Many industry sectors are set to embrace the technology within the next 18 months, making it easier to process payments but also help them to exchange goods and validate ownership of their products.
With anonymous sources spreading rumours about Facebook working together with PayPal ahead of an alleged stable coin launch, Blockchain Advisory Board UK CTO Stuart Wilson told Cointext that the social network actually has the best chances of being successful:
“If Facebook get it right people won’t even be aware that they are interacting with blockchain technology and overnight, you could have a global payment service. ”
Mr Wilson, former VP at American Express’ Technology department, thinks the social platform giant is perfectly set up to use blockchain to enable people to move money from one to another.
Facebook has all the components in place:
- Already there are more than two billion people on the platform
- There is identity information available through a user’s profile
- Their history is already on a shared network
- People are messaging/interacting with each other and posting information
The next logical step would be to send money on that network with a click of a button.
“It just does seem about the most obvious thing in the world to be able to move money to anybody without a basic service like a bank getting in the way”, said Mr Wilson.
Bitcoin was originally positioned as a means of moving money around the world faster and cheaper than traditional banking.
Presently most banks are still apprehensive when it comes to cryptocurrency as they believe the digital currency to be a route to money laundering and criminal activity. This is exactly where Facebook has the advantage of an identification system already in place.
“Banking services will become mostly about accessing money you don’t have like receiving loans and debt repayment plans – blockchain technology is great for the access that you do have”, Mr Wilson added.
Another example of a big brand planning to break into the blockchain is Nike’s ‘Cryptokicks’ reward scheme.
The US footwear and clothing mammoth is exploring an in-app rewardscheme, run on blockchain, using tokens or potentially an own coin. Keeping the consumer’s information in their own eco-system, Nike would be able to track any user’s activity, giving the brand incredible control and insight into their customers’ consumer behaviour while keeping the money/reward tokens spent in their own payment system.
This would add a lot of value for a brand and could potentially even lead to different brands working with each other, trading tokens or coins between them.
“I find that most businesses tend to look at tech and see what it could do inside their company, whereas I think blockchain technology works best when it acts as a means for different businesses and different people to integrate with each other”, said Mr Wilson.
Predominantly Fintech companies and start-ups seek Blockchain Advisory UK’s expertise when they are thinking about integrating blockchain technology.
Industries like pharmaceutical or the diamond business are likely to embrace blockchain quickly as the tech can help undisputedly validate ownership and allows manufacturers to track their goods’ journey. This way they could verify drugs’ production origin and avoid blood diamonds. All sorts of supply chain manufacturers could eventually migrate to blockchain as it provides traceability and a sort of proactive auditing.
With big brands like Facebook and Nike leading the way, it seems inevitable that other industries and brands will soon follow the steps of the giants and embrace a seemingly tamper-proof technology that already is being used for so much more than exchanging crypto currency.
For more information on Blockchain Advisory UK got to www.blockchain-advisory.co.uk