Unlocking Blockchain will be a game-changer for the future of financial transactions, noted panellists in a session on the innovative digital ledger today at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2016 in Tianjin. “Blockchain will revolutionize banking and financial services as we know it,” acknowledged Pierre Gramegna, Minister of Finance of Luxembourg, “I think it is possible that Blockchain will replace the word ‘internet’. By the time our children have children, the only time they will see the word ‘internet’ is in science and history books.” “Some say that Blockchain is the new internet of the financial world,” pointed outAxel Lehmann, Group Chief Operating Officer and Member of the Group Executive Board, UBS Group, Switzerland. Blockchain is a secure ledger database made up of data blocks that are shared by all users in an established, continually evolving platform. For financial organizations, Blockchain allows for faster processing time, lower costs, fewer intermediaries, greater market insight and increased transparency and compliance.
While Blockchain is viewed as the main technical innovation, or underwriter, of the crypto-currency, bitcoin, it is in no way exclusive to it. Indeed, panellists agreed that Blockchain technology has far wider applications. “We now have non-sovereign money and it has a lot of advantages and it is just going to grow,” explained Jeremy Allaire, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Circle, USA. “The nature of accounting, insurance, corporate governance, voting, all of these systems can be moved to Blockchain technologies in the future. We are just at the start,” he said. Blockchain technology has also opened up innovative ways to counter fraud and illegal trade, such as in blood diamonds. “When we start to think about how Blockchain technology can be applied, it can be applied at the level of objects,” explained Leanne Kemp, Chief Executive Officer […]
