Blockchain, cryptocurrency, bitcoin, and ethereum are a few terms we often come across while flipping over a tech magazine or surfing the Internet when looking for the latest technology trends. However, blockchain isn’t the new kid on the block — it’s been around for a decade. The global market worth for blockchain was $708 million in 2017, which is now anticipated to reach $60.7 billion in 2024*.

First off, what exactly is blockchain?

Blockchain is a secure chain of blocks that plays the role of a ledger recording every transaction between two parties.

Here’s a visual representation of how blockchain works.

According to Bill Tai, venture capitalist, entrepreneur, and co-creator of the Blockchain Summit, blockchain is defined as “A distributed ledger where the recording of all those transactions isn’t just happening in one place. It’s written in thousands and thousands and thousands of places. It can’t go down, and it’s always transparent. You can always look it up. So it’s hard to hack because to try to replace or erase and change the information, you’d essentially either have to take over every single one of those computers around the world, writing it down at the same time, or you’d have to double the whole network all at once, which [is] really kind of impossible at the scale it is today.”

So how will adapting blockchain technology be profitable for your business?

Blockchain is set to change the way brands interact with customers. This standardization of data will not only give customers transparency of data but also motivate brands to come up with ideas that enhance their interaction with customers.

Here are some areas where blockchain will improve business:

1. Security
   Digital marketing has enabled interaction between the customers and brands, giving customers the power to choose what they want to do with a particular brand. This freedom, in turn, makes security a considerable concern for both marketers and customers. Data breaches are rising every second. With GDPR stepping in, marketers are in a tough spot. As if building confidence with customers wasn’t enough, but now, marketers have to do it at the cost of a security issue. If you’re a marketer looking for a solution that abides by the laws and keeps the data secure, make way for blockchain encryption. Blockchain’s security takes the trophy due to its decentralized data storage structure, meaning you can finally say goodbye to the middlemen and their fees. To hack into the data, one would have to break into each and every block the data has been stored in. Voila! There you have it — enhanced cybersecurity with blockchain.
2. Innovations
   Remember when there were ledgers to store all business data until cloud services took over? Many of us avoided using cloud platforms for a long time, but now it’s something that we cannot imagine our businesses without. The same kind of innovation is happening with blockchain technology. Technology giants like Microsoft, IBM, and Amazon are already ahead of the curve by taking up ‘Blockchain as a Service’(BaaS). Imagine what more can evolve!
3. Seamless Payment
   Did you know that retailers can create their own blockchain currency for their customers? They can even have the same currency for multiple retailers to build up loyalty programs. Therefore, every time you shop from a particular brand, you will be rewarded with points that you can cash at other retail stores that have the same points as their currency. This will not only increase customer participation but also be an added benefit to the customer while allowing a seamless payment process.
4. Better Results
   Blockchain will help digital marketers measure the results better than before. Blockchain can serve as a record to solve how many people are actually looking at your content — one of the most significant grey areas in marketing. With Blockchain, a brand can verify if the ad was delivered and viewed by a real person. This will give accurate results and optimize the frequency of ads to ensure a brand does not deliver more than what is required.
5. One-to-one Personalization
   How often have you come across targeting a whole segment whereas only a niche of that segment actually responded to your ad? Think about all the capital spent on targeting products/services to those who were not even interested in it the first place. With blockchain technology, marketers can utilize the details of each and every customer for a personalized one-to-one marketing experience, delivering exactly what customers want.
6. Verification
   No more dealing with bots — blockchain technology will improve the verification process of social media accounts, followers, influencers, as well as email deliverability. Combining the decentralized principle of blockchain with identity verification, a digital ID can be produced that would act as a digital watermark for every online transaction. This can help organizations eliminate fraud by checking identity on every transaction in real time. Blockchain technology will also improve the verification process of social media accounts, followers, influencers, and email deliverability. BlockVerify, Guardtime, and ShoCard are a few companies that are leveraging blockchain technology to provide identification and authentication services.

Believe it or not, blockchain is here to stay. We’re excited and are already looking for our thinking hats to transform our business with blockchain. Are you ready?

*https://marketreportscenter.com/

Research Material:

https://marketreportscenter.com/

https://www.inc.com/alisa-cohn/blockchain-is-here-to-stay-here-are-3-ways-you-can-use-it-in-your-business.html

https://citrusbits.com/blockchain-stay-bitcoin-might-not-glimpse-future-decentralized-apps/