Blockchain’s Future in the Retail World

Bitcoin is no stranger to peaks and valleys. Lately, most of the publicity has been negative. However, blockchain, the technology that bitcoin bases itself on, is continuing to be adopted by businesses around the world. According to computerworld.com, Blockchain is being used by supply chain departments and companies to increase their efficiency. Retail companies are also having to upgrade their payment processor infrastructure to keep up with the growing demand for the acceptance of cryptocurrencies as a form of payment.
Blockchain’s Evolution
Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies are continuing to be adopted by large scale retailers. Facebook recently announced the launch of a Facebook coin and there are strong rumors suggesting Amazon may do the same. Retailers are constantly scrutinizing developments in blockchain. If companies such as Facebook continue to develop their own coins, retailers will need to rapidly create some form of a payment processing system for these alternative forms of currency.
Blockchain Business Applications
Solutions based on blockchain are being offered to businesses. Before these applications were mere ideas, but now they are becoming tangible. There are four different states of a blockchain application.
Least Mature
These applications include most ICO models. These can be considered “theoretically possible”. These applications are more conceptual than practical. They often need to reach a pilot stage to understand its viability.
Pilots
Pilots are most focused on experimentation and not implementation. Pilots can help us figure out the viability of certain proposed blockchain solutions. They often are not released to the public.
Custom
Some businesses have decided to figure out blockchain on their own. They’ve even reached the rollout phase. While some companies have used partners, they have yet to place an emphasis on a public network offering.
BaaS
Blockchain as a Service is now being as a packaged solution to allow access to the technology by leading technological giants like Microsoft, IBM, and AWS. This allows clients to utilize blockchain tech without having to maintain or figure it out on their own.
Consortiums
Consortium networks are created for a very specific use that is available for the masses. IBM has been the industry leader in blockchain consortiums. Additionally, there is the Food Safety Consortium where network participants pay minimal costs to great benefit.
Blockchain will continue to make waves throughout 2019. To read more about this, check out the original here. We can’t wait to see blockchain tech allows us to do next!