Blockchain Beyond Cryptocurrency: Transforming Healthcare and Supply Chain Management

Abstract

The blockchain technology that was originally created to support the cryptocurrency systems has quickly turned into a revolutionary infrastructure whose uses go way beyond digital currencies. Decentralization, immutability, and transparency are its main features that make it a potent solution to some of the most urgent issues in industries. Nowadays, blockchain is being introduced into various spheres where secure, efficient, and reliable systems can be built to connect the virtual and real worlds. Specifically, supply chain management and healthcare are some of the areas that can gain greatly through blockchain acceptance. Blockchain in supply chains enhances product traceability and mitigates fraud and operational-level inefficiencies with a traceable history of transactions that cannot be altered. In the health sector, it promotes an improved level of data security, safeguards the privacy of the patient, and ensures smooth exchange of medical records among the authorized stakeholders. Moreover, accountability and transparency allow automating processes based on blockchain-based systems and reducing administrative costs, seeking to make them more socially acceptable and increase trust within the community. In this paper, the revolutionary effect of blockchain in these industries has been brought to the fore, with a focus on how it is helping in enhancing security, automation of operations, and confidence among stakeholders.