What are Review Sites, and how Blockchain can help?

• Toshendra Kumar Sharma
• December 04, 2018

Blockchain a revolutionary technology has taken the world by storm. Although it was initially a part of cryptocurrency exchange, it has now outshined its traditional use and finds its application in various other fields. Whether it is about tracking the product or managing the information, blockchain provides the base or everything. However, its role is now no more limited to just financial transactions, but you can find myriads of uses of the blockchain. In this blog, I will be highlighting the use of blockchain in managing review sites. You might be wondering why would review site need blockchain or how will blockchain help the review sites.

Well, all your queries will be sorted in this blog. But before heading further and understanding how blockchain will help the review site, let’s understand what review sites are, what is its importance and what is its drawback.

We know that online purchase has picked up the pace and around 58% of consumers take into consideration the online review site once a week. These websites do influence the buying behaviour of the people. Research reveals that 93% of the shoppers say that the testimonials and reviews left by the customers influenced their buying decision. So, you see that review websites do have an important role to play. But, it’s not all good when we talk about the review industry. There are certain drawbacks which it has that has made us think about a new technology that can help these review sites overcomes these loopholes.

Challenges in the current review website :

Fake Reviews: Well it’s a known fact that review sites are always dicey. You don’t know whether the reviews that you are reading are genuine or paid. Advertising usually finances them. Thus, there are legitimate issues that surge when it comes to reviewing websites.

Dependence on Tech Giants: Data now drive the market. Most of the tech giants have now stepped into the world of data. With the surge of this, even the big brands depend on this tech giants. Under such circumstances, that these industries have a monopoly in the market. They can change the algorithm and how things work for them.

The polarisation of reviews: While searching through a particular product you would have seen that there are products or services or companies that have extremely positive or extremely negative reviews. Under such circumstances, the buyer fails to understand whether to believe these reviews or not. Thus the review sites lack trust and faith. Companies often use paid reviews to impact their competitors adversely.

Thus we see that the current review sites are profoundly influenced and are unmoderated. Anyone can log on to your portal and leave negative feedback. This adversely impacts the company’s performance and reputation in the market. This has created a gap in the market and a need for a technology that can help in making the review sites more trustworthy.

How will Blockchain help?

Blockchain, as we all know, is a distributed ledger technology. In here all the information are stored in chronological order. You can anytime look at this ledger and track any particular piece of information. Since all this information is time stamped, it becomes effortless to trace any information and its authenticity.

Now comes the question how will blockchain help the review sites? Transparency is the first thing which a blockchain powered platform will offer. It will provide users, merchants, and third parties with a clear view of the entire protocol which governs the review mechanism. Moreover, with Blockchain, you can see through the entire activities.

Immutability- Blockchain has an active feature of immutability. Once the reviews are entered on the Blockchain-enabled platform, no one can change it. If anyone tries to do the same, one can easily trace it.

With these two essential features of Blockchain it can easily cut down the flaws in the current system, and you can easily manage the entire system. Moreover, with the help of blockchain technology, you can manage the whole reviews. It will further create trust, and the customers will get a genuine opinion.

Conclusion

Blockchain is an excellent platform for coming up with a new system and procedures that can guarantee the seamless flow of information. Review sites are just one of the critical aspects and use of blockchain. The objective behind the blockchain technology is to come up with a system which is transparent and easily manageable.