Blockchain: Altering the financial world through the secure transfer of digital assets in real-time

In 2016, IBM partnered with Danish shipping company Maersk to conduct a series of trials that examined the application of blockchain technology to supply chain management. As of January 2018, these two companies have joined in a forthcoming effort to establish a new company that will commercialize the specific applications of this technology in a wider scale.

In October of 2017, following multi-million dollar investments in blockchain research, and abject denunciation of Bitcoin as a viable financial prospect, JP Morgan & Chase announced the launch of a system that utilizes blockchain to decrease transaction time and cost.

Why are corporate giants and investment banks alike willing to invest millions not necessarily in the original application of blockchain — the controversial cryptocurrency known as Bitcoin — but in the researching the technology itself?

The answer is both simple and astonishing in its implication. In addition to harboring a niche foothold in the global financial markets with applications such as Bitcoin, blockchain provides us with an array of potential solutions for modern-day problems. It is essentially a ledger; a retainer of information that is accessible yet encrypted. It allows for the digital exchange of documents and assets such as contracts or audio files to be recorded with an immediacy that is far superior to traditional methods provided by intermediaries.

The Internet, as we know it, provides a means by which we can transfer information at will, often in seconds or less. The invention of email, subsequently, greatly undercut our need for the post office. The exchange of our information, however, is widely understood to be democratized — a concept that has proven information to be vulnerable highlighted repeatedly by cyber-theft over the last decade. This, among other reasons, is why the digital transaction of assets until now has been limited.

Blockchain, however, holds the power to commit both the exchange of information and the transaction of digital assets, including currencies and other financial instruments.

For more information, please visit blockchain.noon.sg