Crypto glossary
Blockchain use cases
Blockchain use cases are the real-world applications of the technology beyond trading: payments, stablecoins, tokenised assets, identity and more.
The clearest use case so far is digital money: bitcoin as a censorship-resistant asset and stablecoins as dollars that move globally around the clock, used for remittances, cross-border business payments and savings in high-inflation countries. Decentralised finance adds lending, trading and derivatives built from open smart contracts.
Tokenisation is the fastest-growing institutional use: government bonds, money market funds, private credit and real estate represented as tokens for faster settlement and wider access. Other applications include supply-chain traceability, digital identity and credentials, ticketing, gaming items, decentralised physical infrastructure networks and timestamping documents to prove they existed at a certain date.
Many announced use cases have not lasted. Numerous enterprise pilots between 2016 and 2020 were abandoned because a shared database did the job more cheaply, or because no one wanted to give up control. A blockchain adds value mainly when several parties who do not fully trust each other need a common record, open access or programmable assets.
Example
A small importer in Argentina pays a supplier in China with USDT on a public blockchain, settling in minutes on a Sunday instead of waiting days for an international bank transfer.