To most people, blockchain is synonymous with Bitcoin; some may even use it interchangeably. However, blockchain is the technology upon which the entire cryptocurrency market is based – and beyond.
While the creators of blockchain created it for Bitcoin, its uses have expanded beyond the cryptocurrency industry into other sectors. Today, the use of blockchain is no longer only for investing in cryptocurrency; it now helps sectors conduct business better.
If you own a small business, there are many ways you can benefit from blockchain technology. No, we are not only talking about you doing the business of converting ETH to USD or something like that. We mean you can use blockchain in nearly all areas of your business, including hiring new staff and storing company records. Here, you will discover ways in which you can maximize blockchain and a few challenges you may encounter.
Error-Free Auditing
Blockchain eliminates the existence of human error in audits, thus ensuring the accuracy and ingenuity of your company records. This technology essentially offers you a permanent option of recording transactions, which creates a trail for audits that is easy to follow up. Apart from ensuring accuracy in records, blockchain solves the problem of having to pull records from several disparate sources.
Additionally, the technology renders these records unalterable, meaning the way you input them is the way you will find them decades later. Meanwhile, this can be an advantage and a disadvantage, depending on the angle you’re looking at it from. It is an advantage in that it maintains the integrity of the records, ensuring no fraudulent manipulation occurs. It can be a disadvantage when you need to make some important changes – because you cannot.
Quality Hiring Process
While having employees is important in any business, having reliable and diligent employees is the important thing. Blockchain technology helps you identify which interviewee is being truthful in his or her résumé and which one isn’t. The process of authenticating the documents submitted by potential employees is tedious, time-consuming, and requires searching for background information.
Blockchain technology grants you access to easily verifiable records of potential employees, including their academic and past employment records. Additionally, it shortens the length of the hiring process by ensuring you have reliable data readily available.
Faster Payments, Cheaper Transaction Fees
You can send each employee’s salary and remunerations within seconds through blockchain technology, particularly when you are making cryptocurrency payments. Blockchain-enabled payments are even more beneficial when you have international or remote workers.
You can carry out impromptu transactions without having to worry about paying outrageous transaction fees. Also, blockchain ensures neither you nor your employees have to wait for a third-party financial institution’s network to get your money.
Furthermore, one great way to save money is by paying your employees with cryptocurrency. Blockchain will store records of your transactions, thus making it easy to track where your money is going.
Improved Marketing
Marketing is important to any business, but this can be tiring and frustrating, particularly when you are not seeing results. Blockchain can potentially heighten the effectiveness of your marketing techniques.
You can use the technology to keep tabs on consumer behavior and client information. Furthermore, you can easily identify any changes made to your media releases, such as the campaigns, during development.
Maximize Smart Contracts
Blockchain helps you maximize smart contracts, which can inevitably make your business operations go smoother. Through smart contracts, you can handle large amounts of transactions across participants automatically.
Plus, you can use smart contracts to integrate services across several businesses without divulging proprietary information.
Why There Are Hesitations towards Blockchain
Despite the many incredible benefits of blockchain technology, many organizations are still hesitant towards it – and for good reason. Some blockchains consume a lot of energy; the Proof-of-Work in blockchain requires solving complex mathematical problems that aren’t ideal for the real world.
Also, the technology is not a hugely distributed computing system; it depends on the participation of the nodes. This means the quality of the nodes will determine the quality of the blockchain.
Scalability is another issue in blockchain technology; it is not scalable. The congestion in transactions in the cryptocurrency marketis a result of these scalability issues in the blockchain.
Nevertheless, there is an increasing evolution in how blockchain works and more scalability options are being integrated. Plus, these scalability issues are solvable through permissioned networks and using a different architectural blockchain.
Conclusion
There are many potentials and uses of blockchain for business aside from the ones mentioned here. Although it is not without its disadvantages, blockchain technology can solve many organizational problems for businesses.
Thus, given the numerous benefits of blockchain for businesses, there is a great chance that its future adoption is inevitable. Even if your business is only just budding, you can harness the power of blockchain and gain an edge over your competition.