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Exploring the Practical Applications of Blockchain Technology

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4 years ago

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In a few short years, blockchain technology has been steadily gaining traction in traditional business applications around the world.

So much so, that blockchain-focused venture capital fundraising tripled to $3 billion between the years 2017 and 2018.

Four Practical Uses for Blockchain Tech

Today’s graphic from Noah Coin highlights four major sectors where blockchain technology is being used to innovate and enhance important business processes.

In an increasingly digital world, which industries are being transformed by blockchain?

Exploring Four Practical Blockchain Application

One of the primary benefits of blockchain technology is its immutability─the unchangeable nature of the “ledger” of data posted to the network.

This critical feature can provide widespread benefits across a variety of industries around the world. Let’s dive into some key examples.

Major Practical Applications of Blockchain

1. Financial Services

Recent numbers show that the asset management industry could cut costs by $2.7 billion every year by moving to blockchain tech. Practical applications of blockchain in the financial services industry include client screening and onboarding, recordkeeping, data privacy and security, and trade processing.

Similarly, the insurance industry is fraught with errors and costly mistakes. The FBI estimates that over $40 billion a year is lost through fraud across all non-health insurance industries.

Example solution:

  • RiskBlock, a proof-of-insurance product, helps insurers save time and money through automated processes, and it helps insured individuals validate their insurance claims securely and quickly.

2. Smart Contracts

Blockchain and smart contract technologies function well in instances where legal contracts are required to maintain ownership rights and data privacy laws. These customizable, self-executing smart contracts on the blockchain can be easily managed by all parties.

Issues with ownership rights and royalties are commonplace within the entertainment industry. To navigate these issues, blockchain technology offers an unchangeable, traceable, real-time distribution and reporting network for all involved.

Example solution:

  • Ujomusic is one such application that is helping artists track their royalties worldwide.

3. Digital IDs

According to the World Bank, over 1.1 billion people worldwide still have no way to prove their identity. At the same time, companies and financial institutions in both traditional and digital markets are being required to follow more stringent know-your-customer (KYC) initiatives.

Despite this, many providers are still not sufficiently meeting these standards; to further complicate things, regulations vary widely from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

Example solution:

4. Blockchain Internet of Things (IoT)

Gartner predicts that 20.4 billion IoT-connected devices will be active by the end of 2020, with some estimates showing the IoT market will reach $3 trillion annually by 2026.

Blockchain-enabled IoT devices would operate faster and more securely for both users and businesses─enabling less centralized control over the financial industry, internet usage, and ownership rights.

Example solution:

  • Helium uses a decentralized machine network to simplify connecting anything to the internet through a blockchain, wireless network, and open-source software.

A Blockchain-enabled Future

Blockchain technology promises to be the next major tidal wave of innovation. While still in its infancy, practical blockchain applications are becoming more mainstream.

As blockchain adoption spreads, it can become a driving force for promoting equitable societies, solving complex economic issues, and transforming how we live and work every day.

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Green

The Carbon Emissions of Gold Mining

Gold has a long history as a precious metal, but just how many carbon emissions does mining it contribute to?
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4 weeks ago

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May 2, 2023

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Published • Updated •
The following content is sponsored by Nature's Vault

The Carbon Emissions of Gold Mining

As companies progress towards net-zero goals, decarbonizing all sectors, including mining, has become a vital need.

Gold has a long history as a valuable metal due to its rarity, durability, and universal acceptance as a store of value. However, traditional gold mining is a process that is taxing on the environment and a major contributor to the increasing carbon emissions in our atmosphere. 

The above infographic from our sponsor Nature’s Vault provides an overview of the global carbon footprint of gold mining.

The Price of Gold

To understand more about the carbon emissions that gold mining contributes to, we need to understand the different scopes that all emissions fall under.

In the mining industry, these are divided into three scopes.

  • Scope 1: These include direct emissions from operations.
  • Scope 2: These are indirect emissions from power generation.
  • Scope 3: These cover all other indirect emissions.

With this in mind, let’s break down annual emissions in CO2e tonnes using data from the World Gold Council as of 2019. Note that total emissions are rounded to the nearest 1,000.

ScopeTypeCO2e tonnes
1Mining, milling, concentrating and smelting45,490,000
2Electricity54,914,000
3Suppliers, goods, and services25,118,000
1,2,3Recycled Gold4,200
3Jewelry828,000
3Investment4,500
3Electronics168
TOTAL 126,359,000

Total annual emissions reach around 126,359,000 CO2e tonnes. To put this in perspective, that means that one year’s worth of gold mining is equivalent to burning nearly 300 million barrels of oil.

Gold in Nature’s Vault

A significant portion of gold’s downstream use is either for private investment or placed in banks. In other words, a large amount of gold is mined, milled, smelted, and transported only to be locked away again in a vault.

Nature’s Vault is decarbonizing the gold mining sector for both gold and impact investors by eliminating the most emission-intensive part of the mining process—mining itself.

By creating digital assets like the NaturesGold Token and the Pistol Lake NFT that monetize the preservation of gold in the ground, emissions and the environmental damage associated with gold mining are avoided.

How Does it Work?

Through the same forms of validation used in traditional mining by Canada’s National Instrument NI 43-101 and Australia’s Joint Ore Reserve Committee (JORC), Nature’s Vault first determines that there is gold in an ore body.

Then, using blockchain and asset fractionalization, the mineral rights and quantified in-ground gold associated with these mineral rights are tokenized.

This way, gold for investment can still be used without the emission-intensive process that goes into mining it. Therefore, these digital assets are an environmentally-friendly alternative to traditional gold investments.

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Click here to learn more about gold in Nature’s Vault.

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