Supply: Adobe/jurgal
Todd McDonald. Supply: a video screenshot, Youtube, Hyperledger

Todd McDonald is the Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer of R3, an enterprise blockchain technology firm.
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2019

Final 12 months might definitely be described as one the place blockchain technology got here into its personal. Regulators and policymakers got here up the training curve considerably, understanding the variations between cryptocurrencies and blockchain and between permissioned and permissionless ledgers.

They moved ahead with global coordination together with the private sector by means of varied teams, together with the International Affiliation of Trusted Blockchain Functions (INATBA), the OECD’s Blockchain Knowledgeable Policy Advisory Board (BEPAB) and naturally World Digital Finance.

On the technology side, as adoption and growth of blockchain options continued at a clipping tempo, 2019 noticed as soon as formidable use instances turning into a reality.

Within the space of digital property, each conventional establishments and newcomers to the space made vital waves. The {industry} has lengthy sought further regulatory readability, and final 12 months’s developments in digital property – notably the controversy surrounding the Libra project – jolted regulators into the dialog.

Seemingly caught off-guard by the pace of growth and potential impression to financial coverage posed by stablecoins, the final half of the 12 months noticed these policymakers take motion to develop their understanding and think about potential advantages and penalties of digital property together with the creation of a G7 working group.

The Libra impact

The result of the immense scrutiny utilized to the Libra project propelled many central banks into giving critical consideration to launching their very own digital currencies. Amidst this, six of the world’s central banks convened to evaluate central bank digital foreign money (CBDC) collectively alongside the Bank of International Settlements. Though none are prepared for a public launch at scale, we count on central banks worldwide to maintain CBDCs on their list of priorities.

Additional, we anticipate regulators will preserve centered on their work to understand the impression of digital property. With the EU releasing an intensive session on the various features of digital finance, and lots of others taking related motion, we’re hopeful the joint efforts of {industry} and authorities will result in elevated regulatory readability.

The emergence of digital property as reliable within the eyes of regulators has hastened the flexibility of presidency companies to see past wildly fluctuating Cryptoasset markets and consider how they themselves may gain advantage from the adoption of blockchain technology. In 2019, we witnessed a transition in lots of from merely the consideration of blockchain adoption towards the identification of particular use instances greatest suited to their wants.

What’s next

Transferring ahead, we count on to see more formalized methods for adoption, particularly within the fields of decentralized id and procurement processes. One such instance is the German authorities, who introduced their analysis of blockchain for digital id. This can be a extremely tracked project this 12 months, which if profitable, will encourage others to follow swimsuit.

Within the {industry} itself, as digital property and different token varieties proceed their growth, we count on interoperability between platforms will stay a distinguished theme. Requirements are maturing within the space to allow interoperability, for instance, information standardization by means of GS1, ISO, or ACCORD, in addition to industry-specific requirements, for instance in trade finance the place the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Digital Commerce Requirements Initiative is making progress.

Whereas ‘interchain’ connectivity is garnering consideration, organizations are actively contemplating the extent to which their platform can combine with new and current cost and settlement networks to ship on the promise of atomic digital asset trade. Additionally, further advantages might be unlocked when two or more blockchain purposes utilizing the identical underlying technology can work together. Simply because two purposes run on the identical protocol, it doesn’t imply they may work seamlessly collectively by default, or that digital property will switch between these networks. Organizations are actively contemplating intrachain eventualities and whether or not underlying platforms had been designed to facilitate them.

Taken collectively, it appears sure that {industry} and authorities will proceed their progress on digital property all through 2020. We anticipate regulators and central banks will kind more concrete opinions on stablecoin insurance policies, in addition to the usefulness of their very own digital currencies, and that this may gas the will of different public companies to request options that use blockchain technology. Within the years to come back, blockchain and digital property will catalyse on mainstream recognition, gaining momentum towards a vital mass of adoption.
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This text first appeared within the annual report of World Digital Finance.

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