Beyond cryptocurrency, blockchain offers the potential to revolutionize how we conduct business, provide services, and exchange information. This ebook looks at where blockchain may be headed and how it’s already being used in industries ranging from healthcare to food safety to mining operations.

From the ebook:

Blockchain has proven to be the largest value of cryptocurrencies, with implications for almost every industry. And some companies are already using the emerging ledger technology in everyday business operations.

An October 2017 report from CompTIA found that 16% of companies had purchased blockchain-enabled tools, while 22% were developing tools using blockchain. Another 24% said they were exploring the technology, while the majority—38%—said they had no current plans to do so or were unsure of plans.

Early adopters are using blockchain for digital identity (51%), asset management and tracking (49%), regulatory compliance/auditing (49%), distributed storage (48%), smart contracts (45%), and cryptocurrency/payments (44%).

However, the technology remains mysterious for many companies. Here are six blockchain use cases that companies are leveraging right now.

Pharmaceuticals
New rules to ensure drug integrity from manufacturing to consumption could save up to a million lives each year. Life sciences and healthcare companies create unique serial numbers for units of medication and pieces of equipment, which are scanned, captured, and verified at their point of origin, according to Scott Allison, president of healthcare at logistics giant DHL.

Applied the right way, blockchain can take track and trace serialization to the next level, cutting costs, elevating security and trust, eliminating error-prone data movements, and enabling real-time supply chain transparency. “Using blockchain, as each item moves through the supply chain, additional verified information is appended,” Allison said. “These blocks of data cannot be tampered with and are collectively validated by all stakeholders. The result is an end-to-end system that is simpler and more secure than anything we have seen before. It is more private, more transparent, and more efficient, with less risk, and it meets and exceeds global serialization requirements.”

DHL is working with Accenture to establish a blockchain-based track-and-trace serialization system in six areas worldwide. The system is now populated by more than 7 billion unique pharmaceutical serial numbers and handling more than 1,500 transactions per second, Allison said.