Cryptocurrency is all the rage in many discussions. Whether it is up or down, Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies have revolutionized how the world views money and transaction. All of these currencies are built on a relatively new technology known as blockchain. It’s a method of keeping records that decentralizes information and makes fraud virtually impossible.

1. How Blockchain Can Be Used to
Revolutionize Leading Industries
By: Jessica VerSteeg
Cryptocurrency is all the rage in many discussions. Whether it is up or down, Bitcoin, Ethereum
and other cryptocurrencies have revolutionized how the world views money and transaction. All
of these currencies are built on a relatively new technology known as blockchain. It’s a method
of keeping records that decentralizes information and makes fraud virtually impossible.
The entire process is complicated, but the basic idea is that anyone in the world can access the
ledger and add to it. Because of that, the verification process is extremely meticulous, and
counterfeiting the ledger would require an individual to have more than 50% of the networks
processing power at their disposal. Technical tidbits aside, the most interesting aspect of
blockchain is that currency is one of the least impressive ways it can revolutionize industries.
Stock Trading
Decentralizing stock trading does two big things: it slashes management fees and it improves
security. As trading largely exists today, the cumbersome process that happens between making
a decision as a buyer or seller and actually finalizing the transaction can take up to three days and
involves multiple middlemen.
The fees associated with the work that goes into this transaction is largely passed onto the
customers. A blockchain ledger enables the bulk of this work to be immediately verifiable.

2. Transactions can happen in real time, and the overall cost of operating stock exchanges dropping,
which yields more money in the pockets of investors. The concept is so promising that
NASDAQ is already experimenting with blockchain ledgers.
Voting
Taking a full left turn from the financial, blockchain holds revolutionary promise for voters. The
great challenges that exist to today are verifying votes and accurately counting them in a secure
manner. Blockchain makes this easy.
The decentralization makes it near impossible to forge votes or voting tallies. It also removes
political and party influences from the voting process. If implemented, blockchain voting can be
streamlined to happen entirely online. This makes it more accessible than any other method. It
also eliminates the need for recounts because the ledger is transparent and verifiable.
Digital Advertising
Swinging back in the direction of finances, blockchain can rebuild advertising. As things stand,
digital marketing is largely run through centralized distributors. This consumes significant
bandwidth and has difficult-to-measure returns.
A blockchain-based solution enables advertisers to entirely self-publish and interact more
directly with their target audience. It also enables advertisers to pull dramatically more accurate
data and improve their return on investments. At the highest end of potential, there exists a
scenario where advertisers could directly pay consumers to interact with their content —
circumventing middleman advertising costs all together.
Healthcare
Applied to healthcare, it represents a way to securely and swiftly share health records without
risking privacy violations. This could enable healthcare scientists to analyze massive data pools
that are currently unavailable.
It can help better identify health trends and solutions. It also makes it easier for healthcare
providers to share specific patient data, and all of it can happen with remarkable anonymity.
Only a direct care provider ever needs to be able to match your information with your identity,
but when that is necessary, it can happen instantaneously.
Education
Lastly, we come to education. Obtaining non-digital records to verify any level of certification is
slower and more expensive. A blockchain ledger can enable all education records to be instantly
accessible and verifiable. And, like in the case of healthcare, records can remain private unless
permission is granted by the individual. This can cut paper and administration costs for all levels

3. of education, and it’s one of the most easy to implement opportunities to slash the runaway rising
costs of college.
In truth, there are very few industries that won’t be touched or completely revamped by
blockchain. In its most simple form, blockchain can improve on every record-keeping system
that came before it. At best, it can offer entirely new solutions to old problems. Some of these
applications may take years of development, but we can already see plenty of innovations in
practice today. It won’t be long before your daily life and your work life are both tied as closely
to the evolution of blockchain as they are to the internet itself.
About the Author
Jessica VerSteeg has enjoyed a successful career as a fashion and print model for nearly 10
years. During her time as a model she also become Miss Iowa US 2014 and placed in the top 10
at the Miss US pageant. After losing someone close to her due to an accidental over dose of pain
killers she decided to dedicate herself to changing the perception of alternative pain killers like
cannabis. She then founded AuBox, an upscale medical marijuana delivery service. But the laws
and regulations from state to state and county to county are a complex web to deal with causing
the cannabis industry to be fragmented. Jessica wants to help bring back the trust and respect
the cannabis industry deserves, so she decided to build Paragon Coin. Jessica is focused on
providing a blockchain platform the Cannabis industry to become transparent and stay
compliant