The word Blockchain might be the most used word this year but many people still don't know what It is and what it can be used for, this article explains a few key use cases of Blockchain technology as well as the problems it aims to solve with illustrations as well.

Currently, we have banks that provide escrow services to buyers and merchants alike, in this case, when an overseas transaction is initiated, the funds for payment are deposited in a bank account by the buyer and monitored both by the buyer and merchant, the bank keeps track of this transaction with their usual mechanisms and also holds a commission fee as their own payment, Now when the buyer of the product confirms his receipt of the product the bank credits the merchant. This current structure allows both the buyer and merchant to trust the bank's discretion for the distribution of funds between both parties as well as monitoring the overall procedures that take place in between the sending of the product to the receipt by the buyer. Generally, both parties can trust the integrity of the bank as a financial institution that would not act in its own self-interest but fulfill the needs of the parties involved with no bias on either side. Now, this structure is prone to a lot of potential security breaches as the bank can be hacked and funds Stolen thus making everyone whose funds are in the bank lose their assets.

This is where smart contracts come in, with a smart contract that details the necessary information of the transaction and code that self executes when the condition that satisfies the conclusion of the deal has been met, both parties can trust the authenticity and integrity of the code, in more specific terms, this code can contain the buyer's wallet address as well as the merchant's wallet address as well as a GPS tracker that uses an identification number of the product to locate it's the position from the location of the merchant to that of the buyer and when the code sees that the location of the product has changed from that of the merchant to that of the buyer, it can self execute and deposit the necessary amount of money into the merchant's wallet. Now, this code is immutable as it will be deployed on a blockchain, where it can be viewed and monitored but not changed by anyone as it is already "set in code".

With this type of technological architecture, both parties can trust the code as well as forfeit the payment of bank fees or other delays like waiting for days before the merchant gets credited these type of hassles that come with using the current financial institution i.e. banks.

Another use case is in the retail business, Lets take your local coffee shop for an instance; if they decide to integrate crypto payments in place of cash payments, they can build a system whereby they would have their own token and it would have a fiat currency equivalent, this token would then be used for purchases in all of their stores as well as a storage of value. More realistically, it can be used as ICO's (which we will discuss soon), where people can buy this token for a certain amount of money and own percentages in the company, and the value of this token will appreciate as more people adopt it.

These are just a few of the day-to-day usage of blockchain technology and how it would revolutionize our daily lives, as we move along we will be exploring more use cases in several areas of human lives. Keep Reading!