What Industries Has Blockchain Affected the Most?

Now that Artificial Intelligence is all the rage, talks about blockchain technology seem to be wearing off. This isn’t to say no one is using the decentralized system anymore. 

Quite the contrary, blockchain is the backbone of many next-generation industries. We’ll talk more about these sectors below. Let’s get started.

Online Gambling

Ever since the first casino online site launched in 1994, the industry has been consistently embracing new technologies. Remote gambling first adopted mobile gaming in 2003—four years ahead of the iPhone.

Traditional real money Online casinos, first embraced Bitcoin in 2011, four years before Ethereum revolutionized crypto with its decentralized Apps. These days, online gaming companies use crypto as a payment method. They also use the blockchain to create provably fair games.

Crypto helps casino players fund their accounts regardless of where they live. Bitcoin isn’t limited by geographical locations. It’s also fast, has low fees, and can support high limits.

As mentioned, blockchain helps developers create provably fair games. But that’s not all. You can also use it to create decentralized online casinos, so called bitcoin- or crypto casinos. These sites don’t require identity verification: you can use them to play games anonymously.

 Video Games

The video game industry has been accepting crypto since its early days. Between 2009 and 2017, gamers were buying NVIDIA graphics cards in droves to mine Bitcoin. Back then, crypto mining was incredibly profitable.

Over time, crypto mining became a lot more expensive than most people could afford. However, mining is still a thriving business. And it’s not limited to Bitcoin alone.

Away from crypto mining, gaming fans support crypto by buying coins for investment reasons. They also use Bitcoin to purchase gaming items on sites that accept crypto.

Another way gaming supports crypto is by interacting with blockchain-based games and related innovations. Think of Metaverse games. Who do you think made these games successful?

Gamers pounced on Metaverse games like The Sandbox and My Neighbor Alice immediately after these games came out. The games pay you to play, so there’s that. Still, Sand and Alice coins wouldn’t have gained so much value without the support of gamers.

Banking and Finance

Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin as a possible replacement for traditional banks. That’s why many banks dislike cryptocurrencies. They can’t endorse a payment method that might put them out of business in the future.

With that said, not every financial company dislikes crypto. Some banks now do business with crypto-affiliated businesses. For example, you can send money to a crypto exchange to buy Bitcoin.

Some banks take their love for crypto to a notch higher. They use blockchain technology to keep records transparently and permanently. You see, the blockchain can’t be altered. As such, it can keep sensitive digital records securely.

Another way banks take advantage of blockchain is by using it to transfer large sums of money cheaply. Before Ripple coin fell out with the SEC, it was US banks’ favorite way of transacting money globally.

Still on sending money, some investors are now creating blockchain-based financial systems. BitPay is a case in point. It’s a financial gateway designed to help merchants accept crypto for payments.

E-commerce

Bitcoin is a payment method. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that some of the largest shopping sites in the world accept digital currencies:

• Overstock
• Shopify
• Magento
• Big Commerce

Overstock has been accepting crypto since 2014. However, most e-Commerce only began supporting digital currencies when Bitcoin hit the mainstream media.

Like most businesses, accepting Bitcoin attracts a new customer base for an online business. It also protects store owners from fraud. Bitcoin does not support chargebacks, which means fraudsters can’t use it to defraud e-Commerce stores.

As we mentioned earlier, blockchain technology can be used to create numerous products. One of them is designing decentralized shopping sites. These platforms mostly involve the trading of digital assets.

Let’s say you want to sell a rare Non-Fungible Token (NFT). You can use a marketplace like OpenSea to sell your NFT. The asset is held in trust-free contracts until someone makes a purchase. Then it’s released to the new owner.

Digital Trading

Blockchain plays a major role in the success of crypto trading. Without it, sites like Uniswap and Pancake Swap wouldn’t exist. But that’s not all. The forex and stock exchange sectors are working on systems that could power their sites through blockchain. 

The blockchain does not necessarily need a manager. It only needs to be set up properly. Then people can use it to create trading accounts and complete trades in a peer-to-peer system.

In a peer-to-peer trading system, fees are low. The explanation is that no intermediary takes a cut from every trade. Another benefit is that traders avoid issues like account suspensions and management problems.

With that said, online trading is largely regulated. As such, the only way a blockchain-based trading ecosystem works is if it’s endorsed by the government. The Australian Stocks Exchange is working on a blockchain-based platform. If it succeeds, it could pave the way for similar projects.

Social Media

Although the idea failed, Facebook attempted to create a blockchain-payment coin called Libra. Had this project proved successful, it would probably have started a movement of similar coins in the social media industry.

Most social networks make billions of dollars through adverts. However, they don’t directly accept crypto due to its volatile nature. Some social media-based companies accept Bitcoin, though.

The thing is, more than three billion people use social media networks like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Some of them love social media so much that they support their favorite channels and influencers through crypto. 

In other words, there’s a huge demand for crypto on social media. Why else would developers create blockchain-based social networks? We’re talking about companies like Rally, Sapien, and Steemit.

These companies won’t overtake Facebook in popularity any time soon. But they don’t need to. They have a different target group. Take Steemit as an example. It attracts people who would love to make money by sharing their thoughts on a Reddit-like blog. The website has more than five million monthly users.