Blockchain technology potential to create
Try out PMC Labs and tell us what you think. Learn More. Blockchain technology is associated with the financial industry, but it can be applied to other industries. The supporting architecture of blockchain has the immense potential to transform the delivery of healthcare, medical, clinical, and life sciences, due to the extended functionality and distinct features of its distributed ledger. Blockchain technology has captured the interest of healthcare providers and biomedical scientists within various healthcare domains such as longitudinal healthcare records, automated claims, drug development, interoperability in population health, consumer health, patient portals, medical research, data security, and reducing costs with supply chain management.
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Content:
- Unpacking the Possibilities Offered by Blockchain
- Blockchain technology: everything you need to know
- Blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize healthcare
- The Truth About Blockchain
- Blockchain in Healthcare: Complex Challenges, Overshadowed by the Hype, Need to be Overcome
- Blockchain: Ready for business
- Banking Is Only The Beginning: 58 Big Industries Blockchain Could Transform
- Here's how companies can make sure they are blockchain-ready
- We apologize for the inconvenience...
Unpacking the Possibilities Offered by Blockchain
The research aimed to analyse the impact of blockchain technology on international trade and find out how blockchain technology can improve the various fields of international trade.
The research also intended to find the challenges regarding the implementation of blockchain technology in international trade to help companies achieve successful collaboration and understand what requirements need to be met in advance. The literature review of this research covered the fundamentals of blockchain technology, blockchain's role in facilitating supply chain and trade finance, the impact and adoption of blockchain technology, and blockchain implementation's key challenges.
A qualitative approach was used based on 12 semi-structured in-depth interviews with ten companies operating in different business fields and two blockchain specialists to obtain empirical data.
In addition to that, a whitepaper provided by a logistics company was used to incorporate with the interviews. This research found that blockchain technology has significantly impacted international trade by improving supply chain efficiency, reducing the complexity of the paper-based trade process, and enabling faster cross-border payments. The empirical findings presented that blockchain can facilitate the supply chain by providing a high level of transparency and better product traceability.
Furthermore, the findings showed that smart contracts could facilitate trade finance by providing automatic payments and eliminating intermediaries and blockchain-based ICOs could be a great fundraising option for innovative projects. However, this research also found that the large-scale implementation of blockchain in trade finance is still not possible due to government regulations.
Blockchain technology ensures to transform the supply chain and trade finance and reduce the complexity of the current international trade process. However, some critical challenges are associated with blockchain implementation, and some essential requirements need to be met in advance for successful implementation, which was discussed in this research.
Furthermore, several suggestions regarding the large-scale implementation of blockchain in trade finance were presented. The findings of this research have enhanced the current level of research on the link between blockchain technology and international trade, and the analysis of various application areas allows researchers to conduct an in-depth analysis of blockchain applicability in multiple business environments.
The empirical findings will help companies develop their adoption strategies and prepare to implement the technology in the trade process. Furthermore, the findings of this research can bring new insight into the policymaking process regarding the implementation of blockchain in trade finance.
Keywords: Blockchain technology, international trade, supply chain, trade finance, blockchain supply chain, blockchain implementation, blockchain challenges. First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor Dr Vesna Sedoglavich for her well- structured and engaged feedback in guiding me through the writing process.
I would also like to express my gratitude to all participants who gave me their time and trust and provided me with information about their organisations and their exciting work with blockchain technology, without which this dissertation would not have been completed. This chapter of the research presents the background information regarding the applicability of blockchain in international trade and presents the rationality of the investigation for justifying the choice of the research topic.
The subsequent sections of the chapter detail the aims and objectives of the research along with the limiting factors and research methodology. Finally, the overall structure of the research is presented.
Blockchain technology is a decentralised database-powered with the concept of distributed ledger that keeps records of the province of digital assets Ganne, The technology has massive importance due to its characteristics of making the digital assets unalterable and keeping them transparent with cryptographic hashing technology and decentralised mechanism Zheng et al. The working mechanism of the technology includes cryptographic keys and a peer-to-peer network with the shared ledger; in other words, transactions are verified and stored using distributed consensus mechanism Chen, Blockchain technology has received plenty of attention since the first blockchain application called Bitcoin was created.
The utilisation of cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin in the financial sector, is just a small application based on blockchain technology.
Blockchain technology has many other use cases. Blockchain technology has an enormous potential to transform the way of how international companies conduct their business.
In recent years, the demand for transparency and traceability in the supply chain has increased; the combination of blockchain and IoT technology in the future can bring significant efficiency to the global supply chain, ensuring virtual security and transparency in every step Deloitte, However, it has many disadvantages too.
Firstly, there is no central authority to keep checks and balances on the transactions done through cryptocurrency. Furthermore, there is still a trust deficit among countries declaring it as a part of the national currency Volt Technology, Finally, the development and implementation of blockchain technology for international trade are still at the planning and initiation phase and require research for full support and integration Swan, Nevertheless, despite the drawbacks, blockchain technology has a bright future in international trade because the technology can help disrupt bureaucracy, radically reduce the complications of tracking shipments by replacing lengthy paper trails and minimise the losses due to delays in payments Morabito, This research has evaluated the areas of application and use of blockchain technology in international trade.
The research topic is justified as there is an existing gap in knowledge regarding how blockchain technology is applicable in international trade and how it can benefit transactions, tracking and security. Furthermore, there is also a gap in knowledge regarding its significance in assisting trade finance. Therefore, the choice of the research topic is rational as it can provide a precise analysis of the importance of technology in international trade and its potential use in trade finance and the supply chain.
Blockchain technology has the scope of establishing the future in facilitating trade finance and simplifying the global supply chains. Thus, this research aimed to conduct a holistic analysis of the relation between blockchain technology and international trade by evaluating all the aspects. This research has used both primary and secondary methods of data collection. Both primary and secondary data are collected to analyse the multiple disciplines regarding blockchain technology and its applicability in international trade.
The secondary data collection involved procuring information from academic books, journal articles, reports, and online company publications. The primary data collection involved conducting interviews to understand how businesses adapt to the emerging technology of blockchain and determine its implications on international trade.
The research has chosen to conduct with the qualitative strategy reflected in the choice of conducting interviews with companies offering blockchain solutions, companies across multiple industries using blockchain technology and the ones that are hopeful of using the technology.
Furthermore, this research also conducted interviews with the businesses of developing countries like Bangladesh where cryptocurrency is not legal yet, to know the perspective of blockchain technology and what governments should do to imply blockchain technology legally. Finally, in this research, the author examined Blockchain specialists' perspectives to determine whether the business could benefit from adopting blockchain and identifying the information required for a practical decision.
The limiting factors of this research include the lack of previous studies and research regarding the areas of application of blockchain technology and its possible benefits and drawbacks. The lack of prior evidence regarding the application of blockchain technology in international trade restricts the industry's assertions regarding its future benefits and implications.
The application areas of blockchain technology are only found in detail regarding smart contracts and supply chains and limited sources of applications developed by financial institutions. This research has analysed the impact of blockchain technology on international trade and found out how blockchain technology can improve the various fields of international trade, such as supply chain and trade finance.
Thus, the author believes the empirical findings will help companies increase trust, transparency and achieve international trade efficiency by implementing blockchain technology.
Also, the author intended to find the limitations and solutions regarding the implementation of blockchain technology in international trade to help companies achieve successful collaboration and understand what requirements need to be met in advance.
The findings have improved the current level of research concerning the connection between blockchain technology and international trade. Furthermore, the analysis of various application fields makes it possible for researchers to conduct an in-depth analysis of the use of blockchain in multiple business environments. The study outline includes the introduction chapter serving as the section detail in the research aims and objectives and setting the background of the research.
This is followed by the literature review section that presents details about the past investigations regarding the research area, followed by the methodology section that describes the considerations undertaken for data collection and evaluation. The fourth chapter of the research is the findings representing the results of the investigation, followed by the discussion chapter, which is based on the findings from chapter four and the literature review.
Finally, the last chapter of the study is the conclusions and recommendations portions representing the learnings from the entire study, limitations of the study, and recommendations for further research opportunities. The first section of this chapter presented background information to understand the topic and its importance. Besides, the proposed significance of this research and the research methodology were also briefly discussed. Furthermore, the aim and objectives of this research were presented to explain what the research is intended to achieve.
The blockchain is a type of database system that records information through a special fault-tolerant mechanism called a consensus mechanism that increases the difficulty of being changed or hacked Belle, The blockchain predominantly utilises digital ledger technology to supervise the transactions, and the details of these transactions are duplicated and distributed across a more extensive network of computer systems connected to the blockchain Holotiuk et al.
Blockchain is considered a tool to shape technological innovation in international trade and is widely regarded as a significant change in the domain Ganne, This literature review presents an analysis of the previous studies and past research on blockchain technology and an evaluation of its impact on international trade.
The literature search strategy for this investigation involved the use of keywords, such as blockchain technology, blockchain working mechanism, international trade, blockchain international trade, supply chain, blockchain supply chain, blockchain trade finance etc.
These keywords were inserted in online databases like Google Search, Google Scholar, ResearchGate and Science Direct for locating the peer- reviewed and open-source articles and academic publications to be used in this investigation.
The literature review has evaluated the concept of blockchain to analyse its working mechanism, key characteristics and use cases in international trade. Furthermore, the impact of blockchain technology on international trade has been analysed and determined its role in facilitating the trade process considering trade finance and the overall global supply chain. Then this dissertation discussed its increasing adoption in international trade.
Finally, key challenges for the implementation of blockchain have been presented. There have been two ways to hold money: owning physical items cash, gold pieces, etc. However, both methods have their problems; for example, tangible money is insecure, inconvenient and cannot be used for digital payments; on the other hand, middleman-mediated money solves these problems but introduces problems of fees, lack of accessibility, and a different form of insecurity Mehta et al.
Furthermore, middleman mediated forms of money or payments introduce intangibility, but one needs to trust financial institutions to manage or move their money, which often costs high transaction fees Mehta et al. Technical inefficiency is one reason for the centralization of most databases; in these databases, third-party errors have the effect of slowing down or corrupting the data Pilkington, Blockchain first appeared in within the framework of the Bitcoin project with the purpose of transferring online payments from one party to another without relying on intermediaries Gatteschi et al.
A blockchain is a distributed ledger, comparable to a database that aggregates and updates data in real-time through a consensus algorithm, but instead of being controlled by a central authority, the ledger is dispersed across numerous computers which can be located all over the world, and once data is added to the ledger, it cannot be removed or altered Ledger SAS, According to Pilkington , blockchain is also known as distributed ledger technology that creates the historical details of digital assets and makes them transparent and immutable with the process of cryptographic hashing and decentralization mechanism.
Figure 1: A simplified example of how blocks are linked to form a blockchain Agbo et al. The blockchain operates on the basis of the internet protocol and mainly carries out financial activities among related parties; however, the blockchain can also be used as a registry and inventory system to log, trace, monitor and trade all assets, regardless of whether they are financial, legal, physical objects or electronic assets Government Office for Science, A simplified way to understand the blockchain is to imagine a giant Google spreadsheet shared with the whole world, and each user's computer stores a copy of the spreadsheet; each time someone makes a new transaction, the transaction is broadcast to everyone, and everyone's computers download a new version of the spreadsheet Mehta et al.
According to Swan , blockchain technology comprises components of blocks, nodes, and miners. The user must also have a digital wallet similar to a bank account to broadcast any transaction, protected by the user's private key, and can be accessed through an appropriate signature generated by that private key Puthal et al.
Miners solve complex mathematical problems by using specialized software to create new blocks through mining, and successful mining results in financial reward for the miner Andoni et al. Since no trusted third party is involved in the blockchain transaction validation process, nodes electronic and computing devices follow a consensus to confirm or discard transactions and blocks Puthal et al. There are different approaches to reach a consensus in the blockchain.
This dissertation discussed below the two standard methods. Proof of Work PoW : The core idea of the PoW consensus algorithm is to distribute accounting rights and rewards through the hash power competition between nodes; different nodes calculate a specific solution to a complex mathematical problem, and the one that solves the puzzle first creates the next block also receives a reward for that block Mingxiao et al.
To alter data of a previous block is almost impossible because an attacker must redo the proof-of-work of that block and all subsequent blocks Nakamoto, Proof of Stake PoS : is an alternative to Proof of Work POW , which requires less energy and less risky against potential miners attack, was created with a concept that a user can mine or verify transactions based on the number of tokens they own Frankenfield, In this type of blockchain, every activity is public and open to all the users without any restrictions, enabling them to access and verify transactions while remaining anonymous Ganne, In an entirely private blockchain, read permissions can be public or arbitrarily restricted, but write licenses are kept centralized in the organization Ethereum Foundation, Established companies, especially those in the financial industry, gradually adopt private blockchains for internal use and conduct transactions with trusted partners to try this emerging technology while maintaining data confidentiality International Finance Corporation, Blockchain technology has several key characteristics.
This dissertation discussed below some of the more popular characteristics: decentralisation, immutability, security, and transparency.
Decentralisation: Decentralisation is one of the key characteristics of blockchain technology. Unlike traditional centralised transaction systems, blockchain uses a consensus algorithm to secure data consistency; hence no longer requires a trusted third party Zheng et al. This nature of the system makes it a unique system suitable for all types of users, and it will be difficult for hackers to crack it Iredale,
Blockchain technology: everything you need to know
Subscriber Account active since. As Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been picking up steam, focus has turned to blockchain — the underlying distributed ledger technology DLT that powers these digital currencies. Blockchain technology is simple to understand at its roots. Basically, the tech exists as a shared database filled with entries that must be confirmed by peer-to-peer networks and encrypted. It's helpful to envision it as a strongly encrypted and verified shared Google Document, in which each entry in the sheet depends on a logical relationship to all its predecessors, and is agreed upon by everyone in the network.
Blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize healthcare
The technology known as blockchain is poised to make its mark on the healthcare industry, potentially transforming the way health data is stored, secured and accessed. Blockchain is a digital ledger, sort of like a spreadsheet. It records transactions, with each transaction assigned its own block that becomes part of a chain. The record of the transaction is distributed to all computers on a network, rather than being stored centrally. This decentralized approach makes the records more secure, all but impossible to alter and less susceptible to theft. The benefit to doctors is that records are easily accessible, but hard to manipulate. The advantage for customers is greater confidence in the protection of their medical records.
The Truth About Blockchain
What impact could the technology behind Bitcoin have? According to Tapscott Group CEO Don Tapscott, blockchains, the technology underpinning the cryptocurrency, could revolutionize the world economy. In the early s, we said the old media is centralized. This has an awesome neutrality. It will be what we want it to be, and we can craft a much more egalitarian, prosperous society where everyone gets to share in the wealth that they create.
Blockchain in Healthcare: Complex Challenges, Overshadowed by the Hype, Need to be Overcome
Over recent years, blockchain has evolved into a transformational technology promising to offer secure, real-time transactions across different sectors and industries that will revolutionize the way we do business. ISO is at the forefront of this technology to ensure that its users all speak the same language. Because each computer in the network has its own copy of the blockchain, it is also very safe, as a hacker would need to manipulate copies across the decentralized network in order to violate the system. Bitcoin was the first globally distributed ledger network, but the technology has begun to spread across the global economy as a reliable way to store data concerning other types of transaction. The emergence of new and exciting applications of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies presents wide-ranging opportunities to support efficient and secure real-time transactions across multiple sectors. Blockchain is a digital platform that facilitates transactions by recording and verifying data across different industries in a secure manner.
Blockchain: Ready for business
Digital technologies offer great potential for the marginalised populations of the world in many dimensions of their lives, including communication, commerce, financial inclusion, disaster recovery and the delivery of aid. However, digital technologies can also play a divisive role. By enabling the powerful who can access key information and who have the capability to develop infrastructure, it often penalises those who cannot, especially the most disadvantaged. This is consequently increasing inequality and marginalisation. In this respect, technology is not neutral, and its design can strongly influence and shape our future society. We argue that distributed ledger technologies present an opportunity for marginalised populations , by empowering them to manage their data and business practices and achieve demarginalisation by involving the community in a decentralised manner. Distributed ledger technologies allow cooperative actions for marginalised populations to refocus away from the most powerful gatekeepers and ease the conflicting interests between governments, non-government organisations and entrepreneurs. Here we present fundamental design constraints for digital technology services in a human rights context.
Banking Is Only The Beginning: 58 Big Industries Blockchain Could Transform
Blockchain promises to solve this problem. The technology behind bitcoin, blockchain is an open, distributed ledger that records transactions safely, permanently, and very efficiently. For instance, while the transfer of a share of stock can now take up to a week, with blockchain it could happen in seconds. Blockchain could slash the cost of transactions and eliminate intermediaries like lawyers and bankers, and that could transform the economy.
Here's how companies can make sure they are blockchain-ready
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Blockchain is a system of recording information in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to change, hack, or cheat the system. A blockchain is essentially a digital ledger of transactions that is duplicated and distributed across the entire network of computer systems on the blockchain. Blockchain is a type of DLT in which transactions are recorded with an immutable cryptographic signature called a hash. This means if one block in one chain was changed, it would be immediately apparent it had been tampered with. If hackers wanted to corrupt a blockchain system, they would have to change every block in the chain, across all of the distributed versions of the chain. Blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum are constantly and continually growing as blocks are being added to the chain, which significantly adds to the security of the ledger.
On one level, things are happening quickly in this space. Over the last two years, the largest development organizations have begun to examine how using the technology might help them meet their goals. This includes the World Bank, which established a Blockchain Lab in ; the United Nations, which reports that 15 UN entities are carrying out blockchain initiatives; the Inter-American Development Bank, which is exploring the use of blockchain as a platform for asset registries; and USAID, which recently a published a primer on the topic.
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