Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2020. Read them in this 12th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
By Raju Vegesna, Chief
Evangelist at Zoho
How Blockchain Will Move Beyond Being Known Only for Cryptocurrency
In the minds of most consumers
and the general public, blockchain is synonymous with cryptocurrency. In fact,
most had never heard the term "blockchain" until Bitcoin made waves
in the mid 2010s. This, however, is about to change.
In the coming years we should
see blockchain move from a fringe technology used exclusively for
cryptocurrency to one that plays a key role as an underlying technology in
various business solutions. As blockchain continues to diversify and businesses
see more and more use cases, adoption will grow rapidly, its reputation will
improve, and the technology itself will get better.
Document signing, for example,
is an area where the benefits of a decentralized, timestamped ledger outweigh
the negatives. In this specific use case, the technology is fairly simple to
understand, making blockchain adoption for businesses much more viable.
In the coming months and years,
innovations in the blockchain space will advance the technology from buzzword
status to something that will impact the lives of millions around the world.
Three things we expect to see in the coming years include:
- Entire countries adopting
cryptocurrency.
There are currently 14 countries considering developing official
cryptocurrencies. In countries where the value of their national currency is
subject and vulnerable to political and economic instability and corruption,
cryptocurrency adoption is rising. For example Venezuela, who's economic woes
have been well-documented, recently announced it will use the cryptocurrency
Petro to pay the country's retirees and pensioners their Christmas
bonuses.
- Blockchain as a Service. Large companies like Microsoft
and Amazon are developing Blockchain as a Service [BaaS], a
cloud-based service that allows users to create their own products using
blockchain technology. And when tech players of this stature begin to invest
time and resources into a particular technology, it's a relatively safe bet
that growth will follow. Indeed, a recent forecast from Verified Market
Research estimated that the global BaaS market is currently valued at
$632.08 million, but will skyrocket to $94.28 billion by 2026. That's an
impressive compound annual growth rate of 86.5% over the next seven years.
- Blockchain in the medical
industry.
Healthcare companies, including one called Medicalchain, are embracing blockchain
technology to assist patients in centralizing their medical records. The idea
is to give patients the ability to share the most updated and comprehensive
version of their record with every organization in their medical network, which
in turn can improve the quality of care they receive. We expect the healthcare
industry to continue to find uses for not only blockchain, but other developing
technologies in the near future.
As it stands, Blockchain mainly remains under the stigma of
cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, and more recently, Facebook's Libra, each of
which carry their own set of controversies. Like any technology, only when it
becomes consumable and easily understood by the masses will it truly hit the
mainstream -- and that time is not far off.
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About the Author
With
19 years of industry experience, Raju Vegesna is
one of the foremost thought leaders in the Office 2.0 revolution. At Zoho, Raju
is one of the key people responsible for developing the strategic direction of
the entire Zoho Suite of 45+ applications.