Why Thailand is a hidden gem for blockchain.
While Thailand has historically been associated with agriculture and manufacturing, new technologies are seeing an incredible adoption with Thailand’s drive to promote innovation in the country. And today we’re seeing strong momentum for the adoption of blockchain for enterprises. We can even go as far as to say that the country has an unfair advantage thanks to the clear regulation introduced by the Royal Decree on Digital Asset Businesses which took effect on May 14, 2018.
Following this decree but also a global government policy summarized in the Thailand 4.0 initiative, Thai companies and institutions are driving adoption to become “The” Southeast Asia Blockchain Hub.
The digital transformation has already been taking place for quite some time in the Kingdom, and the move towards blockchain has been accelerated thanks to this clear regulation introduced by the Thai SEC. Since then a wide range of blockchain projects have been launched in finance, supply chain, energy, or procurement.
The list is growing every month and it clearly shows a strong dynamic between institutions and private companies moving towards such an innovative technology faster than Europe or the US.
A non-exhaustive list of live Thai blockchain projects:
- Financial institutions: Project Inthanon (Bank of Thailand for bound trading and repurchasing + future CBDC), BCI (letter of guarantee with 22 banks), the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET plans to disrupt itself with a digital asset platform), Bank of Thailand and Hong Kong Monetary Authority (joint central bank digital currency (CBDC) for cross-border payments)…
- Private companies: Siam Cement Group (blockchain procurement platform), PTT (renewable energy blockchain platform). Toyota leasing (corporate bond issuance on Blockchain) or Longroot (licensed ICO portal)…
It is not a surprise therefore that Thailand is also home to specialized blockchain companies such as Omisego (payments), Loom Network (gaming) or us at Atato (blockchain service provider), which follow the growth of the Thai blockchain ecosystem.
A focus on Digital Thai Bath to drive adoption:
On a global scale, the consensus is that the main barriers to adoption are: regulations and stable coins.
Thailand is now comforting its advance in the enterprise blockchain space thanks to its innovative regulation but is also leading the way to introduce a fully regulated Thai Bath stablecoin.
The Bank of Thailand and its Project Inthanon Phase 3 is now studying how to implement a fully regulated Digital Thai Baht and been engaging talks with all major blockchain companies on the subject. In view of their proactiveness, there is a big hope that it is just a question of time before we can see and use regulated Bank of Thailand backed digital stablecoins. This will open the way to major B2C applications and completely transform the Thai blockchain ecosystem with major payment and financial innovations.
As the Thai global blockchain infrastructure is being built we, as a blockchain service provider, are here to assist those companies to integrate blockchain software in their businesses. Supported by the existing regulation and following the lead of the financial institutions, Thai conglomerates are now fully confident to integrate and invest in blockchain technology.
Blockchainly yours,
Atato
