Fact-Finding: Crypto & Real-World Use Cases
Coinbase Institute: Insights Series
Across industries, crypto and blockchain technology are being used to solve real-world problems. From improving financial access to enhancing data transparency, these technologies offer faster, cheaper, and more secure alternatives where traditional systems often fall short. While crypto and blockchain are enhancing the traditional financial system, they also have broad applications in areas like government, healthcare, and beyond, offering new ways to increase efficiency across critical sectors.
Myth: Crypto and blockchain technology have no real-world use cases.
Fact: Crypto and blockchain technology are revolutionizing industries across a broad range of sectors. The following use cases highlight just a few of the powerful examples that challenge the outdated notion that crypto and blockchain lack real-world utility.
Remittances: Crypto and blockchain are helpful tools for migrant workers seeking to send remittance payments to family and friends abroad. Every year, Americans spend over $12 billion annually on remittance fees, navigating slow, complex processes dominated by large banks and money transfer operators. Traditional cross-border transfers can take up to a week and carry average fees over 6%, straining vulnerable families who depend on these funds for essentials like healthcare, education, and food. Crypto and blockchain technology, especially stablecoins like USDC, offer a faster and cheaper alternative by enabling direct peer-to-peer transfers that occur within seconds and cost as little as $0.01. Projects like Umoja Labs leverage this technology to provide a range of financial services for remittances, including digital wallets and currency conversion tools. And Félix Pago allows users to send crypto to their families in Latin America via WhatsApp, lowering costs and reducing transfer times.
Small Businesses: Crypto and blockchain can also help U.S. small businesses that struggle to secure funding from traditional banks due to insufficient collateral, inconsistent cash flow, and lack of credit history. These obstacles often lead to financial exclusion, making it difficult for small businesses to start or sustain operations. Crypto and blockchain can offer solutions by automating loans with smart contracts, cutting costs, and bypassing intermediaries. Figure Markets is a real-world project putting these innovations to work, offering fast, low-cost loans on the Provenance blockchain.
Local Governments: Crypto and blockchain are helping local governments streamline services by creating secure digital records that reduce fraud and expedite processes. For example, California’s DMV has converted 42 million vehicle titles into blockchain-based tokens to detect fraud and simplify ownership transfers, while New Jersey’s Bergen County is using similar technology to tokenize $240 billion in real estate, encompassing 370,000 property deeds. Baltimore is also adopting blockchain to modernize real estate title searches, reducing costs and improving transparency in property transactions. The new system aims to return the city’s estimated 13,000 abandoned properties to the market, which currently lower nearby property values and cost the city around $100 million annually in lost tax revenue.
Healthcare: Crypto and blockchain offer a secure, immutable way to protect healthcare information while enabling seamless data sharing across providers. Projects like Tamarin Health and Patientory manage health data on a blockchain, giving patients control over their records and reducing fragmentation across healthcare systems. Additionally, blockchain’s transparency can strengthen trust in clinical trials by securely timestamping protocols and preventing data manipulation, ultimately improving the integrity of medical research and patient care.
Conclusion
The use cases for crypto and blockchain are not theoretical—these technologies offer promising solutions to real-world challenges. By increasing transparency, reducing inefficiencies, and enabling more direct control over data and finances, these technologies are helping modernize outdated infrastructure across sectors.
Learn more about the advantages of crypto and blockchain technologies on the Coinbase Institute website here.
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