Coindesk recently published an article entitled “US House Committee to Hold Hearing on Blockchain Benefits for Small Businesses”. It discussed the preparations being made for a March 4th hearing about the many uses that blockchain has for business ventures.
It is important to distinguish between blockchain for large enterprises versus small business. This is precisely what the Committee on Small Business will examine and scrutinize. The committee’s Chairwoman, Nydia M. Velazquez, stated that some of blockchain’s important uses pertain to supply chains as well as peer-to-peer transactions. One example she used was the tracking of goods.
Blockchain, or as it’s sometimes referred to, distributed ledger technology (DLT), has become increasingly important in our interconnected world. DLT appropriately describes a fundamental aspect of true blockchains. A key factor is in how a ledger is freely distributed to its network participants. This means that as long as a person has the required hardware and knowledge, they can be part of the system.
There have been several efforts to alter the original principles of blockchain. Large organizations have been known to limit participation while reaping only few of the rewards through a more efficient ledger system. On a large scale, this thinking is flawed. Such efforts for small business would waste blockchain’s potential to an even greater degree.
The applications for blockchain are still being explored. It is seen as something that will be of great value for the economy as a whole. Those who expect to benefit the most are individuals and small businesses. This consequence is directly related to the distributed and decentralized aspects of maintaining a blockchain.
Blockchain inevitably creates opportunities where it was not possible before. It does create some economic power-shifting, but its main property is that of increased efficiency. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the large organizations which ignore these changes are likely to fall the way of those that neglected to get on board with the Internet.
As blockchain technology matures, it’s showing a potential to create new opportunities through empowerment that flows alongside a propensity to make systems more efficient. A key characteristic of more streamlined economics through blockchain relates to the minimization (or elimination) of intermediaries. This last point means a more level playing field for small businesses. It is a situation that has already demonstrated an amazing propensity for innovation and development as a whole.
