Bitcoin being the first but not the sole runner!

“Bitcoin is just one example of something that uses a blockchain. Cryptocurrencies are just one example of decentralised technologies. And now that the Internet is big enough and diverse enough, I think we will see different flavours of decentralised technologies and blockchains. I think decentralised networks will be the next huge wave in technology. The blockchain allows our smart devices to speak to each other better and faster.”

Melanie Swan, author of Blockchain: Blueprint for a New Economy

Starting with the days when 2 pizzas were traded with 10,000 Bitcoins to the Epic Bitcoin Bull Run of 2017, Bitcoin has established itself as the foremost torch bearer for Blockchain Technology.Blockchain technologies, and more specifically, cryptocurrencies, have proven to be disruptive technologies that are impacting businesses, institutions and governments in ways few can predict and fewer can control.Due to the nascent nature of Blockchain technology, we have been seeing one of the most volatile Markets that has emerged due to FUD(Fear Uncertainty Doubt) and it is expected that markets will require time to adapt, implement and regulate it. As Blockchain Technology grows in popularity and interest, it is being applied to different industries, ranging from Finance, to Gaming, Housing, Digital identity, Supply Chain, Gambling, Manufacturing, Trade, Commerce and more.

While I can still continue this article over 'Brand Bitcoin' as it takes away all the limelight but I will be belittling the importance of this whole Eco System that Blockchain is in process of creating.Bitcoin is just a Currency application of Blockchain Technology.

" Bitcoin is to Blockchain , what Email was to Internet"

As the financial use cases of Blockchain are limitless, it will be a mistake to think that the rabbit hole ends here.New non-financial blockchain use cases are popping up everyday.Market is over flooded with lots of ideas that uses Blockchain as their soul.To be fair, some are downright silly but few of them can be game changers. Interestingly, the number of the ICO's (Initial coin offerings) happening has increased drastically but thanks to the bearish market right now, as Blockchain is now being discussed at International Forums.

Until relatively recently, building blockchain applications required a good background in coding, cryptography, mathematics as well as significant resources. But times have changed. By providing developers with the tools to build decentralised applications, Ethereum is making all of this possible.Majority of the ICO's are based on the Ethereum based Smart Contracts.Smart Contracts is just a phrase used to describe computer code that can facilitate the exchange of money, property, content, shares, or anything of value. Ethereum is providing the Blockchain eco system to grow fast in this rapid technology changing world where rate and scale of change is constantly increasing. So, it is clearly a sign that we cannot limit our knowledge till Bitcoin.A lot of ICO's have come up solving a particular problem in each and every field you can imagine.From payments to Media to Travel to Energy sector to Healthcare to creating Web 4.0 , there are loads of projects that have raised good money through investors and are doing well according to their roadmaps and timelines.Time will be a better judge of their performance rather than we speculating about it right now.

Throwing light on some interesting projects, Bee token is one of the ICO's that happened earlier this year.The Bee Token team intends to design a decentralised home sharing platform, that would redistribute the value creation back to its users!

Beenest uses the Bee payment protocol to allow guests to pay hosts for bookings. Both guests and hosts send Bee tokens to the payment smart contract. When the booking checkout date passes, and no conflicts arise, the contract dispatches the tokens to the appropriate addresses. In case of a conflict, the entire sum of tokens gets held in a third arbitration address that the dApp provides. In case of cancellation after the determined cancellation cut-off time, a fee will be moved from the canceling entity to the other entity.

Source:https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/beenest-public/whitepaper/bee_whitepaper_v3.pdf

Other one Arcade City, is offering decentralised Blockchain based versions of Uber. It is a blockchain-based ride sharing and car for hire application.

“Whereas most technologies tend to automate workers on the periphery doing menial tasks, blockchains automate away the center. Instead of putting the taxi driver out of a job, blockchain puts Uber out of a job and lets the taxi drivers work with the customer directly.”

Vitalik Buterin

Then there comes Medicalchain, that boasts about being the first use case of Blockchain in the Healthcare Industry. Medicalchain uses blockchain technology to securely store health records and maintain a single version of the truth. The different organisations such as doctors, hospitals, laboratories, pharmacists and health insurers can request permission to access a patient’s record to serve their purpose and record transactions on the distributed ledger.Also, there is WePower which is a blockchain based green energy trading platform. TE-FOOD also have raised funds to decentralize and scale an existing off chain, farm-to-table livestock and fresh food traceability solution focused on emerging markets.TE FOOD has been in operation in Vietnam since 2016. The system tracks the items through the entire supply chain (farm, slaughterhouse, wholesaler, retailer) and provides tools to consumers, supply chain companies and authorities to access information on food history and food quality. According to their executive summary, TE-FOOD claim to have 6000 enterprise customers, tracking 12,000 pigs, 200,000 chickens, and 2.5 million eggs daily.These are just one of the few projects, that I have discussed but there are many others which might not be far behind these but are waiting to change this world into a better place.

In the next series of article,I will try to breakdown Blockchain and throw some light on few new ICOs.Please don't consider it as any investment advice.All the views stated above are my personal views.Please do your proper research before investing into any of the ICO's.Please feel free to share any views.

Stay tuned!