Blockchain technology will create $ 3.1 trillion in business value by 2030. So do we really need Blockchain?

THE “OUTLOOK AND FUTURE OF THE GLOBAL BLOCKCHAIN INDUSTRY” REPORT, prepared by Huobi Research, the special unit of Huobi, the world’s leading digital asset trading platform, focuses on blockchain research, sheds light on the development of blockchain technology. The report includes important global developments in the blockchain field in 2019. The BRICS countries, including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, which account for 40 percent of the world’s population and 23 percent of global GDP, put forward a proposal to create a single payment and settlement system among themselves in 2019.

Huobi Turkey General Manager Alphan Göğüş gives the following information about the report to share his opinions: “Significant developments are taking place in our country regarding the adoption of Block-Chain Technology. Our regulators support trading in local currencies, just like  in the BRICS countries. The 11th Development Plan, which serves as a roadmap for 2019-2023, also included the launch of a blockchain-based digital currency by the our Central Bank. The digital currency project of Central Bank can make Turkey stand out in the global trend in this area.”

In our country, we saw a number of developments towards the adoption of block-chain technology in 2019. Block-chain was also shown among the technologies to be focused on in the 2023 Industry and Technology Strategy document, which was shared in September 2019. The Year 2020 Presidential Annual Program also included information that the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey will implement digital money. Considering all these developments, it is quite obvious that Turkey will have a say in the future of Block-Chain Technology in the light of the national policies that will be created in our country.

The report, which contains key findings on the performance of the block-chain ecosystem in 2019, reveals that worldwide spending on block-chain in 2019 amounted to approximately $ 2.9 billion. Looking at the distribution of these expenditures to countries, the United States ranks first with a share of about 40 percent, followed by Western Europe with 24.4 percent, China with 11.2 percent, the Asia-Pacific region with 8.1 percent, and Central and Eastern Europe with 5.2 percent. The report also includes patent applications for Block-Chain.

According to the data, seven of the top 10 companies filing the most patent applications in the field of block-chain technology are from China, followed by the United States with two companies. The top five companies in block-chain patent applications are Alibaba (Ant Finance-China), Ping An (China), Nchain (Antigua and Barbuda), 33.cn (China) and IBM (USA) are involved. All over the world, the number of patent applications for Block-Chain Technologies has exceeded 22 thousand.

Deloitte Turkey Consulting Partner on Operations and Finance Transformation Gökay Özdemir also shares the following comments about this new trend: “Block-chain technology was born as an experiment 20 years ago, but gained prevalence in the last five years, and especially with the emergence of pilot projects in the last 1-2 years, many organizations began to pay attention and be part of its application. Today, we can clearly say that it is preparing to come to the fore as a wave of change that has the potential to radically affect all infrastructures and ways of doing business. With existing insights, information and findings, it can be clearly said that block-chain will shape the business models of future and it will play an active role in many areas such as global digital identity, efficiency and transparency compliance, accounting, audit, internal control, tax and financial reporting, global trade and agreements etc. where trust is central and multilateral reconciliation is very important.”

THE BIGGEST DEVELOPMENT WILL BE IN FINANCE

Entering our lives as the technology behind Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, blockchain now has different applications in various industries. One of these industries, of course, is finance. Blockchain technology was first known as the technology that provided the infrastructure to this boom, powering cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and  “Continuous innovation is the strongest method”  The Global Blockchain Research conducted by Deloitte reveals the impressive evolution of blockchain from an experimental, transformative technology to a real strategic priority for organizations. The survey was conducted with the participation of approximately 1,500 senior executives from 14 countries.

This research shows that initial doubts about the usefulness of blockchain have diminished and business leaders are now seeing blockchain as an integral part of organizational innovation.

The highlights of the report are as follows:

• 39% of global participants have already included blockchain to their production processes.

• 55% of the participants see blockchain as a fundamental strategic priority. This ratio was determined as 53% and 43% in 2019 and 2018, respectively.

• Approximately 89% of respondents believe digital assets will be important to their industry in the next three years.

• 82% of respondents say they are hiring staff with blockchain expertise or plan to do so within the next 12 months, compared to 73% last year. • 83% of respondents state that their companies will lose their competitive advantage if they do not use blockchain.

• 70% of the respondents say the regulatory environment is changing rapidly when it comes to blockchain and digital asset solutions.  Ethereum etc. But now the use of block-chain applications is growing in many industries. The presence of technology is highly felt in the financial sector, where it has gained great momentum, and in many different industries.

Dmitry Tokarev, CEO and Co-Founder of Copper Technologies says on this subject that: “This was once a very niche field for crypto experts and coding enthusiasts. Now traditional institutions and even central banks are exploring the blockchain when they establish the foundations for the next generation of financial services.

Saying that banks like JP Morgan were very skeptical about cryptocurrencies 10 years ago, Tokarev points out that these banks now offer a crypto account. Tokarev says that important steps have been taken towards the adoption of blockchain technology in the policy area as well. In the UK, the Bank of England is actively researching how to implement its own Digital Currency (CBDC), while some countries, such as Lithuania, have already started cryptocurrency issuing trials. Tokarev continues his words as: “Blockchain technology is already widely used and it is accepted that it will shape the future of finance. The real question is how companies will integrate this changing infrastructure without losing innovation and competitive advantage.

“ The financial services industry is in a serious transformation thanks to new players such as new generation banks and FinTechs. To cope with the evolving needs of customers, companies must adopt new technologies to outperform their competitors and stay relevant. According to Ripple Vice President Marcus Treacher, the key battlefield in today’s payments industry is the improvement of cross-border transfers. He shares the following information on this subject: “Traditional payment processes are slow, costly and unreliable.

Block-chain technology has the potential to transform the current inefficient model by providing faster, more transparent and cost-effective cross-border payments that can be processed in seconds, not days or weeks. If companies move quickly and adopt the blockchain as soon as possible, they can quickly innovate, meet customer demands, and gain a significant return on their investment.”