You may think that finance is the only industry that applies blockchain technology. But it's not. And that's understandable since finance is the first and most popular application of blockchain.

However, other industries are applying this technology. In this article, we'll explore 3 unique sectors, other than finance, applying blockchain.

We'll Pick one business or company in each of these industries to understand the impact of blockchain in that sector. The sectors include:

Healthcare
Intellectual Property Protection
Voting systems.

3 Unique applications of blockchain technology

1. Healthcare

We all want our medical records kept in private. Isn't it? Healthcare records should be handled with high-level privacy. But that's not always the case.

For instance, in 2019 about 40 million health records were affected by data breaches in the US. Imagine the psychological impact on the victims.

In fact, the healthcare industry ranks second when it comes to industries with the highest amount of data breaches. So how can medical records be kept confidential?

That is where blockchain technology comes in. Blockchain is known to be highly secure and nearly impossible to hack.

To be more precise, with private/permissioned blockchains, patients', sensitive medical records will be managed more privately. In a private blockchain, you can only access medical records if you're authorised.

Apart from safe-keeping healthcare records, here are other areas blockchain can be applied in the healthcare industry:

Ensuring that drugs are authentic and original.
Easily sharing health care records among authorised parties
Easy verification of healthcare insurance claims.

Let's examine a company using blockchain solutions to solve healthcare data management challenges.

A case of Medicalchain

Medicalchain is a blockchain healthcare company founded in London in 2017. Its goal is to give patients sole access to their medical records. Hence, patients have the sole authority to share their medical records with whom they choose to.

Let's assume you wish to see a doctor for a medical checkup. Your doctor cannot find out your medical history if you do not grant them access to your medical record. And this record is stored on Medicalchain which is accessible through your smartphone.

Other examples of blockchain companies solving problems in the healthcare industry include:

Chronicled
Guardtime
Hashed Health

2. Intellectual Property Protection

The World Intellectual Property Organisation defines intellectual property [as the] "creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce."

So, anything you create from your mind is your intellectual property. Intellectual property can easily be stolen, especially when you have no legal proof that you own them. For example, someone could steal your idea and execute it, and it becomes theirs.

Third parties between you and your intellectual property can also affect the money you earn. For example, an artist needs an agent to help them sell their artwork. Such services come at a percentage of the money the artist makes.

But with blockchain technology, the artist can sell their art directly to buyers and earn all the money. This way they avoid all the time wasted with third parties, unnecessary fees, and commissions.

Let's examine a company that protects intellectual property using blockchain solutions.

A case of Verisart

Verisart was founded in 2015 in the US. The company's goal is to help creators protect their digital art.

Verisart claims to have helped over 35,000 creators to mint and sell NFTs, certify their creations, and connect with their community.

Other examples of blockchain companies solving problems in the intellectual property protection sector include:

KodakOne
Ascribe
Mycelia

3. Voting systems

In the recently concluded 2023 Nigeria presidential elections, there was disagreement between the contestants and the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) on the winner. Some of the contestants argued that INEC's results were altered while INEC denied the allegations.

This problem is solvable with blockchain technology. Instead of having a central database that the INEC solely controls, using distributed and transparent databases could have solved that problem.

This is a challenge Voatz solves with its blockchain technology solution. Let's have a look at the company.

A case of Voatz

Voatz is a mobile elections platform that uses blockchain to ensure transparent and secure electoral data. It was founded in 2015 in the US. It handles elections at different levels ranging from states, cities, towns, universities, and churches, among others.

Voatz works with the help of a smartphone application supported by blockchain technology. With Voatz, you vote from your home and the results are recorded on the distributed ledger.

Voatz boasts of having conducted over 125 elections of various types for over 1.7M participants. Some of the election types they have powered include state, municipal, and federal elections.

Here are examples of other companies using blockchain to solve voting challenges:

Follow My Vote
Smartmatic

The bottom line

Finance is only a small fraction of where blockchain technology can be applied. Blockchain is the Internet upgraded— a tool for sharing both information and value.

A lot of industries and sectors can harness blockchain's special characteristics to stand out. In this article, I've explored such sectors.