, though, it’s clear that BaaS service models will come to dominate the cloud storage industry in the short- and mid-term. If the internet powered data, then the blockchain will power value, and cloud storage is just one useful avenue through which the blockchain can monetize the world around us.

And as companies flock to implement their own BaaS solutions, the blockchain tech involved will get easier and more affordable to implement.

No More Insane Exchange Fees Between Currencies

Sending money internationally through traditional outlets can be a burdensome, and expensive, process. The fees involved in sending money from one continent to another can be financially stifling in many cases.

But this dynamic could be antiquated sooner rather than later as blockchains and cryptocurrencies become more popular.

Blockchains power transactions across any and all borders inexpensively. People will begin moving into crypto to avoid currency exchange fees, and the rest will be history.

Consider how exchanging currencies can cost you 5, 10, even 20 percent per transaction. And then consider that, for lesser currencies, oftentimes they will need to be exchanged multiple times to arrive at the currency of choice. So that’s fee after fee after fee.

By the time the transaction is over, senders will have their transactions gouged from what they were trying to send in the first place.

With the blockchain, these kinds of woes will be left in the wastebin of history. Researchers are currently testing atomic swaps that would make certain types of crypto transactions instant and fee-less. No more currency exchange debacles.

Ultimate Logistics Thanks to an Ironclad Public Ledger

It’s obvious at this point that distributed ledger blockchains will play a major role in the world economy going forth into the 21st century.

Consider the hypothetical example of a seafood restaurant that’s moved their logistics on-chain. At this point, managers would be able to guarantee via blockchain data stamps that their sourced seafood was fresh and stayed below a certain temperature point during every phase of the supply chain.

It’s a game-changing capability that will allow companies to perform “custody audits” on their supply chain from start to sale, mitigating the potential of fraud, waste, and abuse and providing perfect logistical trackability.

Say Adios to Banks

The blockchain is the ultimate decentralizing economic force, putting the power back into users’ hands while simultaneously stripping power away from middlemen.

This dynamic poses an existential threat to banks over the long-term, whether they care to acknowledge that now or not.   

Banks can either swim with the tide and embrace blockchain technology, or be swallowed up in futile resistance.

Altogether, the use-cases and solutions blockchain innovations can provide grow with each passing day. In the years ahead, many novel developments will surely occur that will generate new possibilities that aren’t even conceivable at the moment. Yet for now, these five trends mentioned above are a sure bet for the crypto space going forward.