#experiencethefuture

Bjork fans with a penchant for new payment technologies are likely to welcome news that they can buy the iconic Icelandic musician’s latest album with bitcoin.

The Icelandic singer is also accepting three lesser-known types of cryptocurrency: litecoin, dash, and AudioCoin. Traditionalists can still pay using credit cards or PayPal.

Known for being innovative, Bjork has has received critical acclaim for her often experimental music and in 2011 she released the album Biophilia in the form of an interactive app.

Her record label, One Little Indian, has now teamed up with London-based blockchain specialist Blockpool to allow bitcoin payments. One Little Indian said the move came in response to requests from fans.

Bjork's new album, Utopia, goes on sale on 24 November but pre-orders are open now. Those who pre-order will receive 100 so-called AudioCoins (worth about 20p) that can be deposited in e-wallets, exchanged for other digital currencies or used to buy more music.

Other artists have flirted with the idea of selling their work for bitcoin. In December 2013, Snoop Dogg, tweeted: “My next record available in bitcoin in delivered in a drone.”

After thousands of retweets, the hip-hop and reggae artist apparently sought to turn the apparent joke into a reality. He tweeted bitcoin platform Coinbase, saying “@coinbase dm your info. I want to make it happen”. The rapper has yet to follow through with his promise.

Mel B announced a deal with bitcoin mining firm CloudHashing in 2013 to accept cryptocurrency payments for her comeback single “For Once In My Life”.

The former-Spice Girl said in a press release at the time: “I love how new technology makes our lives easier, and to me that’s exciting. Bitcoin unites my fans around the world using one currency. They can just pay using bitcoins!”

Blockchain is a software system to take out the ‘middle-man’ which are banks. Blockchain is not just cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. Here are a few ways how blockchain will impact the future.

Banking & Payments: It allows anyone to exchange money faster, more efficiently, securely and keeps a detailed record of the transaction.

Cybersecurity: The data generated with blockchain is encrypted using secure and advanced cryptography, making it harder for hackers. Most hacks happen to centralised servers, whilst blockchain is a decentralised distributed system.

Internet of Things (IoT): IoT’s include; cars, buildings, doorbells and kitchen appliances that have smart technology which allows us to connect to them. These devices operate from a central location which means hackers can gain access. According to Kamil Przeorski, an expert in Bitcoin and Ethereum capabilities, Blockchain has the potential to address these critical security concerns because it decentralizes all of the information and data. This is increasingly more important as IoT capabilities increase.

Unified Communications: Blockchains can enable faster, safer and more reliable automated communication. Automated or digital communication based on pre-built algorithms is already occurring at scale in some industries. Examples of this include emails, system alerts and call notifications. Matt Peterson, who is an early adopter and miner of Bitcoin says that “Blockchains can shift the playing field to allow authorised, bi-directional communications and transactions that occur more freely in an automated environment and produce an immutable record of communication.” This will greatly enhance the safety and reliability of our communications.

Government: If corrupt politicians and long lines at the DMV give you a headache, you’re not alone. With blockchain, we could reduce bureaucracy and increase security, efficiency and transparency. Welfare and unemployment benefits could also be more easily verified and distributed and votes could be counted and verified for legitimacy.

Crowdfunding & Donating to Charities: Donating to a worthy cause is never a bad idea. But what percentage of your donation is actually being given to those it’s meant for? Blockchains can help ensure that your money gets exactly where you need it to go. Bitcoin-based charities are already creating trust through smart contracts and online reputation systems and allowing donors to see where their donations go through a secure and transparent ledger.

Healthcare: Wouldn’t it be great if doctors did not have to "fax over referrals” anymore? Why can't all of our medical information be stored in a central database? The centralization of such sensitive information makes it very vulnerable. With all of the private patient data that hospitals collect, a secure platform is necessary. With the advent of blockchain, hospitals and other healthcare organisations could create a centralised and secure database, store medical records and share them strictly with authorised doctors and patients.

Rentals & Car Sharing: Uber and Airbnb may seem like decentralized networks, but the platform owners are in complete control of the network and naturally take a fee for their service. Blockchain can create decentralised peer-to-peer ride-sharing apps and can allow car owners to auto pay for things like parking, tolls and fuel. While blockchain is still relatively new and many experiments will fail before they succeed, the possibilities for innovation are endless. Along with the eight points listed, it will affect retail, energy management, online music, supply chain management, forecasting, consulting, real estate, insurance and much more. Let’s prepare ourselves for a future where distributed, autonomous solutions will have a huge role -- both in our personal lives and in business.