View the business value of the Blockchain

The chart of the week is a weekly feature of Visual Capitalist on Friday.

Blockchain can be an elusive concept. Its abstract nature leaves many doubts whether this emerging technology is the global catalyst that evangelists claim to be.

But blockchain is more a tool than a catalyst, not a single solution, but a new foundation at the base of our daily tasks. It offers industries a technological restyling driven by its ability to increase productivity, ensure transparency and reduce waste of time and paperwork.

Today's graphics are inspired by a McKinsey studio. Their research combines industry analysis by sector, interviews with experts and over 90 separate use cases to make informed estimates of the expected business value of the blockchain.

Adoption Blockchain

The main advantages of Blockchain revolve around its lack of a central hub. The transparency of a distributed ledger combined with the cryptographic security of an immutable data chain makes this technology the ideal vehicle for companies to exchange and validate information. It is not a single system, but a basic technology that can be configured in different ways to meet different business models and purposes.

Blockchain is still immature and there are nodes to solve before technology can scale effectively. Even so, it offers tremendous short-term value to reduce costs and boost operational efficiency.

Business value blockchain

There are some key areas where blockchain can add value to the business, even before large scale adoption:

Cost reduction

What would happen if your company no longer paid profits in logistics, in intermediaries and in an administrative process? The blockchain can streamline supply chains, eliminate the intermediary and ban processes that slow down efficiency and eat profits.

Revenue creation

The blockchain breaks down administrative and collaborative barriers, leaving room for innovative business strategies that simply were not feasible before the advent of distributed registries. With this new freedom, blockchain paves the way for new infrastructure and revenue models.

Consumer Impact

New business models offer opportunities to meet the previously neglected needs of consumers and communities. In the medical field, where remote patient care and record keeping may have been a problem in the past, blockchain advances provide ways to overcome these obstacles by using synchronized records and smart assist devices on the network.

Breakage of the Blockchain

Blockchain is already doing waves of financial services, government and healthcare. Let's take a look at how it could affect some other areas:

agriculture

Blockchain can transform the agricultural supply chain by simplifying the transition from farm to market and quickly identifying sources in the event of food safety epidemics. By reducing intermediaries, third-world farmers and small-scale farmers have the opportunity to join the supply chain.

Automotive sector

Companies can spread their operations to more effectively exploit economies of scale, using the blockchain to simplify the supply chain. Blockchain can also improve the travel sharing platforms, stimulating the transport revolution.

Insurance

Self-performing smart contracts and distributed databases can increase efficiency while reducing costs and the risk of fraud.

Blockchain for everyone

The simple purpose of the potential uses of blockchain means that there is something for almost everyone, from startups to big players.

The broad spectrum of use cases in all industry sectors could be why blockchains and encrypted companies have raised nearly $ 3.9 billion of venture capital so far this year – an increase 280% compared to last year. The increase comes in a growing number of businesses, as does the growing median value of each.

How can your business forge a blockchain future?