Things Blockchain Is Supposed to Revolutionize

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Updated, Aug. 10, 2018: Here are 47 more things blockchain is supposed to revolutionize
5. parenting
13. higher education
15. clinical trials
16. agriculture
17. sexual consent
18. refugee camps
19. workers’ rights
20. rap videos
23. Sesame Street
25. Audi
28. L.L. Bean apparel (for one month)
29. credit scores
30. wine
32. sex work
33. marriage
34. killing people
35. racist memes
37. passwords
39. marijuana
40. crop insurance
42. car ownership
43. drinking
47. religion
Original post: Blockchain fever is rising and shows no signs of breaking anytime soon.
Blockchain is best known for its association with bitcoin. It's a digital record technology—essentially just a digital ledger—that allows people to make instant and secure transactions. The ledger is shared publicly and allows contracts to be executing automatically, without need for a central authority like a bank.
And now virtually every actor in the tech industry is scrambling to capitalize: startups, big tech, venture capitalists, “thought leaders.” Billions of dollars are now going into the technology. Blockchain has become such a buzzword that a British company saw its shares rise 394 percent after adding the term to its name on Thursday.
Tech capitalists seem to believe that blockchain will revolutionize virtually everything on this earth, so Slate decided to make a list of all the things that the industry says blockchain will disrupt.
As I was making this list, I started to wonder if there was anything it wasn’t going to revolutionize, so I just began Googling the term “blockchain” followed by a random object on my desk.
For example, I was drinking coffee, so I searched “blockchain coffee” and found out that coffee kiosks are using blockchain to track the origins of their beans. I also have a football sitting near my filing cabinet, so I searched “blockchain football” and, what do you know, Intel was able to use blockchain protocols for fantasy football.
The smartphone on my right? A search for “blockchain smartphone” reveals that UK-based Sirin labs is developing a smartphone that runs on blockchain. It will sell for $1,000.
My cup of water? The “blockchain water” search retrieved info on a U.S. research group has incorporated blockchain into the way it purifies fracking water.
Below is a list of things that blockchain is supposed to revolutionize. It is by no means comprehensive:
4. gambling
10. video games
11. ID cards
12. travel apps
13. coffee kiosks
14. real estate
15. medical records
16. purifying water
17. video sharing
18. cloud storage
20. farm-to-table
21. eBay
22. credit
24. solar panels
25. journalism
26. time capsules
30. voting
32. digital banking
33. prostitution
34. porn
35. Reddit
36. digital ID's
37. central banks
38. food freshness
39. ride sharing
40. financial crises
41. accounting
42. anarchy
43. prescriptions
44. taxes
45. fantasy football
46. smartphones
47. Airbnb
48. dating
52. sneakers
53. toasters
54. watches
57. e-books
This post has been updated for clarity.
Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University.