Several use cases of the Blockchain technology have been promised or are being explored by the Fintech and, as well as, other sectors such as health, entertainment and public sector, but none has come up with something concrete despite all the hype.
Bitcoin’s Blockchain has been recognized for transforming the $13 trln financial services industry – by empowering millions across the globe to authenticate and transact immediately and without costly intermediaries.
Attempts to tame it
Several companies have invested in proofs of concept and projects which aim to exploit the technology.
In its ambitious look at how Blockchain can reshape financial services, for example, the World Economic Forum says in The future of financial infrastructure report that over $1.4 bln has been invested into the technology over the past three years.
However, despite these forward-looking projections, an industry leader in South Africa maintains that many of the efforts to push Blockchain use will be in vain though some productive innovations may emerge later.
The CEO of Bankymoon which offers Blockchain-powered solutions and services, Lorien Gamaroff, says it is unclear at this early stage how Blockchains will be incorporated into existing business processes. However, he added that the only clear use case, and one that is actually in production, is a decentralised currency.
He noted via LinkedIn:
“The only implementation of a Blockchain in production and one that has proven itself is Bitcoin. It has been functioning for 7 years. There are no other clear use cases that have been deployed and demonstrated success to date.”
He added:
“Blockchain is an experimental technology. There are no implementations that have been deployed in a production environment. Business cases have been difficult to find and for all possible use cases there are usually existing technologies that will solve the problem better. Some have described Blockchains as being solutions looking for a problem.”