Digital Lifescapes

More CIOs and CTOs are looking for digital transformation and smart technology solutions to their line of business leader innovation requirements. Blockchain and related distributed ledger technologies are already making an impact outside of the finance and insurance space from which they emerged. Promising new use cases are being trialed in a number of digitally transforming sectors -- notably supply chain management, retail and consumer, arts and entertainment, and public services. Blockchain Applications Market Development ABI Research now forecasts over $10.6 billion in software and services revenue for all combined blockchain related markets globally by 2023. "The success of blockchain in fintech has prompted significant investment in deploying the underlying infrastructure for application development and testing in other industries. Tech giants such as IBM, Microsoft, Amazon, SAP, HPE, and Oracle, among others, are pushing Blockchain-as-as-Service for first movers, o...

Many business leaders have a much better understanding of blockchain technology than just a couple of years ago. There's been a surge in R&D, both internally and in partnership with third parties, and a recognition that blockchain has the potential to be deployed in a variety of commercial use cases. As the number of blockchain research projects increased, awareness among the pilot participants and elsewhere in their industries gained momentum. Now other companies are beginning to consider whether they, too, should seek to gain a competitive advantage from a proof-of-concept deployment. Blockchain Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, 65 percent of survey respondent enterprises with over 10,000 employees are considering or actively engaged in blockchain deployment. This marks a significant rise from 2017 when the corresponding figure was 54 percent. Moreover, nearly a quarter of companies considering deploying blockchain ...

It's already clear that most savvy industry leaders have a greater understanding of blockchain technology than was the case a couple of years ago. This stems from a surge with internal research and development, in partnership with third parties, as blockchain has the potential to be deployed in a variety of use cases. As the number of Hyperledger pilot projects increased, so has awareness. It's improved among the project participants and elsewhere in their industries, with competitor companies beginning to consider whether they should seek to gain a competitive advantage from a blockchain deployment. Blockchain Applications Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, blockchain deployments will enable banks to realize savings on cross-border settlement transactions of more than $27 billion by the end of 2030, thereby reducing costs by more than 11 percent per on-chain transaction. According to the analyst's assessment, fina...

A blockchain acts as a digital distributed ledger of transactions or records. The ledger, which stores the information or data, exists across multiple participants in a peer-to-peer network. There's no single, central repository. Distributed ledgers technology (DLT) allows new transactions to be added to an existing chain of transactions using a secure cryptographic signature. Worldwide spending on blockchain solutions is forecast to reach $11.7 billion in 2022, according to the latest global market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Blockchain Market Development IDC expects blockchain spending to grow rapidly throughout the 2017-2022 forecast period, with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 73.2 percent. Moreover, worldwide blockchain spending will reach $1.5 billion in 2018 -- that's double the amount spent on the emerging technology during 2017. The United States will see the largest blockchain investments and deliver more than 36 percent of...

Distributed ledger technologies, or blockchain, is gaining momentum across the globe. What's the appeal to apply the new eCommerce related benefits? There's no proprietary owner or administrator. As a result, interest in open blockchain technologies -- such as Hyperledger -- are attracting many new ecosystem participants. According to the latest global market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), Western Europe will be the second largest region at a worldwide level, starting from around $200 million in 2017, including all the experimentation projects. Blockchain Technology Market Development The initial investment in proof-of-concept use cases will nearly triple the spending in 2018, to reach $1.8 billion in 2021. There is interest in blockchain across industries, with the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) expected to be 66.6 percent during 2016–2021. "During 2017 many companies across a wide range of industries started to understand the feasibility, sust...

Many organizations are now actively considering blockchain deployments, and a significant proportion are already anticipating integration of blockchain into their IT systems within the next 18 months, according the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research. The Juniper survey found that among the largest companies (those with 20,000 of more employees) that were considering deploying or were in the process of deploying blockchain, 54 percent had reached the PoC (Proof of Concept) stage, with a further 16 percent involved in trial deployments. Among all companies that have reached the PoC stage, 66 percent expected blockchain to be integrated into their systems by the end of 2018. Integration was expected to take longer as companies got larger among the smaller companies surveyed (i.e. those with less than 1,000 employees), 81 percent expecting integration to be completed by the end of 2018 -- compared with 57 percent of companies with over 20,000 employees. IBM Leads Bl...

Much of the initial interest in cryptocurrencies centered around their potential as alternatives to fiat currencies. Increasingly, however, attention has shifted to the potential of the technology that underpins them: blockchain. A clear indication of blockchain’s increasing maturity is the extent to which an industry that was once the preserve of fintech start-ups is now being driven by leading IT platform providers -- many of whom are developing their own offerings. Blockchain Market Development A number have been involved in joint ventures and consortia while at the same time developing their own solutions. For example, IBM unveiled Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) for developers in February 2016 based on Hyperledger Fabric -- one of the Hyperledger blockchain framework implementations hosted by The Linux Foundation. A new worldwide market study by Juniper Research has found that the value of cryptocurrency transactions is expected to surpass $1 trillion in 2017 -- that's ...

Much of the initial interest in cryptocurrencies centered around their potential as alternatives to fiat currencies. Now attention has shifted to the upside potential of open distributed ledger technologies know as blockchain. A clear indication of blockchain's increasing maturity is how the emerging Fintech sector, which was once dominated by tech start-ups, is becoming crowded with leading IT platform providers -- many of whom are developing their own offerings. The market leaders have been involved in collaborative ventures and consortia. As an example, IBM unveiled Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) for developers back in February 2016 that's based upon the Hyperledger Fabric. Blockchain Market Development Meanwhile, market demand is growing rapidly across vertical industries. Juniper Research has found that 57 percent large corporations are either actively considering, or are in the process of deploying, blockchain technology, according to the analysis of the data f...

Fintech is being driven by the Financial Services sector. That said, leaders within the Technology, Media and Telecommunications industries are also planning a significant technology investment in blockchain during 2017, according to the latest worldwide market study by Deloitte. However, understanding of this new technology is uneven, based upon the study findings. Many senior executives are still uninformed about the use cases, while others consider it among their company’s highest priorities. Besides, ongoing commitments to blockchain varies by industry. Blockchain Applications Market Development Thirty-nine percent of senior executives at large U.S. companies indicated they had little or no knowledge about blockchain technology. The majority (61 percent), though, claimed blockchain knowledge ranging from broad to expert. Furthermore, some of these blockchain-informed executives see the nascent technology as crucial for their organization’s forward-looking business strategy...

We're seeing a lot of new investment in Fintech start-up companies, and for good reason -- money transfers and mobile payments are a huge upside opportunity. In 2015, international remittances totaled $582 billion, with approximately $440 billion remitted to developing countries. Besides, the value of domestic money transfers are forecast to reach $520 billion in mobile transactions by 2018 -- that's up nearly 200 percent from an estimated $178 billion last year. Money Transfer Market Development Typically, person to person (P2P) domestic transfers show higher usage in developing markets -- including M-Pesa, Airtel Money, Orange Money and MTN Mobile Money -- supplemented by users making social transfers in developed markets via services such as Venmo and WeChat. However, according to the Juniper assessment, the bulk of transfer activity is currently occurring via WeChat and Alipay within China, with growth fostered by ‘red envelope’ promotions at the Lunar New Year. ...