While many people in the U.S. are still skeptical that bitcoin will become a mainstream currency, both private and public sectors are gaining interest in the idea that the underlying blockchain technology can be used to solve a wide variety of security and transactional problems.
In the private arena, industries are evaluating blockchain technologies to solve security and payment issues along with broader contract and verification uses. Deloitte published a report stating it is likely blockchain technology will soon be used in industries such as banking, insurance, energy trading and even media. The Deloitte report includes use cases for each industry and describes how the banking industry could use the technology to streamline compliance and speed facilitation of payments, the insurance industry could use the technology to manage and pay claims in a transparent manner that also helps avoid types of fraud, the energy trading industry could use the technology to increase the speed of exchange and lower transaction costs, and the entertainment industry could use the technology to pay artists automatically when their media is played. However, beyond specific industries, ideas related to smart contracts, auditability, identity verification, and property ownership verification could be used broadly across all sectors, and technology giants such as IBM are gearing up for the new blockchain uses. IBM recently released a new service to allow companies to test and run blockchain applications.
http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/the-blockchain-beyond-bitcoin-68985/
