EDITOR’S QUESTION
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B
lockchain technology will
enable financial transactions to
take place quicker and provide an
undisputed version of the truth for all
parties to a transaction.
This has fundamental consequences for
the way the financial services industry
operates. However, much like the
Internet in its early days, the true value
of Blockchain – and its potential uses –
remains largely undiscovered.
Blockchain will improve trust and provide
transparency to business processes running
across multiple participants. All relevant
information will be available to the parties
involved in the transaction, securely and
reliably. This has applications beyond
financial transactions: for example, in
proving property ownership in rural areas
where other official forms of proof-of-
ownership may be absent.
Blockchain is a distributed digital ledger
that uses specialised algorithms to ensure
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INTELLIGENTCIO
that transactions are valid and authentic. It
is based on a decentralised architecture and
protected by powerful digital encryption.
As such, Blockchain can supplement trusted
third parties, like banks, in guaranteeing
transactions and coordinating agreement
among parties. However, for the technology
to be adopted in the mainstream, all
players – financial services companies,
regulators, governments – need to agree on
certain standards.
SAP continues to further develop specialised
software for customers across the banking,
agriculture, energy, healthcare and media
industries to enable them to connect
Blockchains to its HANA Cloud Platform. In
one case, SAP is using Blockchain software to
let patients share electronic medical records
with doctors or drug makers for a specific
time-period, during medical care or a study.
Another project managed to transfer funds
between a Canadian and German bank
using Blockchain, reducing the transfer time
from a few days to only 20 seconds.
This technology has such potentially far-
reaching implications that it may still take
some time before the right kind of unifying
innovation emerges. The immediate
opportunity lies in the ‘white spaces’,
aspects of business or transactions that are
not encumbered by onerous regulations and
standardised processes.
For example, by using geolocation and
validating the information through public
records, an individual could create a record
of their ownership of a piece of land even in
rural areas, where other forms of proof-of-
ownership are scarce or nonexistent.
Technology companies and innovators
will have to accelerate the adoption of
Blockchain by creating useful and accessible
applications thereof, much in the same
way as companies like Google, Amazon and
Facebook accelerated the adoption of the
Internet by creating new ways of delivering
value to businesses and people. It will be
necessary for common standards to be
adopted to make this possible.
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