Blockchain is a shared, unchangeable ledger that facilitates the process of recording transactions and tracking assets in a business network. Assets can be tangible (artwork, house, car, cash, land, coins) or intangible (intellectual property, patents, copyrights, branding). Virtually anything of value can be tracked and traded on a blockchain network, lessening the risk, and reducing costs for all involved. One such asset are cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum are powered by the blockchain. In its basic form, a blockchain is a list of transactions that anyone can view and verify. The Bitcoin blockchain, for example, contains a record of every time someone has sent or received bitcoin. Cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology that powers them make it possible to transfer value online without the need for a middleman like a bank or credit card company.

The decentralized global network facilitates an open alternative to every financial service you use today, accessible with little more than a smartphone and internet connection.

The blockchain concept has turned out to be a platform that has a seemingly endless scale of applications that can be built on top of its global network platform. It’s a rapidly developing technology, while many experts have described blockchain’s potential to change the way we live and work as being similar to the potential public internet protocols like HTML had in the early days of the World Wide Web.

When Bitcoin was introduced on January 3, 2009, people saw that Blockchain technology had the potential to dramatically change every industry. As of May 2011, Bitcoin was trading at $3.50 per coin. An investment of $1,000 purchased 286 Bitcoins in 2011. At today’s price of $58,125 those 286 coins would be worth $16.6 million dollars today.

Powering the parabolic growth of Bitcoin, as with all other cryptocurrencies, is the global blockchain. Just as fiat currency is supported by a government, the global cryptocurrency market cannot exist without permissioned decentralized supercomputer networks like Global Blockchain Mining. Today, Bitcoin’s current market value exceeds one trillion dollars. In addition to Bitcoin, there are literally thousands of other cryptocurrencies that are mined on the blockchain network, which include Ethereum, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Ever Growth, Shiba Inu, Ethhash, and others.

As discussed, blocks on a blockchain store data about monetary transactions as they relate to cryptocurrency. There are over 10,000 cryptocurrencies systems running on blockchains. However, the blockchain is a reliable way of storing data for a seemingly limitless number of other utilities, as well.

Many companies have already incorporated blockchain into their business models include Microsoft, Amazon, Tencent, Nvidia, J.P. Morgan, Walmart, Alibaba, PayPal, Samsung, and the Bank of China are among the 27 companies with live blockchain operations. In fact, 81% of the top 100 public companies are pursuing blockchain solutions. Of the 81 companies, 65 are actively implementing blockchain solutions. One example, IBM has created its Food Trust blockchain to trace the journey that food products take to get to their locations.

How can blockchain improve food traceability? Food and pharmaceutical industries have seen countless outbreaks of e. Coli, salmonella, listeria, as well as hazardous materials being accidentally introduced to the products. Historically, it could take several days to weeks to identify the source of such outbreaks. Using blockchain gives brands the ability to reliably track a product’s routing from its creation, through each stop it makes through its delivery. The blockchain provides an immutable record of every step and influencing event of the products life, usually within seconds. The data record permits the identification of the problem along the product path, allowing solutions to take place far sooner, potentially saving lives and mitigating the liability.