Dear fellow Steemians, Students and blockchain enthusiasts!
At the Technical University of Munich, we are currently working on a blockchain seminar with our students that focuses on value that blockchain technology can bring to Pain Points in our every day life.
It is often mentioned, that blockchain technology (read it as: distributed ledger technology) is going to disrupt existing businesses and that it is going to create new ones, which had not been feasible. This is often claimed to happen via disintermediation, by automating transactions or enabling the predefined execution of processes with programmed smart contracts. Many times, lower transaction costs, verifiable information, control over data or digital transfer of value in a distributed network are said to be essential benefits.
Our goal is to collect examples, that illustrate real life situations, where a blockchain-world could alleviate pain points OR where a blockchain solution will soon disrupt or replace something.
We would like to do it the following way:
A. Pain Point
- What is the Pain Point?
- Take pictures or illustrate it in some way.
- Describe, what's on the picture and what the actual Paint Point is.
- How could this Pain Point be reduced or eliminated in a blockchain-world (Some would say tokenized-world)?
B. Soon replaced or disrupted by blockchain solution
- What will soon be replaced or disrupted by a blockchain solution?
- Take pictures or illustrate precicely with a few sentences what will be eliminated or disrupted with a blockchain solution.
- Describe, why it will not continue to exist in a blockchain-world.
- How could what's on the picture be eliminated in a blockchain-world (Some would say tokenized-world)?
I will provide you with my own Pain Point example below. Please feel free to either post your own example, using #LifeWithBlockchain as a tag or send me your examples via email.
You can find my contact details on Linkedin or on my profile at our Chair for Strategy and Organization.
Here is the first Pain Point offering blockchain potential:
I encountered this on a McDonald's parking lot near Munich in Germany. Do not worry, if you don't speak German. I will explain their content below.
1. What is the Pain Point?
Picture 1:
Picture 2:
These pictures show an electronic monitoring system of the parking time of vehicles on the parking lot.
Each parking space has a sensor in the ground (black parts on the second picture), which registers a parking car. This way, adherence to the maximum parking time can be monitored. If the maximum parking time is exceeded, a fee of 30+ Euros will be charged.
Once it has been determined that a vehicle has been parking for too long, a person will probably have to walk to the parking space of the "parking offender" and note down the number plate. This is followed by the fee collection process.
2. How could this Pain Point be reduced or eliminated in a blockchain-world?
In a blockchain-world, a blockchain solution could take over manual and bureaucratic process steps.
The process could be optimized with a blockchain solution:
A. Vehicle receives an identity upon entering the parking lot or by already having one, similar to the car eWallet here
B. Determination and documentation of the parking time (start and end) can be recorded on a blockchain. For example, to provide proof in case a vehicle parks for too long,
C. Identification of the vehicle and its associated billing address can happen with information stored on the blockchain,
D. Automatic payment of fees if necessary by the vehicle itself with its own wallet or by the vehicle owner.
By automating some aspects of this process, timekeeping, billing and settlement can be handled more efficiently and more trustworthy. In this example, many blockchain concepts are included, that are still quite far from being broadly accepted or fully developed at the moment. Nevertheless, with better interoperability of blockchains and tokenization of assets or identities, it seems possible.
Essential blockchain use cases in this example include: digital identities, smart contracts executing predefined conditions, oracles feeding reliable information from sensors to a blockchain.
We look forward to collecting pain points from your daily lives and reducing them with blockchain technology! Let us show the world that there are real use cases for blockchain technology, that create value for its users.
Thank you for reading, please keep your eyes open for pain points in your lives!
Post them here or send them to me:
My contact details on Linkedin or on my profile at our Chair for Strategy and Organization.
Pascal Mehrwald (@pascalmehrwald) - upvote and resteem this post, if you like our idea! #LifeWithBlockchain
Kudos also to Benjamin Pabst von Ohain (@benpvo) and Prof. Dr. Isabell M. Welpe.