Blockchain comes to the table with a significant promise: improve trust in all industries where information is transferred. This is one of the base layers which pose to be part of the revolution of Industry 4.0. And it`s far from a modest goal when one of the hardest things to gain is trusting itself. After 10 years from the inception of this technology, it seems to be the moment to tackle the new opportunities which may arise.

The central banks get involved

Financial institutions are the ones who are looking very closely to reap the benefits before to get disrupted from the outside. In a global blockchain survey taken by Deloitte in 2019, 77% of the respondents believe that they will lose competitive advantage if they don’t adopt blockchain technology and about 86% think that will eventually achieve mainstream adoption.

The Libra project initiated by Facebook was like a wakeup call for the regulators around the world, especially for Central Banks when it comes to digital assets and financial services. Bank of International Settlements, which is like the central bank of the central banks, speaks actively about the possibility of implementing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) and about the infrastructure which should be used. Moreover, we already witness the first pilot projects of using blockchain technology and you can read more about it here.

Even if CBDCs have become the keyword in every conference around the world alongside stablecoins, Benoît Cœuré (head of the new BIS Innovation Hub) said in an interview at Davos 2020 that “it’s about having a technology that cuts the costs and improves the speed of cross border payments…the top priority for the global community it’s not about CBDC, it’s to improve the cross border payments because it’s a matter of financial inclusion and growth for the global economy.” If this type of financial instrument will be adopted and if it will be available to the retail market will remain to be seen but it’s certainly a topic worth to be considered.

Supply chains on the verge of transformation  

Beyond the possibility of transferring value with greater ease due to the digitalisation of the currency, supply chains may enter a new stage of efficiency.

As we said above, blockchain is about bringing trust by validating each piece of information that travels from one counterparty to another. By having a system that can provide in an instant the data transparently and efficiently without an external oracle, the use cases can become limitless. From food supply to container logistics, from fraud prevention to the IOT industry and ultimately to smart cities.

DLT or blockchain is not the solution for all of the problems out there, and surely not an easy tool to implement. But seeing the evolution of this industry and how fast is growing, it gives confidence to all of the participants that great things can be done with the right focus over what’s real and what is hype, and with collaboration among blockchain consortiums.