Our experience with the Covid-19 pandemic provided numerous lessons, but maybe the most significant one was about saving and investing money. Those who made sound financial choices before lockdowns could maintain their standard of living even while others were forced to make sacrifices.

People sought safe-haven assets during the pandemic, as shown by our observations. Everything was uncertain, and with so many laid-off many people had to depend on their savings to pull through. Gold investments have produced healthy returns in the past. However, as Gold's luster fades, cryptocurrency has outperformed the yellow metal in terms of return. And for this reason, cryptocurrencies are the newest popular investing trend.

Traditionally, investors would use Gold as a way to protect themselves against stock market volatility. It used to be a very successful strategy, but a new alternative has arisen to test the old safe-haven strategy.

More investors are evaluating the longtime comparison between the well-known cryptocurrency and Gold as its rapid ascent continues, breaking new milestones and surpassing the $1 trillion market capitalization barrier only last week.

Both assets, according to experts, are often seen as a means to diversify a portfolio or as a protection against fiat currency inflation caused by what some observers believe to be unsustainable fiscal and monetary policy.

Even yet, Wall Street analysts, company CEOs, and institutional investors seldom looked at the two assets side by side until lately. 

Historically, Bitcoin and other altcoin are also known as digital Gold and have been considered a high-risk speculative investment for people seeking quick returns. During this time, Gold has remained a safe haven asset.

Cryptocurrency's new surge and rapid popularity, bolstered by fresh investments from Tesla and other big names, has some wondering whether their previous assumptions about these assets are accurate.

What evidence supports the gold price?

The yellow metal is in short supply and thus expensive as a raw material for consumer products like jewelry. Regardless of how much demand there is, the supply is still very low. While a business may issue new shares and the Federal Reserve can print dollar notes, Gold is an exception. It's impossible to make Gold from scratch as it's a naturally occurring element. It has to be excavated and treated once it is uncovered.

Is there anything that supports the idea of a cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency is a digital currency based on the blockchain that has some similarities to Gold in terms of characteristics. Because of its poor correlation with other assets—stocks in particular—many have dubbed digital coins as "digital gold" in the past. Cryptocurrency supply is finite, just like Gold.

The similarities and differences between cryptocurrency and the price of Gold

Similarities
With no underlying cash flows, both cryptocurrency and Gold are very volatile, and their value is heavily dependent on market sentiment and investment flows.

Differences
Intrinsically they are used for different things. As Gold is used for ornamental equity etc., cryptocurrency is used as a financial tool. They are only different in terms of their popularity. Gold has always attracted the older crowd and senior investors, whereas Crypto is more popular among the younger crowd. 

How do these measure up against each other?

Most inflation watchers, risk-takers, and those who distrust assets more vulnerable to government intervention or regulation favor both of these investments. As well as having uncertain values, neither company has any long-term prospects or cash flows. Even though prices and returns are highly reliant on investor mood and inflows are somewhat volatile, it is possible that sustained adoption may result in significant profits, especially during times of elevated inflation, particularly hyperinflation. These are hazardous investments, but they may pay off handsomely in the long run.

The market appears to concur. Older investors favor Gold, while younger ones prefer Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Any way you look at it, the growth prospects for cryptocurrencies seem to be much superior to those for Gold, regardless of what you think about their relative qualities. Digital tokens have seen soaring inflows and prices while Gold is experiencing excellent returns, as evident. As a result, cryptocurrency is likely the superior investment.

Closing Thoughts

Cryptocurrency is expected to continue growing in the future as younger investors get more interested in betting on the "crypto horse." 

It is likely that as digital tokens become more popular among millennials, more money will pour into the market, driving up prices and providing investors with outperformance. As a result, cryptocurrency will be more superior investment to gold.

Facebook and associated services, including Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Oculus, were down for many hours this week, with the social media behemoth claiming "networking problems" as the cause of the worldwide outage.

According to reports, the disruptions were caused by DNS problems. Cybersecurity writer Brian Krebs said DNS entries were "withdrawn this morning from the global routing tables." According to some accounts, Facebook tried to restart servers manually, and workers could not access buildings due to widespread service outages.

Bitcoin's (BTC) price rose over $49,000 after dropping to a daily low of $47,166, according to Cointelegraph Markets Pro data, a gain of approximately 4.5 percent in less than two hours. Similarly, the price of Ether (ETH) increased 3.5 percent over the same period, reaching $3,411 at the time of reporting.

The unexpected price fluctuation comes after Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, all owned by Facebook, went down at about 3:16 p.m. UTC on Oct. 4. According to Facebook's communications team, the firm was "trying to bring everything back to normal as soon as possible," according to Facebook's communications team which communicated through Twitter.

Twitter is already working on a decentralized social media project of its own. CEO Jack Dorsey initially started in December 2019 that the platform would finance a dedicated team to build a decentralized social media standard, and a crypto developer recently led the group. Dorsey said at the time that the goal was to move away from content hosting and removal and toward recommendation algorithms that directed users' attention, avoiding content that sparked controversy and outrage instead of healthy and informative conversations.

The outage comes after former Facebook employee Frances Haugen handed over hundreds of papers to journalists and others, implying that the business was not doing what it promised in deleting hate speech and postings inciting violence from the site, among other things. On Monday, Facebook's shares dropped more than 5% to $324.90 at the time of reporting.

It was 2009, when blockchain technology was introduced. After 11 years, the digital ledger has become one of the most talked-about and touted technologies. Blockchain applications are still in their infancy, and industry-wide standards are likely still a few years away. The telecommunications sector is one example. 

Bitcoin's central underlying technology is blockchain. It's a method of having "blocks" of encrypted data "chained" to one another in a secure manner such that the data can't be changed after the transaction is logged.

One of the most challenging aspects of addressing blockchain in telecommunications is its many potential uses and applications. Considering the vast amount of current databases and storage systems that might be replaced or enhanced by distributed ledgers, you can see the potential of this by sheer amount of telecom users at present.

Blockchain is a general-purpose technology with potential uses in the telecom industry, ranging from allowing new services (e.g., managing safe and trustworthy connections between IoT devices) to streamlining internal telco processes. In virtually every sector, blockchain has the potential to disrupt or alter business paradigms. According to a recent study by a prominent market research firm, the blockchain in the telecom industry is projected to expand from USD 46.6 million in 2018 to USD 993.8 million by 2023, representing an 84.4 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR).

Blockchain and Telco

The telecommunications value chain includes supplying network infrastructure and connections for voice, data, media, and other related services. Data security, integrity, inspection, and fraud protection are required when data is sent across networks. More devices are being introduced to the network due to IoT and edge computing, necessitating device identification and security. Lease management of 5G Network slicing for telecom and network partners, businesses, Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs), and Over the Top (OTT) players are among the various flavors of network management and infra sharing models that are emerging.

Partner management, enterprise management, and customer management procedures are included in core operations such as Operation Support System (OSS), and Business Support System (BSS) processes to handle contracts, settlement, supply chain management, and SLA management. New business models and ecosystem partners also play a role in the digital journey. Through digital bundle value propositions, blockchain can help simplify processes, make them more safe, transparent, and efficient, and discover new income sources.

Telecommunications Use-Cases for Blockchain

Blockchain is emerging as a breakthrough solution to address the industry's current problems, ushering in a new era of efficiency, transparency, and security. This technology changes telecom because it allows complete automation in a financial settlement, fraud prevention, and KYC processes for onboarding clients.

Let's take a look at a few telco-specific scenarios:

Settlements and Roaming

As previously stated, roaming is a significant problem since mediators regulate roaming partner settlements, which may take up to two months to resolve. Manual mistakes, scams, a lack of transparency, and other problems arise due to this procedure.

Smart contracts' capabilities may be used to automate this complicated procedure. By removing third-party mediators and automating SLA agreements via tamper-proof verifiable transactions and real-time updates to end-users, Smart Contracts on the Blockchain network can guarantee payment between participating members.

Fraud Prevention and Identity Management

Identification management and fraud protection are critical in the telecom sector since numerous third-party agents handle the submission of identity papers, increasing the possibilities of misappropriation and leakage. Such problems may be addressed using blockchain, which provides decentralized storage with complete control staying in the hands of document owners. Its intransitive character will aid in the reduction of forgery and the management of fraudulent document submission.

Extensive databases and storage in the telecom sector may be replaced with distributed ledgers, eliminating several problems.

Portability of mobile phone numbers (MNP)

Suppose you've gone through the MNP process. The high processing time is primarily due to data mismatches across operators and the need for frequent updates from the central database.

By establishing a single source of truth where all service providers can evaluate and act on requests for Mobile Number Portability, blockchain may simplify this complicated process. Because all service providers have access to the shared data, the distributed ledger will help eliminate single-point failure. As a result, MNP may be completed in minutes rather than days.

Making 5G Securer

5G will enable linked devices to communicate quickly and without friction across longer distances. With estimates that two-thirds of the almost 30 billion connected devices will be IoT devices by 2022, 5G will undoubtedly play a key role. However, a few wrinkles must be worked out before 5G can be effectively implemented. Consider the existing Access Network Discovery and Selection Function System (in charge of determining the best access network for a device). Because the system is centralized, it is prone to delays and problems with network provisioning. Smart contracts can make provisioning between networks and end-users accessible with a blockchain-based approach. Blockchain may also unlock lower prices or better connectivity by enforcing dynamic rules and contracts across these networks.

5G raises specific security issues as well. The data received by linked devices must be reliable and free of malicious interference to be implemented securely. Blockchain can guarantee that data transmission is tamper-proof, decentralized, and validated in real-time, allowing 5G to achieve its full potential and protecting against large-scale security breaches.

Closing Thoughts

As the telecommunications industry prepares for the new age of 5G and disruption, businesses must concentrate on innovation and how to stay competitive. Many companies are searching for new technology to help them revitalize and future-proof their businesses to become more efficient and customer-friendly, preparing them for the inevitable disruption. When it comes to simplifying processes, unleashing new business models, and lowering operational costs, one technology assists CSPs in their transformation: blockchain.

Blockchain is becoming popular in sectors such as cryptocurrency and banking, where it is already extensively utilized. Now it looks like this technology may significantly help digital marketing and start a few marketing trends.  

Both marketers and consumers may use blockchain to make transactions as transparent as possible. Customer contentment has always been a top priority for us.

Blockchain is without a doubt one of the most revolutionary marketing technologies ever developed. However, how is it altering the nature of digital marketing? What are the advantages for companies and customers? 

How do blockchain and digital marketing come together?

To put it another way, think of blockchain as a database of digital transactions. There is no need for a third party to verify these blocks since they are interconnected. Blockchain is the technology behind Bitcoin's increasing popularity and commercial success. With this system, all transactions are verified and recorded in a single location. With this new technology, we may expect more openness as well as better security of user data.

Many marketers have benefited from this since they now have access to more accurate leads and better serve their clients. When it comes to marketing and data transparency, blockchain technology has enormous potential. As a result, it's one of the fastest-growing technologies in a variety of fields.

The financial and banking sectors are the most heavily reliant on the blockchain. Outside of traditional markets, blockchain has several additional ramifications.

IT as well as a few other things. Media and telecoms are two sectors that are quickly adopting blockchain technology. This market segment may be further segmented according to which industries are fully aware of the blockchain idea.

Sectors still exploring processes with blockchain, and industries that are successfully implementing it in their company are still training themselves to get acquainted with the idea.

Considering how well the financial services sector has received the blockchain idea, one may ask whether it can be used in digital marketing.

Even though marketing automation can handle most marketing duties, a better method to advertise has a significant impact on how marketers collect data from ads. 

Many marketing strategies may benefit from the use of blockchain technology. 

Here are some of the most expected trends to be seen: 

1. Absolute Transparency & Traceability 

You know how you see something you want on the internet and decide to purchase it, crossing your fingers and hope you get it? Get rid of the ambiguity once and for all. Due to the nature of blockchain, you won't get anything other than what you paid for.

Let's suppose you requested a jute bag made from organic fibers. With blockchain, you'll have access to a wealth of detailed information about a product, such as where it was made, how much labor went into it, how much the employees are paid, and more.

Customer credibility will rise as a result of this, which is excellent for the company. Modern consumers now want to know as much as possible about a brand before making a purchase; thus, this may be a huge benefit for both companies and customers.

2. Make sure consumers' digital rights are protected.

Every business would love to have the chance to advertise to you as a client. Amazon and Walmart both require your contact information, such as phone number and email address, so they can connect with you via specific applications and websites. Still, this information will be returned to the user (rather than being kept on the server) after the task is completed.

For digital marketing companies, this is bad news since you won't gather any information from consumers to better serve them. However, from the perspective of consumer protection, this is a significant advantage.

3. There are no ambiguities in the keyword selection.

Keyword monitoring is one of the most difficult aspects of being a marketer. It's difficult to keep track of keywords for two reasons.

Google's algorithms change all the time. And, let's face it, it's a challenge to stay on top of everything. The second reason is that your intended audience makes use of a variety of gadgets. Tracking terms across different devices and different regions are difficult.

When producing reports, you may have to rely on assumptions or make educated guesses as a marketer. Real statistics for monitoring keywords are possible with blockchain. It will support you in keeping track of keyword locations no matter where you are or what device you're using. This may assist you in developing more data-driven marketing.

4. Smarter Lead Generation

Data gathering for marketing is often a combination of methods. Marketers gather information from various sources, integrate it, and then use it to launch a campaign.

This is a popular strategy; however, it is incorrect. A lot of the data used in these campaigns is contradictory and incomplete. Blockchain will let you gain access to reliable data, which will help you solve this issue. The blockchain eliminates the need for a central authority to approve every transaction.

Data will be collected directly from the customer, giving advertisers a reliable source. As a marketer, you have two options: you may pay or provide incentives to customers in exchange for their data. This will guarantee a strong return on investment from the campaign's second round, as well as extremely accurate consumer feedback.

To put it another way, customers who consent to share their personal information with your business are already interested in your offerings. As a result, generating leads and converting them into sales will be a lot simpler now that you have a client base eager to buy.

Closing Thoughts

Though time and effort are required and greater initial investment, the benefits of adopting blockchain outweigh the disadvantages. Yes, it will take more time and money to get started, but marketers will have access to far superior data thanks to blockchain in the long run. Customers will be able to choose which businesses get their information. Companies will be held liable and accountable for their activities since blockchain transactions will be accessible to the public. This will require businesses to maintain transparency.

Blockchain has yet to achieve wide-scale adoption. Too frequently, governments rush into deployment without first assessing possible obstacles. While the pseudonymous transactions on the blockchain may help prevent a person's actual identity from being found, many governments need safe verification of a user's identity to execute a transaction. 

Governments could integrate blockchain with digital IDs or implement private and permissioned blockchains (used in trade contracts and specific financial agreements), but these options are either too complicated or risk compromising privacy—for example, if social security benefits are linked to a digital ID, they are no longer pseudonymous. In certain instances, such as with voter votes, government entities need complete anonymity.

Although blockchain is often promoted as offering high-security assurances, the size of the ledger plays a role: smaller ledgers are more vulnerable to manipulation. Indeed, an organization or hacker may acquire control of most of the ledger's node network (the 51 percent rule), allowing for false transactions. 

Scenarios where Government can Use Blockchain Optimally 

Some of the most popular use cases for the government would be:

Land Records & Asset Storage

Land transfers and demands for evidence of ownership may put a lot of paperwork and administrative work on government authorities. Governments may use blockchain to indefinitely record asset transactions such as land, property, and cars on a public ledger.

Auto-executing Contracts

Governments and people alike pay a high price for traditional legal contract implementation. Smart, self-executing contracts enabled by blockchain may, on the other hand, eliminate the need for intermediaries and possibly enhance contract formulation and execution. Only within a network, such agreements are both publicly visible and secure.

Easier Benefits Management & Transparency

Certain people and organizations, such as cyber attackers, may abuse and hack government systems that offer social benefits, such as unemployment. Although problems of privacy must be addressed appropriately, blockchain may enhance record management and offer protection. Data may be safeguarded by keeping anonymized IDs and data in employer databases while maintaining the blockchain's encrypted hash key (a digital "fingerprint").

Validation of Documents 

Governments are always searching for centralized cloud-based solutions to verify their citizens' papers, and blockchain may be the answer. Governments can validate certifications, degrees, patents, and ownership, etc. Citizens' hash values may be stored on the blockchain, enabling governments to offer an authenticated and permanently time-stamped electronic version of these papers at any moment.

Why Should Governments Use Blockchain? 

Here are the top three reasons why governments should make use of blockchain systems, sooner than later.

1. It will be 'cheaper.' 

Government agencies need to carry out their missions while also managing limited resources wisely. Blockchain may be a lifeline for government leaders balancing budgets on a knife's edge. Blockchain technologies, when used correctly, may eliminate duplication, simplify operations, reduce audit load, improve security, and guarantee data integrity.

Consider how the federal Government's continuing problem with harmonizing intragovernmental transfers might benefit from blockchain technologies. There are billions of dollars of unreconciled monies in the federal budget at any given moment. The process of reconciling these monies is time-consuming, costly, and inconvenient for the budget. A blockchain-based payment and accounting system may offer a permanent audit trail and allow for quicker reconciliation.

2. It will be more 'trustable.'

Transparency via decentralization is a fundamental aspect of blockchain-based systems, enabling all participants to view and verify data. Some citizen services may benefit from a blockchain system that allows for independent verification of government claims. For example, Sweden, Estonia, and Georgia are experimenting with blockchain-based land registers, enabling different parties to retain copies of the registration securely. This approach may help resolve property disputes fast or prevent them entirely. When people and governments exchange records, the risk of mistrust is reduced.

3. It will be more 'transparent.'

Governments are vulnerable to cyberattacks because they are the default record keeper for society. Rather than accepting such assaults as a cost of conducting business in the information age, they might be reduced or avoided using blockchain data structures responsibly. Such data architectures strengthen network security by lowering the danger of a single point of failure, and they may make initiating a breach prohibitively tricky.

Closing Thoughts

The blockchain ecosystem is rapidly developing to focus on use cases and cooperate in testing and examining its possibilities while being a relatively new technology in practice and, more significantly, new tradecraft. With several options for ledger-based solutions, the first step is to identify potential blockchain problems carefully, then test and create a solution to address them. As blockchain develops, we expect existing and newly unpredicted Government uses, eventually improving public trust, security, and efficiency.

Search engine behemoth Google will be the key provider of the electricity required to make the future generation of the Internet, which will be powered by blockchain, run. Google Cloud, recognized for supporting and scaling blockchain projects, has teamed up with Canadian company Dapper Labs, creator of the $680 million NBA Top Shot marketplace, to help build and grow Dapper's Flow blockchain.

What is Web 3.0? 

The Internet is perhaps the most significant technological revolution in human history.

Although the industry has developed significantly since the beginning of the project, its present stage is like the automotive industry in 1920, a technology that has changed worldwide for 20 years but is still very unreliable and requires significant upgrades.

In contrast to Web 1.0, where content creators were very few, with the enormous majority of users solely operating as consumers of content, web 2.0 provided us with the 'Web as Platform' in which software apps are based on the Web rather than on the desktop.

Enhanced technologies such as distributed ledgers and blockchain storage will enable data to be decentralized and provide a transparent and safe environment that overtakes the centralization of Web 2.0 and monitoring and operational advertising. Decentralized infrastructure and application platforms will replace centralized technology companies, and people are entitled to their data.

In fact, in the field of data ownership and remuneration, one of the most critical consequences of decentralization and blockchain technology. One believes that the Web reflects its original intention as we progress towards web 3.0 and the technology that enables it to develop and be adaptable.

Google and Dapper Changing Things Up

Industry monitoring site Dapp Radar says that Dapper users have been doing between 500,000 and one million transactions per week this summer and that the NFT platform is the fourth biggest by overall sales.

According to Dapper Labs CEO Roham Gharegozlou, the Flow network supports more than 50 apps, including NBA Top Shot and CryptoKitties. Google Cloud, as a network operator, will assist Flow in growing by providing infrastructure support. More than 2,000 developers using Flow may now connect to lower-latency Google cloud services through access nodes.

World wide web users will no longer rely on Amazon Web Services-powered centralized servers, as a new blockchain-based implementation will use a distributed network of different machines, everything from laptops to bitcoin mining farms.

As Web 3.0 nears, Google plans to take advantage of Amazon's vulnerable spot by promoting itself as a developer-friendly alternative. Google Cloud North America's vice president, Janet Kennedy, said that developers would decide on the source of their energy depending on power usage in the area.

With Google's assistance, Dapper Labs hopes to expand NBA TopShot and other NFT lines to millions of users to swell on the back of centralized cloud hosts in other blockchain initiatives. Microsoft and Amazon were the first two leading IT companies to offer blockchain-as-a-service, subsequently in 2015 and 2019.

It is the new blockchain dawn

The blockchain and crypto industry sensed the transition with the massive growth of non-fungible tokens during the past year. In the summer, members on the Dapper network made between 500,000 and 1 million transactions a week, according to Dapp Radar. The platform expanded to the fourth biggest in space during this period.

The famous NBA Top Shot collection sold nearly $700 million in only one year. Google's new collaboration aims to scale Top Shot and other Flow-friendly NFTs.

This transaction is the latest in several recent crypto-forward movements from the tech behemoth. Recently, as part of the new policy, Google has permitted crypto advertising.

According to Google Cloud North America vice president, Janet Kennedy, this move offers Dapper Labs the support and scalability it requires at the moment of growth in the sector.

“It’s really about helping them with rapid and sustainable growth,” mentioned Kennedy. “Blockchain technology is becoming more and more mainstream. So companies like Dapper need scalable, secure infrastructure to grow their business, and even more importantly, support their networks.”

Closing Thoughts

During the third stage of the Internet—the period after the first iteration of basic static websites and the second stage dominated by user-generated content and social media—the technology giant anticipates playing a pivotal role in a building that seems to be the decentralized version of the Web. 

We've been swept up in the fourth industrial revolution since 2010. (Industry 4.0). It is a technological revolution characterized by data exchange and intelligent automation. Cloud-based systems, the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, and cognitive computing are all pushing the manufacturing industry to progress rapidly.

The application of blockchain technology is gaining popularity in the manufacturing and distribution sectors. The airline industry uses it to supervise its fleet's maintenance procedures. Retail giants have shown interest in the use of blockchain to make their operations leaner and faster. 

Blockchain & Manufacturing Revolution 

As a solution to improving transaction processing time, blockchain is already being utilized to solve other issues, such as several problems in manufacturing.

For instance, blockchain technology may connect supply chain ledgers to increase the accuracy and efficiency of product tracking. Having blockchain facilitate more accurate tracking and tracing can shift a time-consuming, labor-intensive manual process into a quick automated task.

Efforts are being made to enable blockchain to be used in manufacturing. An open-source standard to combine blockchain and IoT has been jointly developed by well-known technology companies like Bosch and Cisco Systems and startups through the Trusted IoT Alliance.

The protocol's primary feature is a smart-contract interface that enables data to pass freely between and among blockchain-enabled systems. Early research into the technology-focused on its application to supply chains.

Developers also hope to develop applications that will be able to support immutable documentation and hardware trust. To expand blockchain applications, a standard would need to be integrated into new factory hardware and software.

Manufacturing today is affected by blockchain technology. Blockchain can increase clarity and assurance at every stage of the industrial value chain, from sourcing raw materials to delivering the final product. It may assist with:

• Tracking the supply chain for more transparency
• Tracking materials origins and identifying counterfeits
• High-complexity, long-duration engineering design
• I.D. verification
• tracking of assets
• assurance of quality
• the ability to comply with rules and regulations

Blockchains can provide industrial and manufacturing companies with a complete view of their operations, along with solutions that can boost augmented reality and 3D printing.

What sort of impact does Blockchain bring to new Supply Chains?

1. Traceability and Transparency 

Data on a blockchain is permanent and cryptographic signatures are necessary to verify ownership of information. If two or more firms cooperate, they can leverage a blockchain system to store information on the whereabouts and ownership of their goods and materials. To provide a comprehensive history of all supply chain components, this data is recorded in the blockchain. 

All supply chain members have a clear view of the commodities as they go from business to company. These recordings are unchangeable and are easy to track. A faulty product's source can be more immediately recognized, leading to more efficient product recalls and minimizing the time interruption experienced amongst different supply chain parties.

If a company can see and understand all of the inventory items moving through its supply chain, it can make better judgments. An improvement in quality boosts confidence in both consumers and stakeholders. It's also an effective weapon against fraud and counterfeiting

2. Savings & Expenses 

Inefficient supply networks produce a lot of waste. Industries with perishable commodities, such as the food sector, are especially vulnerable to this. Blockchain can help businesses spot and correct these inefficient inefficiencies, allowing them to apply cost-saving initiatives on a targeted basis.

In addition to reducing expenses, blockchain also helps reduce fees paid by multiple bank accounts and payment processors for fund transfers. These costs may eat into profit margins; therefore, it's essential to exclude them.

3. Interoperability

Data sharing is a severe issue with existing supply chain software, as it cannot bring together data from every participant in the process. Distributed blockchains, on the other hand, were intended to preserve a unique and transparent database. Each member of the network has a role in contributing new data and ensuring its accuracy. This makes it possible for any entity on the network to view all information, so one firm may check data transmission.

4. Electronically exchanging data systems.

The transmission of data between different firms is often done using EDI. However, these statistics are released on a scheduled schedule rather than in real-time. Because of this, if an order is lost or prices fluctuate, the rest of the supply chain only finds out until the next EDI batch is released. Information is updated in real-time with blockchain, and it is immediately shared with all stakeholders.

5. Preserving and increasing the value of crucial intellectual property

Every manufacturing company has a responsibility to safeguard its intellectual property.

To avoid legal wrangling, a company may benefit from using blockchain technology to assert I.P. ownership in the event of a patent dispute. Companies have made it possible for users to register I.P. in a blockchain using a web service. A certificate is created that validates the existence, integrity, and ownership of the I.P.

It is also a method of protecting and securing I.P. when monetizing digital assets. When used, for example, connected machines can assemble parts through the use of digital design files. To share proprietary I.P., the firm licensing the I.P. on the blockchain allows the company that makes the part to access it.

6. Machine managed maintenance

Blockchain can aid in introducing new maintenance strategies (such as automated service contracts) and reducing repair times. The advances are essential to deal with the sophisticated machinery's increased complexity and technical sophistication.

To make things easier for contractors, customers may include information about each device's service agreements and installation plans in the blockchain, producing a product's digital twin. Blockchain technology may be used to run and pay for scheduled maintenance automatically. Machines that require regular upkeep can be serviced by the equipment, which generates a smart contract for repair or a spare part. Once the order is complete, payment processing takes place automatically.

Blockchain records for the maintenance history are also linked to immutable documentation. Such applications currently in the early stage of development increase equipment dependability, enable equipment health and attrition monitoring and generate auditable machinery health evaluations. In addition, the blockchain may serve as proof to equipment suppliers that maintenance was conducted as specified in the warranty and guarantee agreements, even if an in-house team handled the care.

Closing Thoughts: The future of supply chain management will be shaped by blockchain technology

Blockchain technology and supply chain management solutions are a match made in heaven. Due to the immutability of blockchain-based solutions, virtually all of the critical weaknesses of existing supply chains may be solved quickly.

Industry firmly believes that supply chains are one of the essential areas that blockchain can help improve. However, it is also relevant to note that blockchain will have some difficulties since it is very new to the business world. The sector is plagued with deficiencies, and blockchain appears to solve most of these problems.

Hopefully, the use of blockchain in supply chains will soon become standard. In the future, both customers and producers will come to know a new, better way of managing supply chains. 

Not only did COVID-19 stifle the flow of commodities and people, but it also stifled the progress of blockchain technology.

Aside from a decline in blockchain funding and project delays, the epidemic forced significant blockchain and cryptocurrency gatherings to be postponed, if not canceled. These events aid in the education and promotion of blockchain technology.

When the pandemic fades, though, this "temporary pause" should pass, and blockchain investments should rebound. Blockchain might aid with government contract procurement activities of crucial medical supplies, secure elections, voting processes, and cross-border financial transactions as supply chains, enterprises, and governments seek to combat the pandemic and jumpstart economies.

Concerned about the pandemic, researchers of blockchain technology are working on solutions to manage drug and medical supply chains to prevent counterfeit masks, contributions, and medical insurance claims.

No one is spared from the effects of time and technology.

While specific industries have been ultimately affected or slowed down due to office closures and cash flow constraints for prospective blockchain technology users, blockchain technology continues to advance at breakneck speed. By 2022, blockchain will have outpaced other industries in terms of financial sector growth. An extensive regulatory effort is required for food monitoring, commodities verification, and sensitive data storage to link real-world things to tokenized analogs.

Because more people stay at home during the outbreak, the use of blockchain as a digital currency in online games is skyrocketing - great news for NFT fans! The use of blockchain's underlying technology to sovereign currencies will be another key milestone in this area. The Federal Reserve in the United States is investigating the prospect of a central bank digital currency serving as the basis for the design, secure real-time payments and settlements system. Two countries that are intrigued by this possibility are China and Sweden. There is still no legal structure or restrictions in place. There will also be greater integration among blockchain developers because many firms were not financially equipped for the coronavirus outbreak.

Despite the widespread impact, two industries responded better to blockchain.

1. Finance and banking

Because of the unexpected nature of recent times, the current monetary system is unstable. With the impacts of COVID-19 being felt on the global financial system, blockchain-based banking and finance solutions are becoming increasingly popular, even at the national level.

The effectiveness of cryptocurrency has made a significant contribution to the proposed advancements. In recent years, cryptocurrency has gone mainstream, with forecasts indicating even wider adoption. This trend has shaken the business & financial world, eliciting a variety of reactions from industry experts.

Products for Investment

The trend of delivering bitcoin investment vehicles through traditional commercial banking institutions is one of these reactions. These products now allow investors to buy potential volumes of cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin, at today's pricing, thereby allowing them to bet on the future value of cryptocurrency to increase their returns. Large financial firms, like Goldman Sachs, are, nonetheless, continually investing in Bitcoin's future.

In the aftermath of COVID-19, investments like this demonstrate the potential of financial technology (fintech). Fintech is seen as a method to grow products and services by 63% of banking professionals, according to Maryville University. Blockchain's ability to give a decentralized security mechanism via cryptographic linkages makes it a useful financial solution in the modern world as people want security and reliability while working from home. Latest products and services will be geared at investors and consumers based on blockchain's security.

Possibility of Universal Currency Comes Closer

With a lengthy number of countries losing currency value against the US dollar, a more ubiquitous version of currency, such as those supplied by blockchain technology, can become all the craze in the aftermath of COVID. This move has the potential to completely revolutionize banking and finance globally, leading to far more extensive adoption of this technology.

2. Medical care

The healthcare industry is coping with a number of problems that have been compounded by COVID-19's consequences. The possibility of data breaches, along with inadequate record access, makes healthcare treatment and study into important health issues expensive and difficult. Blockchain technology can benefit the entire system, and its use is growing throughout the industry.

With good reason, the healthcare blockchain business is predicted to be valued at $1.6 billion by 2025, establishing it as one of the fastest-growing sectors in blockchain. Blockchain technology has the potential to assist in the resolution of healthcare issues by providing security and accessibility that the existing system lacks.

Blockchain Data Protection & Safety

In the healthcare industry, the average cost of a data breach is $7.91 million, putting it as the most costly per capita of any industry. These expenses are incurred as a result of ransomware and cybercrime criminals stealing medical data for black market sales. The healthcare industry is particularly vulnerable to these attacks due to the high value of medical data and the inadequacy of private healthcare networks in dealing with them.

Blockchain integration, on the other hand, may be able to help with this problem. Blockchain data solutions enable immutability and transparency in use by providing break-in-proof databases that can be secured to an authorized user via cryptographic linkages. Access data can be collected and future attacks avoided in the event of a break-in.

Data Availability

Patients may greatly benefit from the decentralized character of prospective healthcare blockchains in terms of user ownership and accessibility. This will allow them to share data amongst healthcare practitioners while also giving them more access to data banks of de-identified data points that can help diagnose and treat medical problems.

In a pandemic world, these solutions are required, as telemedicine and a better knowledge of how diseases transmit and are treated are critical for public health. The healthcare business can benefit from blockchain's security and accessibility, cutting costs and increasing health outcomes.

Lianfei Technology has built the world's first blockchain epidemic monitoring technology, which can follow COVID-19's progress in real-time across all provinces and log relevant epidemic data on the blockchain, allowing data to be tracked and not manipulated.

Closing Thoughts

Disruptive technology has enabled diverse methods to the COVID-19 epidemic in emerging economies, regardless of social status. Among the technologies adopted are online health care, blockchain-based epidemic monitoring platforms, robots that deliver food and medications and monitor people's temperatures, online education platforms, and home-based working solutions, robotics and 3D-printing technologies to manage social distancing in manufacturing plants, and robotics and 3D-printing technologies to handle social distancing in manufacturing plants.

More willingness to adapt to disruptive technology is a positive indicator for the blockchain business, indicating that mainstream adoption will be more seamless in the future.

For centuries humans have gathered around the hearth to share meals and stories of folklore and more. Lots of lessons and rituals have been passed from one generation to the other in the form of stories. In the new era gaming has shaped how we share stories or made it interactive enough to be an actual part of the story. Humans are now able to tell interactive stories that span national borders because of highly elaborate games. It allows us to let go and explore huge, limitless possibilities and universes that are far beyond what is packaged as "reality." We have the freedom to be anyone or anything we choose when we play video games.

We all have that inner child, whether it's Pacman or Marbles. When you combine this with the strength of blockchain technology, it's clear to see why blockchain gaming coins are gaining traction in a multibillion-dollar sector.

In this article we are tackling a few basic questions around blockchain gaming and what it means.

What is Blockchain Gaming?

Blockchain gaming is a type of game that uses the same technology that underpins cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum to provide actual item ownership. It's a game-changing invention for players who had previously accepted that their things will be stuck in games indefinitely. In most games, players are used to wall gardens that prevent them from freely moving things in and out. 

Blockchain could be used in a variety of ways in video games. Bitcoin transactional technology may be used to generate and maintain in-game currency accounts in addition to its usage as a payment mechanism for game purchases (if a cryptocurrency gained enough acceptance that we all routinely shopped with it). Players are awarded with coins, gems, and other glittering items that symbolize their ‘level of value' in any specific game as they win various rounds, stages, levels, and contests, and blockchain might be utilized to manage this backbone function.

How is it different from Gamified Blockchain?

There are various instances where blockchain can be used as a game in and of itself. CryptoKitties is a blockchain-based video game that allows users to buy, collect, breed, and sell many varieties of virtual cats. It was released in 2017. One of the first applications of blockchain for simply recreational purposes is supposed to be this. It's a gamified blockchain in action. 

How is NFT disrupting Gaming?

NFTs can be utilized in a variety of ways in the game industry to allow for the ownership and transferability of digital assets. Companies like Riot Games and Epic Games have disrupted the market by making games available for free, and as a result, first-person shooter and online battle-arena games have exploded in popularity. Along with those free games, “skins,” or visual upgrades, clothing, or weaponry that can be used to customize gaming avatars, have grown in popularity, and gamers frequently pay a premium for these types of changes.

This is one of the reasons why Roblox has grown so popular; its platform allows users to create and style their avatars in-game in a variety of ways.

Even more astounding is the reality that people are spending hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on skins that improve the appearance of a game, character, or avatar but do nothing to improve the gameplay itself. Skins have effectively become digital art for video games, and NFTs could allow digital artists to claim ownership of and verify their skins in the future if they choose to sell them.

Another issue with video games is that any digital accessories, skins, maps, and worlds generated inside a given ecosystem or platform are "locked" into that game. That means that if someone spends all of her or his money on customizations for one game, she or he will lose everything if the game is discontinued.

NFTs, on the other hand, can make it easier to transfer skins and other accessories between games and that’s why a lot of NFT artists are flocking towards the blockchain gaming industry. 

Which are The Top 5 Gaming Coin Contenders?

Here are the top-rated gaming coins for the moment: 

1. Enjin Coin (ENJ)

Enjin is going above and above to take the gaming industry to a whole new level. They're doing it through the ERC-1155 token standard, which is an Ethereum token standard that's used in tandem with Enjin Coin (ticker symbol: ENJ). Developers acquire this blockchain-based gaming coin, which is then minted into blockchain gaming products, allowing gamers to earn $ENJ by purchasing gaming things and receiving them from games, rather than needing to buy them on cryptocurrency exchanges.

2. TRON (TRX)

TRON (TRX) is the native token of one of the world's major blockchain-based operating systems — a blockchain that seeks to create a decentralized Internet free of censorship in the future. Within a broad ecosystem of applications, the Tron blockchain (or network) already delivers outstanding scalability and dev-friendly tools.

Furthermore, the Tron blockchain is already capable of processing up to 2000 transactions per second at a very low cost. This makes it a highly sought-after crypto coin for the creation of a variety of decentralized apps (dApps), including gaming dApps.

3. WAX (WAXP)

The WAX (Ticker symbol: WAXP) token is the native token of the WAX platform, which stands for "Worldwide Asset eXchange" — a blockchain-based exchange that allows for the global purchase and sale of virtual goods.

WAX has a lot to offer, including a developer portal with tools for building dApps on the WAX blockchain, which is the only one that is compatible with the EOS blockchain (or network). WAX also has an NFT maker that allows you to quickly and simply produce non-fungible tokens.
As a consensus technique, the WAX blockchain is reported to use Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS). This allows for near-instant transaction times.

4. Loom Network (LOOM) 

The native coin of the Loom Network (ticker symbol: LOOM) is a highly scalable, blockchain-based network with multi-chain interoperability. Developers will be able to combine assets across all main blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance, and Tron, as a result of this. This means that a developer-only needs to create a decentralized application (dApp) once in order to simultaneously release it on numerous blockchains or platforms.

When it comes to developing high-performance dApps that require a smooth and quick user experience, the Loom Network is ideal.

5. Decentraland (MANA) 

MANA is a cryptocurrency that is utilized in Decentraland, a virtual world based on the Ethereum blockchain that is continually evolving. This virtual environment, which was created in 2017, can be explored and utilised to interact with other people. It also includes a simple Decentraland builder, which includes hundreds of 3D elements that can be used to build or create nearly anything in this virtual world.

Users can also use open marketplaces to buy and trade Decentraland-related virtual land parcels. The blockchain can be used to verify the ownership of virtual land parcels.

The first round of these land lots was auctioned off. The most expensive land to ever get sold amounted to $913,228.20 – nearly a million dollars.