By 
Today, trust is the foundation of many of our everyday interactions and exchanges. We put money in a bank trusting that it is safer there. We give information to each other on the basis that they will not share it with another person without prior permission. We also put a lot of trust in paper: money, land records, transaction information, etc. But these pieces of paper can easily be stolen, forged, or altered. Today, as we move towards the computerization of information, data can still be easily hacked and leaked.
Blockchain is a series of records or data distributed over a network of computers so that no central computer or database holds the information, rather each computer holds the data, making it a fully transparent system. The reason blockchain is so impressive is due to its unhackability. Every trade, transaction, or record entered into a database is time-stamped and verified by a large group of trusted computers before it is placed as a block in a chain of various other trades, transactions, or records. Once entered, the “block” of information cannot be modified or deleted because that means modifying or deleting the chain on all computers simultaneously, which is nearly impossible.
The social impact that blockchain technology can have is tremendous and can be implemented to solve many problems facing the world today in a variety of areas. In most developing countries, agriculture contributes a significant part of their GDP; however, many farmers suffer due to lack of money, lack of land, and lack of various resources needed for farming. Even if a farmer owns a large parcel of land, it is often incorrectly recorded. Title deeds also tend to be susceptible to fraud, as well as being costly and time-consuming to administer. Blockchain can be implemented to digitize the land and farmers will no longer have to fear that someone will hack the database and commit land ownership fraud as all types of record keeping will be more efficient.
The technology will not only tell you who the current owner of the land is, it can also tell you who the previous owner of the land was, making it extremely simple to trace the chain of title. Blockchain can correctly update records of which part of the land belongs to which person and how much was produced from that land, allowing farmers to obtain the correct amount of finance needed.
Among many other areas, blockchain technology can contribute to the healthcare sector. The maintenance of public health records is a constant problem in many countries due to its inaccessibility for doctors and patients. By creating a decentralized “ledger” of medical data, we can eliminate the paper trail in healthcare and make patient medical records available to patients and physicians easily and efficiently. It also eliminated the fear of medical records being lost. Such a change is not only convenient but necessary where doctor-patient confidentiality is increasingly important.
Currently, blockchain is mainly used in finance. Blockchain can accurately record the transfer between people, and because each transfer has little or no cost, it has the potential to disrupt current financial organizations that make money by charging a fee for each transaction or transfer made. This makes for what is called a peer-to-peer network, where a third party is not required for a transaction to occur.
In the financial world, what that means is that if a person wants to buy something, usually the bank and the place/site they are buying from will take a fraction of what they are paying for. And because there is no fee for a transaction on the blockchain or the transaction fee is small compared to the value of the transaction, most if not all of the money goes directly to the creator or distributor of the product.
The same logic can also be applied to the music industry. In fact, it is already being implemented today. Instead of a person buying a song through a streaming service like Apple Music or Spotify, they will pay the artist directly and get the rights to listen to and use the music. This eliminates the need for a ‘middle man’ and makes each transaction only between 2 entities.
These are just a few examples of where blockchain can be used to completely change how things used to be, essentially changing our lives, the economy, and our world. Blockchain is a multifaceted technology that can be applied to almost every business sector in some way. An exciting technology that can change society for the better; a change that is not only convenient but necessary.