This Online Technology May Expand Markets for E Commerce Business

If you are currently running an online business or considering the idea, its’a good idea to periodically take a moment to visualize e commerce technology from historic to futuristic possibilities! Many would agree that technology changes fast, but, its’ not the speed of change that’s important. Instead, it is the degree of impact that you need to pay attention too! To this, there is one emerging technology that possesses a potential impact to online business that can open new markets at a massive global scale. Here’s an opinion and prediction on the topic…

Blockchain from Seed to Growth

Blockchain is a technology that has been a seed in the ground over the last decade and may finally be taking root. It started with simple storage of wealth projects and has emerged to include ways to solve community problems at large around the world. Such projects include improving supply chains and lowering the costs of e-commerce.

At its core, its benefits include things like transparency and a more direct ability to execute agreements between parties; trade if you wish! Transparency is important because currently on the commercial internet, when a transaction is made it is usually processed and stored in 1-2 locations with one company or in your case within your computer. If you create a word document and send it to someone, technically it is not an original; rather it is a copy. When we send data to others online in this traditional sense, we are sending copies; never originals. This presents problems at many levels of business such as a deed.

With blockchain technology, all blocks or data that are pertinent parts towards a contract are originals. Each copy is stored within nodes that, as example, can be strategically spread across the world. This would make it very difficult to alter contracts and gives people more peace of mind that they have access to originals in many different places. Each major step is recorded as an original.

It also has forms of governance. Governance is setup ahead of time within the blockchain community. A community of people arrive to governance rules to bring about actions in the best interests of all stakeholders. This may include a rule that 20 nodes must accept and agree with the actions set out in a transaction. It may also include rules that can stop transactions that need a more detailed look or reversal if needed. More, governance is not just about the transactions itself, but, it includes rules of how the community may decide on new features within a blockchain application.

This transparency is an advancement to trust and ownership and what enable us to more safely conduct commerce at greater lengths. It is at the core of advancements in trade. It is also a means to build communities in a more honest sense. the governance is a brilliant way of doing things more efficiently in both time and substance with trade.

Online Business Transactions and Financial Storage of Wealth

Traditionally, we have been at the beck and call of large banks. For international transactions we have wires with costs or around 20-30 dollars and processing times that take around 10 days. Often these transaction go through multiple intermediaries.

With blockchain, contracts are built with original transactions into a blocks stored on nodes that may or may not include KYC (identification accounts) depending on the nature of the contract. So, say, as example, you want to send money to a friend from the USA to Japan. In a blockchain wallet, you could simply make a few entries including a code address of person receiving funds, click enter and then within minutes receive a confirmation of completion.

The innovation around this is no intermediaries, original copies on record, fast and cheap. So how does this impact new markets for online business? Well, believe it or not, there are a lot of people around the world that do not have access to traditional banks as many people do. They do not have bank accounts and they do not have credit cards. This restricts them from doing business outside their circle of commerce. In thought, this can be a massive game changer in commerce. It would enable the unbanked to access a wider variety of solutions from those producing products and services online which could range from educational to retail products.

Online Business: Emerging Wealth and Participation in Markets

In thought of wealth growth, blockchain efficiencies are mind blowing. In the case of wire transfers, what if we took out the 25 dollar transaction and replace it with a 30 cent transaction? This is what blockchain is doing and more. With such efficiencies in the money flows, many blockchain projects are now offering people returns to stake or lock-up their tokens on applications. This storage of value is then put to work to in ways that generated rewards.

A simple example could be an application that offers travel service. The user needs to access tokens to use the service. These could be your tokens. When the service is complete, you received additional tokens in return. Moreover, there are many different examples. Though, a favourite among many would be the annual percentage return. Currently, there are many blockchain developments offering returns of 20-30 percent. This is big when compared to traditional banks offering closer to 1% these days or negative returns in parts of Europe.

But, how is this possible you might be thinking? Well, its’ actually quite simple. Visualize a pie chart with a business model being, maker (say the employees), the corporation, intermediaries, and then the end user of the product of service. In business models of blockchain, the pie chart can be transformed to remove the corporation and the intermediaries. The corporation can become merged with the makers. Even if just the intermediaries are removed, this enables use cases where key resources (money and time) become more distributed to benefit all stakeholders; a community. Imagine 10 trillion dollars suddenly available. Imagine process completion in seconds of execution compared to days. Then ask yourself, how can this change the game with regards to e commerce, to standards of living, to faster feedback loops and so on?

This again present a case for this technology. As a case for wealth building, blockchain is enabling positive returns and potentially safer storage of values when we consider cash burn of credit cards and risks of holding certain fiat monies.

How Blockchain Wallets Could Enable More E Commerce

We mention blockchain wallets earlier. Similar to a physical wallet and in some cases a bank account, a blockchain wallet is also for storage of values referred to mostly as tokens. The tokens are what are used for exchanges during contracts. This could be used for investment, for using a blockchain service such as a marketplace software, for donations or even for transferring value or wealth to family or friends.

Further, if your online business includes building and selling marketplace products, this can also benefit the speed of the supply chain process. For instance, there’s mostly just a few parts of the world where supply chain business is made easy with regards to trust around payments, verification of businesses, process veriftication and so on. More, with payments, its’ not uncommon to be restricted on the types of credit cards uses and then there are the exchange rate concerns. For those selling online products to countries other than your home country, its’ common to setup business bank accounts in that country. If you did not do this, you would lose a lot of money from exchanging currencies back and forth every time you needed to pay a supplier or receive a payment from a customer.

Plus, because most suppliers around the world require common fiats such as USD, you need to keep those accounts balanced for faster payments towards restocking products. Even then, you still need to maintain a flow of funds to your international accounts from your home country until at least sales enable independent cash flows. Blockchain wallets can remove these tangles of intermediaries and enable more direct financial trade with trust. Bottom line —blockchain can save time and money and enables a smoother flow in business. With this, one could also image more innovation with less time spent on useless time consuming tasks.

With that in mind, blockchain technology offers people a means to store and transact units of values. What is most important about this is that people will not be obligated to wait on business hours or third parties to do what will with the own assets. In this sense, when it comes to commerce, this removes that past constraints of the unbanked and it also opens up the window of time for when we wish to manage such storage of values or wealth.

Keep Your Eye On This Technology for E Commerce

On the whole, if you are growing an online business or planning to do so, there may be a wealth of reasons to keep your eye on this emerging technology sector. If blockchain continues to advance as it is, massive populations will open as consumers and these consumers will have the ability to increase standards of living and in combination wealth. This may also open up opportunities to do more business with suppliers around the world. These are important factors collectively with the tools of commerce, specifically Ecommerce.