While new business use cases for blockchain are being discovered every day, one thing is for sure, blockchain technology means more to businesses than simply payments.

This article will be looking at various current and future use cases, applications, and benefits of blockchain technology in businesses that are unrelated to payments, investment, banking, or finance.

General Business Use Cases

Blockchain technology can provide benefits in a wide variety of business divisions including (1) Supply Chain Management, (2) Human Resources, (3) Marketing, and (4) Information Technology/ Cybersecurity.

1. Supply Chain Management

Supply chain management encompasses “product development, sourcing, production, and logistics, as well as the information systems needed to coordinate these activities” [1]. Blockchain technology allows businesses a new and dynamic means of organizing supply chain tracking data and putting it to use. With its permanent ledger blockchain is well suited for tasks such as real-time tracking of goods as they move and change hands throughout the supply chain [2].

With many businesses operating on tight margins and relying on effective supply chain management to stay profitable, blockchain “ushers in a new era of flexibility, collaboration and speed-to-market.” Blockchain technology can revolutionize supply chain management systems by providing businesses a “trusted, secure, flexible and easy-to-use way to share real-time data among supply chain participants,” allowing them to quickly make critical supply chain decisions [3].

Blockchain technology allows two or more supply chain participants the ability to securely share access to the same data and for the ledger to act as a single source of truth. All recorded transactions, from multiple sources, are immutable and maintain a time-stamped audit trail of all packaging and supply chain labeling events [4].

By allowing traceability from sourcing to the finished product, blockchain technology ensures product integrity throughout the supply chain.  Spoiled or contaminated food, counterfeit or sub-par supplies can all result in loss of revenues, decreased trust, and even harm to consumers [5]. Blockchain technology is currently being utilized by businesses to manage the supply chains for food and it is even being used in the diamond industry.

• “A nationwide study conducted in the U.S. by the Oceana [organization] revealed that seafood is mislabeled up to 59% of the time. That’s why companies like Walmart and Tyson use blockchain to keep track of sourced food such as pork, seafood or chicken, so they are able to trace every piece of seafood” [6].
• “De Beers Diamonds uses blockchain to track diamonds from the point they are mined through each step of the supply chain, right up to the point they are sold to consumers. This gives consumers confidence that each diamond is genuine and avoids conflict or blood diamonds” [6].

Other industries like pharmaceutical companies have also begun to explore the benefits of blockchain utilization in supply chain management. In 2020, four Pharmaceutical companies took place in an FDA blockchain pilot program to study blockchain’s effectiveness for tracing prescription drugs and vaccines. The pilot successfully connected an IBM blockchain-based system with existing industry-standard systems. Using IBM’s blockchain-based system, participants were able to validate product quality and determine the origins of the product [7].

By providing businesses with increased visibility and control over supply chain processes, blockchain can help business improve the quality of their products leading to newfound efficiencies and cost savings. More than one-third of businesses cited reduction of costs as the top benefit of using a blockchain in supply chain management, according to a survey conducted by the APQC and the Digital Supply Chain Institute [6].

2. Human Resources

Human Resources (HR) is the division of a business responsible for all things worker-related including recruiting, vetting, selecting, hiring, onboarding, training, promoting, paying, and firing employees [8]. Blockchain technology can allow businesses to better manage numerous HR elements from hiring records to employee data management. “If we fully utilize blockchain’s capabilities, the technology will create more accurate and effective approaches to just about everything in HR. From big-picture areas like hiring and taxes to smaller scale tasks like payroll, there are so many important [HR] applications that blockchain will change” [9].

When it comes to vetting and selecting qualified candidates for positions, businesses require trustworthy and authentic information regarding an applicant’s credentials. Instead of an applicant writing up a description of previous employers and work experience, blockchain transactions could simply store all of their employment history [9]. It is interesting to imagine a shared employment ledger that stores applicants and employee data that can be easily accessed by any business. “It’s even possible that the blockchain can store performance indicators like whether the employee was promoted or the reason why they left the company” [9]. Whether or not this is the future of HR and hiring, blockchain technology could make this possible.

Blockchain technology can also act as a HR ledger within an organization, designed to permanently store applicant and employee personnel records. For internal promotions, this ledger can be a trusted source to gauge and compare current employee credentials, job performance, and experience when considering them for advancement within the company. Changes to these records can be tracked over time and are not available for on-the-spot manipulation to suit the needs of a particular job opening [10].

3. Marketing

Marketing, a critical element to ensuring the growth of most businesses, refers to all the activities undertaken to promote a product or service including advertising, selling, and educating consumers [11]. Effective marketing can jump start a company and when utilizing blockchain technology in digital marketing, businesses have access to an irreversible and auditable trail that can be used to confirm ad dollars aren’t being wasted [12]. Brands like Unilever, Nestle. McDonald’s, and Virgin Media are currently utilizing  blockchain to improve transparency in digital marketing [13].

Smart contracts between business advertisers and ad publishers utilizing micro-payments that incentivize customer interactions have the potential to revolutionize marketing [13]. Rather than businesses employing the services of multiple middlemen, business advertisers and ad publishers can interact directly and automatically with smart contracts that are enforced through the blockchain. When utilizing blockchain technology in Marketing and removing the intermediaries, businesses have an unobstructed view into how their ad dollars are being allocated. By being able to track everything from the initial digital advertisement, purchase order, to delivery verification, blockchain technology allows businesses to trace their ad dollars through the supply chain and see how much is going toward effective marketing that results in sales [12].

Using blockchain technology in business digital marketing can optimize the advertising value chain, allow for hyper-personalized targeted content delivery, and provide verifiable documentation relating to ad effectiveness [12].

4. Information Technology/ Cybersecurity

Today, Information Technology (IT) plays a part in almost every division of a business. Relating to IT, blockchain technology has multiple applications for businesses including data/ records management, integrity, and auditability as well as cyber-attack mitigation.

Most businesses have gone digital and no longer use paper documents as their primary source of record keeping. However, while moving from paper files to digital ones provides businesses with several benefits it also brings its own unique set of issues and problems that blockchain technology can assist in overcoming i.e., sharing, validating, and tracking data between business units. The benefits of fully utilizing blockchain technology in business IT could one day be considered as great of an advancement as the shift from paper to digital record keeping. The immutable nature of blockchain and the fact that every computer on the network is continually verifying the information stored on it, makes blockchain an excellent tool for storing large amounts of business data [14]. The blockchain ledger can easily be accessed by multiple business units simultaneously, while providing an auditable trail of documents.

Blockchain technology can also assists businesses by improving their IT cybersecurity.  According to Business Insider, The biggest advantage for blockchain in cybersecurity is that it removes the risk of a single point of failure while being capable of providing end-to-end encryption and privacy [2]. Blockchain can also improve a business’s cybersecurity by providing a decentralized form for sensitive data storage, reducing the effectiveness of DDoS attacks, and protecting data transmission. When using blockchain technology, most sensitive business data can be protected by ensuring a decentralized form of data storage. Using this cybersecurity threat mitigation method provided by blockchain would make it “harder and even impossible for hackers to penetrate data storage systems” [15].

As mentioned in Dragonchain’s blog, Quantum-Safe Interoperable Supply Chain and Electronic Records Systems for Regulatory Proof and Cybersecurity, there may be large data sets or sensitive data that cannot be fully distributed [16]. However, while this may be true it does not mean that blockchain technology can not be utilized to store and protect this data. By combining private and public blockchains, capitalizing on the benefits of both, Dragonchain’s hybrid interoperability solution, Interchain, can ensure sensitive data remains controlled and secure while being accessed by only authorized users [16].

Closing Remarks

When most businesses hear blockchain they immediately think payments, investment, banking, or finance.  However, blockchain technology has numerous business applications that span over every division of an organization. These are just a few of the many current and future use cases, applications, and benefits of blockchain technology in businesses.

In the future, other new and innovative business applications for blockchain will be discovered. While we have only begun to scratch the surface when it comes to the benefits blockchain can bring to businesses, one thing is for sure, blockchain technology means more to businesses than simply payments.

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Sources:
[1] What is Supply Chain Management (SCM)? – Robert Handfield, Ph.D.
[2] The growing list of applications and use cases of blockchain technology in business and life
[3] Ignite success on any cloud – IBM
[4] Blockchain Use Cases – Kirill Yusov, CPO
[5]Blockchain-Enabled Supply Chain Management Solutions – Dragonchain
[6] Blockchain Business Use Cases By Industry – Kaleido
[7] How the FDA is piloting blockchain for the pharmaceutical supply chain – Mark Treshock
[8] Human Resources (HR) – Shopify
[9] How Blockchain Will Change HR Forever – Ashik Ahmed
[10] Blockchain Use Cases - Paramita (Guha) Ghosh
[11] Marketing – Alexandra Twin
[12] Blockchain for advertising: The new black for media buying – Bill Wise
[13] Impact of Blockchain in Marketing and Advertising in 2020 – Toshendra Kumar Sharma
[14] The growing list of applications and use cases of blockchain technology in business and life
[15] The Future Use Cases of Blockchain for Cybersecurity – Cyber Management Alliance
[16] Quantum-Safe Interoperable Supply Chain and Electronic Records Systems for Regulatory Proof and Cybersecurity – Dragonchain