Blockchain: What Lies Ahead?
The future is loaded with possibilities, making it an exciting and unpredictable ride. Yet, in the case of Blockchains, the latter cannot be said. At least, not absolutely. Significant predictions have been made with regards to the potential and popularity of the Blockchain in the near and distant future.
The potential of a Blockchain isn’t limited to cryptocurrency, as it might seem now. The technology is used to fuel a slew of innovations, as diverse as using a Blockchain to track vegetables from the field to store shelves. In the future, Blockchains will see the handling of not just finances, but property and intangible assets such as health records, votes, software, identity, and even academic publishing on the Blockchain.
Developing Countries To Benefit the Most?
This is what Vitalik Buterin, inventor of Ethereum has to say: “Blockchain solves the problem of manipulation. When I speak about it in the West, people say they trust Google, Facebook, or their banks. But the rest of the world doesn’t trust organizations and corporations that much — I mean Africa, India, Eastern Europe, or Russia. It’s not about the places where people are really rich. Blockchain’s opportunities are the highest in the countries that haven’t reached that level yet.”
Experts predict that Blockchain technology will bring the same levels of convenience and automation to the developing world that is already the norm in countries like the USA. For example, in a lesser-developed country, a small task such as renewing a business license would most likely require so much of exertion, involving lots of travelling and waiting, not to mention the long drawn out red tape. This is mostly because of the fact that state organizations are inefficient and that most records are typed by hand in a paper-based system.
Implementing Blockchain technology would allow developing countries to jump to a computerised/online record keeping system, skipping the intermediary stages of transition through which it had evolved in Western countries. Added to this is the boost to productivity resulting from a major saving in time that would be otherwise spent in chasing down documents that can now be replaced by a link on the Blockchain.
Smart contracts are applications that run on the Blockchain that execute when certain conditions are met. In areas where the legal system is unaffordable, slow or unreliable, smart contracts offer a solution to the problems that businesses face.
Emerging Blockchain Technology
The applications of Blockchain are wide and far-reaching; it would be impossible, and quite dangerous to look away from probably the biggest fintech innovation of all time. Blockchain promises to decentralise the following areas of activity: authorship and ownership, content management, data integrity and security, media, social networking, digital identity, identification, and authentication, birth and death certificates, energy, government and organizational governance, licensing, business-related collaboration, land registry, real estate recording, gaming, supply chain management, Internet of Things (IoT), and reputation ranking, among others, with several companies stepping into the forefront to mine the opportunities that are presented by openness and decentralisation.
Emerging Blockchain technology could easily dispel some of the serious challenges associated with voting. Citizens are guaranteed the accuracy of their votes by integrating it with the Blockchain, which ensures that records are completely tamper-proof, each voter’s identity is verified and that proper auditing is carried out.
Integrating healthcare systems with the Blockchain enables processing of claims and payments in a secure, more efficient and cost-effective manner.
It can be said that, given time, the Blockchain will completely revolutionize the financial as well as non-financial practices and exchanges of today. In the meanwhile, attention has to be directed towards integrating existing businesses with Blockchain.
Impact on the Financial Industry
Financial institutions and banks do not view Blockchain technology as a threat to traditional business models anymore. In fact, research on innovative Blockchain applications is underway in the world’s biggest banks. Experts concur that the Blockchain is the most tested and secure ecosystem for banking and finance applications. It is also estimated that banks could save $8–12 billion annually if they used Blockchain technology. Almost 90% of major North American and European banks are currently exploring Blockchain solutions.
As far as employment is concerned, in the long run, a lot many jobs might be replaced. However, with the creation of a new platform, there will always be work. Jobs that were never imagined before will find their way into our lives until a new steady state is achieved.
Big Moves
The global Blockchain market is expected to be worth $20 billion by 2024. Tech giants IBM and Microsoft have made sizeable investments in Blockchain technology. IBM dedicates $200 million and 1,000 employees to Blockchain-powered projects. Over the last five years, VCs have invested more than $1 billion into Blockchain companies.
Conventions that have existed for the last 5000 years are set to be disrupted with the acceptance of the Blockchain. The huge reduction in the cost of transactions makes its reach and potential impact enormous. However, several questions require answers to be found, such as- incorporating existing businesses, the future of trade and acceptance among energy and environmental concerns. Finding the right answers to these questions would unlock the door to a fairer, more transparent and inclusive world for all.
