Four industries that are about to change thanks to blockchain

Ever since Bitcoin became a well-known phenomenon, we constantly hear opinions about where blockchain technology could be used - in the field
electronic payments, bank clearing, patenting, trading on the exchange ... This list goes on and on. However, considering how blockchain could change the world, we risk losing sight of those areas where it already finds its application and leads to change.

This material will focus on 4 industries, each of which either is already changing through the use of distributed registry technology, or will most likely be transformed with its help in the coming weeks or months, that is, not even years. Each case is based on specific problems that need to be solved.

Online gaming industry

The scale of the gaming industry is enormous: it is expected that its total revenue will reach 100 billion dollars this year. And this is not surprising, given the fact that millions of players participate in some multiplayer games. Such worlds have a complex internal economy based on their own currencies, and this creates some sharp corners for both players and developers. The first ones have problems with replenishing the game balance and using it in any size convenient to them due to specific restrictions and the operation of the protective mechanisms of the international banking system. This situation creates problems for professional gamers who make a living by playing these or other titles. They really don't like to enter their credit card details on online services. They may have their own reasons for performing anonymous transactions. When the money finally gets into the game economy, their owner cannot easily transfer it to another game. In addition, the accumulation of large amounts in the game currency usually causes concern for their safety.

As for game development companies, they have to pay large commissions for the right to access the best publishing platforms. To receive payments from such platforms and aggregators, they sometimes have to wait up to two months. Truly successful games are highly dependent on professional gamers who spend large sums, but replenishing the balance in the system or withdrawing funds from it is usually fraught with problems, not least because of the requirements of anti-money laundering legislation and the need to follow “know his client. " All this means that developers are not immediately able to fully manage and manage their deservedly earned money.
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Cryptocurrencies solve all these problems. Creating an open currency on the basis of blockchain, subject to independent trade and free movement, you eliminate all these difficulties in one fell swoop. It is this idea that the European game developer Datcroft plans to implement by the end of the year, using the already established GameCredits cryptocurrency as a payment gateway for the entire gaming industry. The first game supporting this initiative will be the own main project of the studio - MMORPG Fragoria, the number of user accounts has already reached 7 million. As conceived by the company, GameCredits will have to function as a kind of simple and convenient bridge or reserve currency for the gaming world. We have before us a great example of how cryptocurrencies are becoming an increasingly mainstream phenomenon.

Loyalty programs

The market of loyalty programs is almost as large: now its size is estimated at 60 billion dollars and this figure is projected to increase to 100 billion by 2020. What is his problem? The fact that it does not work as we would like. Promotion programs do not really encourage customers for their loyalty. In any case, this is indicated by the average number of unnecessary plastic cards in consumers' wallets. Such cards simply do not offer sufficient value to make them profitable to use. Moreover, this approach is largely due to the mathematics of loyalty mechanisms, because whenever the merchant earns bonus points, he undertakes that one day he may have to exchange them for goods and services. Ironically, an excess of loyalty is bad for business.

Here, Blockchain can offer various advantages. First of all, you can think about the easiest ways to improve efficiency. For example, Loyyal offers its own blockchain-based technology approach that makes reward schemes easier to launch and manage. Individual companies and representatives of entire market segments can be combined into groups of very different sizes, without losing the flexibility of service for members of their programs.

However, the blockchain can change not only the technologies based on loyalty programs or simplify their management. It can also be useful for their economies. By adding tokens for reward points to the blockchain, you can optionally make them easily transferable (which is not found in modern loyalty schemes), which will allow consumers to trade them, thereby making them truly valuable. Instead of releasing points directly like fiat money, merchants are able to determine some variable part of each customer’s transaction and redeem it on the open market - some form of flexible cashback. They can also offer a discount for payments in this currency and set its size.

This is the approach used by the startup Incent . A preliminary study showed that merchants liked this idea, including because they do not take any responsibility in advance: their costs are known in advance. And if they manage to get at least 0.1% of the market, which, as expected, will soon grow to $ 100 billion, then a bright future will already be guaranteed to them. However, in order not to deviate from the topic, we summarize: now the merchants will have the opportunity to offer customers such reward points, which will make them really want to return to the store.

Recruitment market

The economy of joint consumption, pioneers of which were companies such as Uber and Airbnb, has gained considerable momentum in the past few years. Such services eliminate intermediaries and “gatekeepers” in various industries, allowing people to communicate with each other directly and exchange goods and services on an equal footing. Adding blockchain payments to such relationships is a natural and harmonious addition.

This is exactly what startup ChronoBank is doing , setting as its goal a revolution in the short-term hiring industry, allowing everyone who wants to work in exchange for tokens of time to be freely exchanged for goods and services or simply sold for other currencies. In essence, this service is an attempt to approach timembank in the spirit of free market principles. The idea of ​​using time as a monetary unit has been used for several hundred years, and the American city of Ithaca in the state of New York, whose local economy thrives using the same hours as the US dollar, can be a vivid example. However, if the traditional currencies of the time almost do not scale, then their blockchain counterparts are free from this drawback and companies like Chronobank now have good potential for building interactions between buyers and sellers of the global labor market of the 21st century. One of the founding companies of ChronoBank - Australian Edway - specializes in hiring employees and outsourcing their work to the needs of their clients. Its staff of such “outsourced employees” is about 400 thousand people.

Crowdfunding

Born in an era when access to credit was not easy, crowdfunding platforms, such as Kickstarter, are already helping companies, entrepreneurs and creative people to turn to their customers and fans for help in financing their new projects. However, here, as elsewhere, there are costs and limitations. For example, when transferring funds, users have to pay a commission, which means the project does not end up with the entire amount transferred to it. If the user is located in another country, he may face the problem of excessively high cost of donations or other similar difficulties. In addition, if he wants to give up his decision and return the money, it will usually be difficult to do so.

Take advantage of cryptographic technology! In fact, ICO has been used as the main method of raising funds for new blockchain platforms for 2 or 3 years. Using bitcoins or other popular cryptocurrencies, investors can transfer any amount to the project - from 1 to hundreds of thousands of dollars and more - no matter where they are in the world and practically with zero commission, receiving tokens in return. Tokens are easily transferable or trading on exchanges, which means that you can easily sell your investment to someone else at any stage of the project. The success of this approach becomes apparent against the background of the size of the tools that attract popular platforms . For a promising blockchain application, there is nothing unusual in collecting at least $ 1 million in Bitcoin equivalent, and many have managed to get much more. Startups Lisk and DigixDAO , for example, raised $ 5.5 million each, Ethereum and Waves also $ 15 million. It would be fair to assume that this approach will become even more popular in the near future.

Initially, the article was written in English for the blog due.com .