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What Is Blockchain Used For Besides Bitcoin? Posted on : Nov 21 - 2017

Blockchain is best known for being the technology behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether (the currency of Ethereum), but blockchain is much more than an instrument of finance.

It’s an encrypted database of agreements, so to speak. This means once a “deal” is made, neither party can go back and rewrite the terms. Smart Contracts––a blockchain based contract that holds both parties accountable by only completing the terms of the agreement once both parties have fulfilled their end of the bargain––is a perfect example.

Blockchain serves as a bookkeeping platform or ledger that is incorruptible, enforces transparency, and bypasses censorship. By tackling issues of financial, political and institutional corruption, this has the potential to create massive social change—and greatly protect the human rights of every individual.

We’re already seeing some of this amazing work unfold.

Here’s how.

1. Tacking the Refugee Crisis

This year, the UNWFP sent over 10,000 Syrian refugees cryptocurrency-based vouchers.

Led by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood, and blockchain big data firm Datarella, Parity Technologies put this platform into action and helped thousands of refugees use cryptocurrency to purchase food, according to Coindesk.

In 2014, the Syrian crisis had “become the biggest humanitarian emergency of our era,” said António Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Today, the global refugee crisis continues to grow, and the agencies and countries who are heavily invested are having to look toward new solutions to solve an otherwise unmanageable situation.

The opportunity to bypass bureaucracy and international uncertainty with Ethereum technology not only gives refugees direct access to donations, but stands as a huge first step in including them in dialogue aimed at solving the international refugee crisis.

2. Creating financial avenues for the world's most impoverished people

The same blockchain platform used to provide financial vouchers to refugees is also working to bridge a poverty gap around the world. As we’ve already seen, blockchain can act as a bank-like institution for people without bank accounts. View More