FEATURE
READY FOR PRIME TIME WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BLOCKCHAIN
T
he current year promises to be an exciting one for blockchain technology with improved interoperability and significant efforts from vendors to improve scalability, latency, and data privacy. Besides the banking and finance sector, blockchain technology has evinced strong interest in sectors such as manufacturing and healthcare with some interesting use cases. According to the IDC Blockchain Spending Guide published in August 2020, spending on blockchain in the META region will grow by 3.5 times by 2024, registering a staggering compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 36.37% for the 2020 to 2024 forecast period. Manish Ranjan, Program Manager for Software & Cloud at IDC Middle East, Turkey and Africa, says, “Blockchain is a promising technology which has introduced a ‘trust layer’ in industry ecosystem. Many organisations across markets and industries within the wider Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META) region continue to increase their investment in blockchain technology. Banking, financial services and Insurance (BFSI), retail and wholesale, logistics, manufacturing, and healthcare are the
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CXO INSIGHT ME
MAY 2021
leading industry verticals investing in the blockchain technology in META region.” The accelerated demand for blockchain solutions has prompted many big tech vendors to offer blockchain as a service, which helps businesses to access this technology without investing in-house development. “There is definitely an increase in the number of blockchain projects that are being initiated year after year since 2017. However, the percentage of the projects going live is still on the low side and falls
Ali Al Shami
anywhere between 4% and 15% of the total projects depending on the region. In general and for such a new technology, this percentage is a good indicator that the appetite for experimentation is high and that both governments and private investors are willing to invest and explore the potential outcomes,” says Bassam Rached, Director – Digital Business Solutions, Gulf Business Machines (GBM). What are the key blockchain trends to watch in 2021?
Bassam Rached
