Blockchain use cases: What was the chicken on my plate fed with?

Let’s start by setting clearly what the buzzword of this decade is not all about: crypto currencies. Bitcoin, ethereum,dogecoin are just an infamous use cases of the blockchain technology, which lead people to believe that blockchain is a means for creating crypto currencies. The truth, however is that blockchain is a decentralized data storage method, which has thousands of implemented use cases in a variety of industries ranging from tracking information about the origin of the food on your plate, looking up how your blood test results came out, storing information about how many acres of land you own in a city and of course making secure payments, shortly in any situation where you feel the need to trust that your data is in good hands. Let’s dig deeper into how trust and decentralization correlate.

Traditional databases are stored on servers and the owner of the server is the owner of the data. Whether the server is just an old computer in an office or thousands of computers on the cloud, the owner can delete your data and replace it with incorrect data to serve his interest. Data stored on blockchain however, has no center and thus no owner. Once recorded, no one can delete it so your fate does not depend on the righteousness of the provider. You know it is technically unchangeable and safe.

One of the most adopted current blockchain projects, TE-FOOD is a very good example of a non-cryptocurrency use case and how a startup can benefit from the transparency and trust brought by blockchain. Founded not more that 5 years ago, TE-FOOD enabled over 150 million end users to trace the origins of the food on their plates. Using TE-FOOD’s trust chain food manufacturers log information like animal profile, feeding, use of antibiotics, vaccination, veterinary checks, slaughter data, transportation about their products and end users can reach this information simply by scanning the qr code on the product package.

To sum up, blockchain is a generally misunderstood concept on all levels including business decision makers and as the truth unfolds, we are going to see it used more and more in all industries that the end user values transparency which is almost any industry, one would say.