Blockchain Industry SWOT Analysis — Global Trade Finance

Everyone says the blockchain, the technology underpinning cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, is going to change everything. And yet, after years of tireless effort and billions of dollars invested, nobody has actually come up with a use for the blockchain — besides currency speculation and illegal transactions.

Whilst we have to admit that blockchain is still in its infancy. Many issues like unwanted centralization, slow transaction verification times and low throughput aren’t easy to solve. We have to try and find a happy medium between security and speed.

Many use cases of supply chain management using blockchain have been proposed, built and tested. But, did they think twice about this decision, or are they just driven by the hype? Let’s create a simple SWOT analysis to get a better image of blockchain in global trade finance.

Strengths

• Operational Efficiency
• Facilitates easier sharing of information about certain products or trades. No more documents that have to passed along. We can now register everything on the blockchain.
• Secure encryption and tamper-proof data storage
• Eliminates central authority who has full access to the data.

Opportunities

• Provides a platform for Big Data and analytic research.
• Gives back control to the user e.g. instead of Google and Facebook using your data, you can control who gets access to your data. All these permissions will be stored on the blockchain.
• The world is becoming more digital, so more people will accept the concept of blockchain in their daily lives.

Threats

• Scalability issues: too many transactions (overload), although several solutions are present.
• Unwanted centralization: mining pools and large mining farms
• Quantum computers (in the future) who have the ability to decrypt data.
• Hype and fast changing environment
• There is always the possibility of mining attacks, and hacks.

Weaknesses

• Business rules change frequently, blockchain doesn’t.
• Blockchain is mostly not modular. An old encryption module cannot easily be replaced.
• What if business rules change and we want to export data to a new blockchain with the correct data models? A blockchain doesn’t provide an immediate out-of-the-box exit strategy.
• Potentially in conflict with existing approaches to regulatory compliance, for example GDPR regulations.
• Concept isn’t easy to grasp for a newcomer. We need good education to make mass adoption possible.

Conclusion

ModulTrade aims at bridging the gap between trade finance and blockchain by offering an easy to use platform for global trade. The platform makes use of blockchain technology to enforce trust, traceability and transparency. ModulTrade has the power to disrupt global trade finance because it can help you to cut bureaucracy costs and make the trade process more efficient.

Find out more about ModulTrade and our Token Sale at https://en.modultrade.io

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(1) https://hackernoon.com/ten-years-in-nobody-has-come-up-with-a-use-case-for-blockchain-ee98c180100