What is blockchain’s strategic value?

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A new BSV Association report outlined blockchain’s strategic value to enterprises in a number of use cases, from optimizing smart city fees and lowering manufacturing supply chain costs to monetizing fan experience and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

In May, the Swiss-based custodian organization of the BSV blockchain—BSV Association—published a report in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group titled “Navigating Digital Transformation: Building trust in an automated world.”

The first in our series of deep dives into the report examined how it posited blockchain technology as a solution to the trust issues created by the “new digital age,” particularly those related to artificial intelligence (AI). In this second deep dive, we explore the use cases outlined for how blockchain can aid enterprises in establishing and maintaining trust in their data, systems and technologies.

“To thrive in today’s digital, data-based economy your enterprise must digitize its processes throughout and ensure that those processes are always verifiable and secure. Blockchain, therefore, should play a central role in digital transformation strategy,” said the BSV Association in the report.

“By ensuring data integrity, blockchain enhances trust and reliability in all your digital platforms.”

In terms of the specific use cases, the report broke them down into three broad categories: examples of how blockchain could secure the data that enables businesses; examples of how blockchain could create new sources of revenue; and examples of how blockchain could increase efficiency of payments and data exchanges.

Securing your data

The report sheds light on how blockchain technology can be used to secure data collection from verified systems, ensuring that it remains accurate, tamper-free, and tamper-proof. This is essential for operational integrity and compliance.

One such example was optimizing smart city fees. With blockchain and IPv6—the newest, most secure internet protocol—smart city administrators can confidently use the Internet of Things (IoT).

IoT refers to a network of interconnected devices that collect, exchange, and act on data via the Internet, enabling smart and automated interactions between objects and systems.

“Low transaction fees and high throughput ensure that micro-transactions such as minute-by-minute parking fees and utility charges are economically viable and securely processed,” suggested the report.

Another use case the BSV Association put forward was how blockchain could lower manufacturing supply chain costs by revolutionizing manufacturing logistics.

According to shipping logistics provider Maersk, about a fifth of overseas trade costs stem from paperwork. The report argued that the blockchain could alleviate this burden.

“Blockchain provides a secure and scalable platform for managing IoT device data. It enables smart contracts to automate supply chain transactions at a much lower cost, achieving significant savings in paperwork costs.”

The third use case arises from the benefits blockchain could provide to accurate, efficient reporting, particularly for the many businesses concerned with environmental social governance (ESG).

Specifically, blockchain can ensure the integrity of emissions data captured from IoT sensors along the supply chain, providing a cost-effective solution for comprehensive carbon footprint reporting. This could help businesses align with industry standards, such as the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive guidelines.

The final data-related use case offered by the report was in the ever-growing area of AI, where the BSV Association explained that blockchain could help support or automate AI operations.

“Blockchain can help with verifying, time-stamping, and attributing content to its source, helping to ensure that AI models get trained on reliable data.”

The ability to verify, time-stamp, and accurately attribute content to its source also comes into play in the second category of use cases outlined in the report, related to how blockchain can create new revenue streams for enterprises.

Creating new sources of revenue

Monetizing digital assets can become difficult when an organization can’t readily verify ownership of said assets or track how its intellectual property (IP) is used. Blockchain provides a powerful framework for attributing digital content, with a clear audit trail, as well as helping to secure data.

According to the BSV Association, this makes it an invaluable source of revenue for many businesses across sectors, and the report outlined three use cases to underscore this point.

The first example is in royalty collection, where “blockchain networks can manage complex IP rights and automate royalty distribution, ensuring that creators such as authors or musicians benefit from AI-generated use of their work.”

This could massively benefit creatives and creators in the AI age when copyright disputes end up in lengthy and expensive court proceedings rather than being resolved through a streamlined monetization process.

The second use case also benefits creators by inserting blockchain into the realm of fan experience and engagement.

The report explained how blockchain-based fan experience apps could turn event tickets into “digital collectibles” that grant ticketholders access to exclusive perks and help to keep them engaged with an enterprise. Some notable football clubs—soccer clubs, for U.S. readers—are already implementing similar ideas, such as ‘fan tokens’ to drive up engagement.

Fan tokens have not been universally embraced, but in theory give holders access to a variety of fan-related membership perks, such as voting on club decisions, rewards, merchandise designs and unique experiences.

The third use case where blockchain could increase revenue for enterprises lies in micropayments for IoT. Blockchain networks give businesses the ability to buy and sell the data that IoT devices generate using micropayments on a subscription basis.

“This business model allows users to access up-to-date, specific information and pay only for the data they need,” explained the report.

The ability to facilitate micropayments—small transactions or payments usually of less than a dollar, and in some cases only a fraction of a cent—is one area where blockchain technology can really set itself apart; another is increasing the efficiency of payments and data exchanges.

Swift and secure transaction settlement

The last category of use cases outlined by the report related to how blockchain helps digital systems handle transactions smoothly and at a lower cost by sharing data through the blockchain. This eliminates the need for reconciliation—“a boon for businesses that frequently collect, send, and receive money or information digitally.”

An example is CBDCs, where blockchain can facilitate real-time transactions and support innovations, including currency programmability and new financial products.

Blockchain also makes carbon trading easier and more dependable, as well as potentially more environmentally sustainable. The report pointed to one provider, ZeroSix, who furnishes U.S. oil and gas producers with blockchain-native carbon credits, in exchange for leaving reserves in the ground.

“In this way, ZeroSix provides companies with an incentive to refrain from extracting and burning these fuels, helping to meet the planet’s carbon budget,” wrote BSV Association.

The final use case explored by the report was blockchain as a trusted tool for financial markets.

For example, J.P. Morgan (NASDAQ: JPM) launched the Onyx initiative in 2020 to advance blockchain and digital currency projects within the banking sector. Products launched under Onyx include solutions that facilitate cross-border payments, simplify clients’ liquidity funding needs, and solve complex information-sharing challenges.

This rounded off the report’s discussion of the broad range of use cases demonstrating how blockchain technology can provide strategic value to enterprises across sectors. But it is worth noting that not all blockchains are created equal, with some better able to provide the scalability required for microtransactions and mass adoption than others.

The third installment in this series of deep dives into the BSV Association report will explore how the organization’s namesake blockchain, BSV, is particularly well suited to several of these use cases, such as providing the scalability to facilitate mass micropayments.

Get updated with BSV Association’s news—download the first report in this series via this link. Full details for the second part on “Navigating Digital Transformation: Building trust in an automated world” can be found here.

Watch: Micropayments are what are going to allow people to trust AI