With the recent bankruptcy of FTX and the financial scandals of former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, the crypto market has taken a significant hit in terms of value and customer trust. As a result, many are questioning whether currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum will be able to withstand the approaching “crypto winter”.

Cryptocurrencies are centered around blockchain technology, a public distributed ledger that records and verifies every transaction and is protected by complex algorithms and proof of work. Initially outlined in 1982 by UC Berkeley by doctoral candidate David Chaum, blockchain didn’t gain traction until 2008 when Satoshi Nakomoto used the technology to develop Bitcoin. Although blockchain is widely known for its usage in crypto, it has many other applications in fields such as medicine.

If the healthcare industry were to adopt blockchain, every physician note, prescription, and lab result would become a block that is encrypted (meaning it’s protected and hard to manipulate). Not only would doctors be able to see the whole picture but also the data can only be accessed with the patient’s private key, allowing for privacy and data security.

Similarly, blockchain could significantly impact clinical trials, especially regarding a patient’s trust in newly developed research. Blockchain can help track the process and results of a clinical trial, and with a distributed ledger that is difficult to manipulate, patients can be given assurance about new research that they may have otherwise been wary of trying as treatment. 

Another application of blockchain is in supply chain transparency. For example, in 2021, Elon Musk began to utilize blockchain to track cobalt from mine to battery. This decision allowed him to assure Tesla users that the company was using sustainably mined metals. Likewise, Walmart adopted blockchain to ensure product quality from factory to consumer after facing issues in their supply chain.

Here are just a few examples of blockchain applications, but given the nature of the technology, it has several more applications. If the crypto industry gives out for any reason, it is doubtful that blockchain will go down with it.