What exactly is NEM blockchain technology used for?

Author: Dominique Murchie (8 December 2018)

Cryptocurrency might be stealing all the headlines, but there are many more uses for blockchain technology beyond investing in digital coins. Indeed, blockchain has the potential to be just as ground-breaking as the internet was back in the 1990s.

But what exactly is NEM blockchain technology used for, aside from (XEM) cryptocurrency? Here are several real-world examples to wrap your mind around.

Changing the Oil Markets

“We can confirm that the Venezuelan government is intending to use the NEM Blockchain”: Pedro Gutierrez

It’s been reported that the Venezuelan cryptocurrency Petro was officially released as an asset on NEM’s Blockchain rather than on Ethereum’s Blockchain, with the total supply capped at 100 mln Petro.

Electronic Voting
Due to inherent issues with security and voting fraud, very few countries have made the switch to electronic voting machines (EVMs).

And that’s a shame. It’s hard to deny that EVMs make voting more accessible and thus have the potential to increase democratic participation. However, most countries have decided that the risks outweigh the positives.

Ukraine Electoral Commission Uses NEM Blockchain for Voting Trial

Gaming
With the rise of in-game purchases and microtransactions, many gamers now have vast repositories of “stuff” connected to their various accounts. Clearly, this creates security issues. What happens if a hacker steals it? What happens if the parent’s company’s servers go offline? And so on.

By deploying a blockchain, gamers will finally be able to own these items outright and enjoy complete control over their status. Transferring in-game items to other people will become easier and more secure, and no one can maliciously replicate them.

Xarcade is a NEM powered cost-effective video game distribution/exchange platform for both game publishers and gamers to use. It is a game changer and is a cost-less direct alternative to other app stores in the market. Xarcade does not levy game publishers anything for the sale of in-game credits, changing the paradigm, and passing these cost savings to gamers.

Smart Contracts
Smart contracts allow companies and individuals to create secure digital relationships. For example, a blockchain smart contract could underpin a complex legal transaction or an insurance agreement.

The hope is that a blockchain can reduce the need for intermediaries and consequently make such processes both more secure and cheaper.

NEM (XEM) is set to be the world’s most secure, scalable and eventually most popular smart contract platform in the world. The statement seems far-fetched given the dominance Ethereum currently shows in the field. However, the recent announcement by NEM development team on the NEM Catapult (Mijin V.2) blockchain may have all the right ingredient for success.

In a separate use case, Japanese conglomerate Hitachi has already tested the NEM Mijin blockchain for its popular rewards platform PointIfinity, a point management solution adopted by merchants and service providers to cater to some 150 million members.

Fighting Fine Art Forgery
Art forgery has existed for almost as long as art itself. But could blockchain technology finally help to beat the criminals definitively?

With NEM, you can make your art (product) unforgeable by putting a complete record of origin and chain of custody in the blockchain. NEM has partnered with Luxtag to create an app that makes this process simple. It’s useful for property records, vehicles, art, and any high value or branded goods. Records can also include useful information about repairs and upgrades, something no certificate of authenticity can do.

Food Safety
There is a litany of cases whereby a bad batch of food produce shut down an entire sector of the industry. The UK’s BSE crisis of the 1990s, China’s infant milk scandal in 2008, and the 2006 E. coli outbreak in North America all spring to mind.

Blockchain technology can help to reduce these types of instances by creating a massive database of the provenance of food, always with all the associated details. The transparency will improve food safety, cut costs, and reduce waste.

The Japan Gibier Promotion Association, a division of the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries will put to use a blockchain to secure the supply chain of Japanese wild game meat. The association is tasked to oversee the standards for hunting wildlife and the culinary distribution of food in Japan. It is collaborating with Tech Bureau, a FinTech and cryptocurrency startup to use its Mijin, a private blockchain based on the NEM protocol. The use case marks the first instance of the Japanese government deploying the Mijin blockchain.

The Ongoing Revolution of the NEM Blockchain
These examples of companies using NEM blockchain technology and other real-world blockchain applications only scratch the surface of a sector that’s ready to explode. Millions of dollars of research money are being invested—it’s only a matter of time until blockchains play a role in every aspect of our daily lives.

If they can do this I think we’ll see more and more interesting projects being built on top of NEM.

For more on NEM check out their website