Blockchain established itself as a promising technology with the introduction and use of cryptocurrencies. However, efficiency within administrative processes in companies and corporations is possibly the clearest use case. Let’s take a look to three industrial applications where blockchain brings benefits to companies.
1- Manufacturing Industry
The manufacturing sector has long been moving towards smart manufacturing and automated operations. Blockchain improves these processes in different areas. A well-known one is logistics management. In this case, the big benefits can be summarised as: fair price guarantee, timely and good material delivery as well as supplies for relevant productions. A guarantee of efficient and punctual delivery of your products is essential for your customers. Reduction of delays, handling costs and human errors enables manufacturers to reduce manufacturing costs and become more competitive.
2- Energy: Microgrids
If we talk about the energy sector and blockchain, we talk about “microgrids”. By definition, a microgrid is a localised collection of integrated and managed electrical energy sources and loads with the goal of improving the efficiency and reliability of energy production and consumption. One of the main advantages of microgrid technology is that it allows residents and other consumers of electricity, such as factories, to have access to the energy they need, while allowing them to produce and sell excess energy to the grid. Blockchain can be used to facilitate, record and validate transactions for buying and selling energy in microgrids. The system should be centred on a marketplace that brings together all participants. Possibilities are almost infinite, but to name just a few: it can apply energy exchange restrictions and regulations or manage payments without the need for a centralised controller, thus minimising or eliminating the need for intermediaries to complete transactions within the marketplace for both the purchase and sale of energy. Another possibility would be the traceability of inefficiencies by tracking the energy losses produced by the energy transactions themselves.
3- Robotics: Swarm
Think of swarm robotics. Blockchain technology can be used between multiple distributed entities to reach agreements without the need for a controlling authority, it can be used in swarm robotics applications for the same purpose adding security, autonomy and flexibility creating swarm applications capable of making better decisions in a distributed way to achieve efficient operations. Here we are even talking about introducing automation capabilities through Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO). The topic can be large, but an underlying layer of blockchain technology, which can even be a private network, would exponentially improve the capabilities of robotics in this area.
Credit: Jesus H.
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