3 Great Uses for Blockchain

Blockchain technology has been around for some time now. It was first described in 1991 by Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta, but wasn’t known mainstream until the technology was used in Bitcoin in 2008.

Blockchain is described as a public ledger for all transactions on a network. Due to it’s sequential nature the leger can be distributed between computer systems and permit anyone to validate the entries. This allows a consensus to be formed and ensures the integrity of the ledger.

This is extremely useful for asset tracking applications and is the reason cryptocurrency has exploded over the last 10 years.

But what else could we be using this technology for? Here are some of our favourite ideas.

Digital Identities

Blockchain technology offers a solution to many digital identity issues, where identity can be uniquely authenticated in an irrefutable, immutable, and secure manner. Current methods use problematic password-based systems of shared secrets exchanged and stored on insecure systems. Blockchain-based authentication systems are based on irrefutable identity verification using digital signatures based on public key cryptography. In blockchain identity authentication, the only check performed is whether the transaction was signed by the correct private key. It is inferred that whoever has access to the private key is the owner and the exact identity of the owner is deemed irrelevant.

Enhanced Security

Some are already experimenting with a blockchain-inspired approach to trust on the web. Namecoin, which calls itself "a decentralized open source information registration and transfer system," facilitates the unofficial .bit TLD and offers an alternative to the current CA system. And The okTurtles Foundation, which supports the development of decentralization technologies, has developed DNSChain, a blockchain-based DNS and HTTP server that it claims "fixes HTTPS security."

With DNSChain, the blockchain replaces X.509 PKI. CAs, the weak link in the current trust system, go away. Public key pinning is used to secure the connection between clients and DNSChain, eliminating the need to use pinning on a website-by-website basis. A REST API provides access to all blockchains as well as traditional DNS, making the solution backwards compatible with the existing DNS system. As an added non-technical benefit, the elimination of CAs would eliminate the need to charge for certificates.

Supply Chain Management

Blockchain offers what is essentially a permanent record of transactions, which creates an easy-to-follow paper trail for audits, both internal and governmental. It guarantees accuracies and solves the problem of pulling in records from several disparate sources.

Blockchain can track goods and materials within an organization, as well, such as throughout the supply chain of a manufacturing company. As a product leaves the factory, blockchain could be used to record its arrival at a warehouse and then its shipment out to a retail store, for example.