

What Is Blockchain?

A few months ago, I attended SAP SuccessFactors SuccessConnect in Las Vegas. I spoke with keynote speaker Penny Stoker, who said, "Blockchain is essentially a technology that validates transactions." That stuck with me, as suddenly I saw all sorts of new and interesting applications of what blockchain could do for entrepreneurs.

At a high level, courtesy of IBM, blockchain is defined as "shared, immutable ledger for recording a history of transactions." Even more abstracted, it is a secure, peer-to-peer platform for verifying digital events. Effectively, industries can leverage technology core to blockchain to store and manage information, access, and trust across a wide network. And rather than having a single player control the "keys," blockchain is decentralized, meaning no one individual can manipulate or override the data. This is especially important to sectors like finance and government, which are prone to fraud and system abuse.

How Entrepreneurs Can Leverage Blockchain in 2018


1. Eliminate the Background Check




2. Fully Automated Legal Agreements.

I had another great conversation with Tom Golway, chief technologist at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, who is working on several applications of blockchain for business. He explained that blockchain is the proverbial missing link that would empower legal agreements to operate at a fully automated level. That is, because blockchain is essentially a "smart contract," businesses would be able to complete the entire process of orchestrating their legal agreements without today's human intervention that slows the process down.

How many times do businesses agree on terms only to have contracts sitting in someone's email inbox waiting for a signature--digital or "sign, scan, and email back?" Blockchain will likely remove this delay from businesses that have well defined their terms and clients who wish to engage without the traditional delays of waiting for additional approvals and signatures.

3. Supply Chain Verification

Another powerful pioneer in blockchain is Alicia Tillman, chief marketing officer at SAP. She sees all kinds of possibilities and applications of blockchain when it comes to a company's supply chain. Businesses know who they are buying from directly, but often do not know who their vendor's suppliers are. Blockchain could help businesses instantly understand recall implications. Or when a component fails, using blockchain you would immediately be able to see who the original supplier was and within minutes identify every suspect product or part that could be impacted.


4. Access to Capital




5. More Efficient Fundraising



6. Transparent and Accountable Shipping and Logistics

For years, entrepreneurs have been approaching problems the same way: banking on their toolkit of "centralized models" of management. Blockchain introduces a completely new way to control access and information, which can, in turn, open a whole array of new opportunity.


What is unique about their solution is that it would not have been possible without blockchain. Rather than having a centralized agent controlling the system, they are putting "trust management" in the power of the distributed ledger. This approach brings a level of transparency and accountability that this industry has never before seen.

7. Applications Beyond Transactions

By now, you get the idea, so let's explore some "out there" ideas to get your creative juices flowing. For a moment, consider the implication of Tinder, the dating app, if it applied blockchain to a person's dating history--essentially giving a transparent ledger of someone's dating profile.


With these things in mind, where else in your business could transparency and accountability be helpful? These are the areas for opportunity that are worthy of additional exploration. If it's frustrating to you, chances are others would love a solution to the same problem, and this could be a competitive advantage for your company.

Transparent and Accountable


As we look to validate transactions using smart contracts, we're going to see why the power of blockchain technology is so much more than its current association with cryptocurrencies. In the meantime, the speculative investor in you might also be interested in "The Top 10 Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) to Watch in 2018."

Published on: Nov 20, 2017