Have you been caught up in the buzz around crypto and are wondering how businesses are benefiting from this technology? Well, if you are such a one, you need not worry because this article will cover just that. Just recently, a report placed the global crypto ownership rate at about 6.8%, with the anticipation that this could greatly increase in the not-so-far future.
Realizing this trend, many businesses are turning to cryptocurrency to enhance their competitiveness. It goes without saying that this technology offers some amazing features that many modern customers seek. Therefore, businesses that integrate this technology stand a great chance of appealing to quite a large audience. Continue reading to get more details.
The growing need for immediacy
Compare an instance where you have to wait for ages before you can receive funds and another one where you can receive them in a matter of seconds. You would most likely go for the latter experience. This makes you part of 78% which PYMNTs found to prefer such experiences. In fact, it seems that not offering such experiences might take you out of business soon.
Never forget that the kind of encounters visitors have with your brand determine whether or not they will be returning customers. So, you want to take advantage of every opportunity you have to increase your retention rates. And you can imagine what offering great experiences means for your business, given that when customers encounter such, they can tell at least six people within their cycles.
What a strategy to increase organic traffic to your platform! As if that is not enough, businesses are already taking advantage of methods like crypto to facilitate this. In fact, a FinTech Global report highlighted that 86% of firms had used instant payments in 2023 alone.
That means if you want to be competitive, you have to either align with competitors’ actions or provide even better experiences. Blockchains like Tectum allow businesses to enjoy transaction speeds of up to 1.3 million per second, which is especially good for international businesses with millions of customers.
Using crypto technology to improve security
Recovering from a cyber-attack has never been as expensive as in 2024. In fact, Cybercrime Magazine thinks that global cybercrime costs might grow by 15% over the next few years. Especially now that accessing large amounts of user data has become possible due to the widespread popularity of digital platforms, the need to reinforce security efforts is more apparent.
Crypto takes advantage of cryptography to help with this. The data is stored in such a way that even if it were stolen, it could not be accessed. Have you heard about blockchain’s cryptographic hash functions? Well, these features normally change data into fixed-size hash values that are very sensitive to alterations. That way, it becomes quite difficult for attackers to change data without being noticed.
Something else that is central to crypto’s appeal is its immutability. This means that once information is stored on the chain, it cannot be altered. So, this is what happens: Let’s take the example of the Secure Hashing Algorithm 256 (SHA-256). If we were to input something like ‘Hello,’ it would be first converted to binary before being encrypted.
You will have an output of about 64 characters, which is not easy to change. Reversing the hashing algorithm is already complex, making it impossible to modify the block, thus ensuring accuracy and security.
Industries that stand a chance to benefit
The entertainment sector
Crypto is definitely not new in the entertainment sector. If you are keen enough, you must have noticed some Bollywood stars launch their NFTs in the recent past. For instance, Amitabh Bachchan became the first one to launch his digital collectibles through BeyondLife.club. The items would highlight his legendary status and mark the launch of the NFT platform.
Four years before Bachchan took this approach, a documentary, Trust Machine: The Story of Blockchain (2018), was funded and distributed on blockchain. By providing a platform for filmmakers to interact directly with potential investors, blockchain eliminates the extra costs of middlemen. It can also help store and verify ownership rights for content and automate distribution and licensing.
Supply chain management
Well, you may be acquainted with the most common challenges of the supply chain sector, like security, traceability, visibility, transparency, inventory management and so on. But did you know blockchain offers just the right framework to help with these? It’s actually why Verified Market Research approximated the blockchain supply chain market size to be $569.05 million in 2024 and expected it to hit more than ten billion dollars in the next few years.
Traditional financial ledgers and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have blind spots, as they do not allow everyone in the chain to see all relevant flows. That makes it difficult to detect execution errors in real time. And worse still, after discovering a problem, pinpointing its source is quite a challenge.
As much as ERP systems record all types of flows, they may not be convenient for companies engaged in thousands of transactions. However, with blockchain, the process is more efficient and transparent since it integrates all types of flows and even records that the financial ledger system might not be able to.
Clearly, blockchain has a lot to offer businesses in almost every sector. Its decentralized nature ensures organizations can make their processes more efficient and customer-centric. As we look ahead, maybe more businesses will continue to adopt this technology to improve their operations.
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