3 Reasons Why Blockchain Needs to Be Bet on for the Future of Enterprises It's safe to say, that blockchain has shown its capabilities and potential to India and the world. This is the sole reason why several governments and global corporations are open to adopting and implementing blockchain against the likes of non-fungible tokens and cryptocurrency tells us alot.

Blockchain is a form of shared database that stores data and transactions in blocks and in turn, vouches for transparency and security. It's a booming technology alongside artificial intelligence in 2023 and for all the right reasons. Markets and Markets, a research firm, predicts that the global blockchain market will generate revenue of over USD 94 billion by 2027 at a CAGR of 66.2 per cent.

El Salvador, Portugal, Singapore, Malta, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), South Korea, Japan, and India are some of the active nations when it comes to blockchain adoption. The fact that countries are open to adopting and implementing blockchain against the likes of non-fungible tokens and cryptocurrency tells us alot.

"The insights from our analysis suggest that, beyond the hype, blockchain has strategic value for companies by enabling both cost reduction without disintermediation as well as, in the longer term, the creation of new business models," read a Mckinsey report titled "Blockchain beyond the hype: What is the strategic business value?" in 2018.

Five years later, it's safe to say, that blockchain has shown its capabilities and potential to India and the world. This is the sole reason why several governments and global corporations are betting on it for various use cases.

"Blockchain is foundational in nature just like 3G and 4G. Foundational technology takes time to be truly absorbed. They take time to reach their full potential. They need a lot of killer applications riding on them. Without the killer applications, the technology itself cannot take off. And you need the economies of scale," said R. Vivekanand, President, BFSI Products and Platforms, TCS. He was speaking at Entrepreneur India's flagship event Entrepreneur 2023 on August 7th and 8th in Delhi. He also heads the Quartz project at TCS which focuses on creating solutions for leveraging blockchain, DLT, and AI.

"Advancement is needed and it comes with a pull and push. And it's happening in blockchain," here are three reasons why we need to bet on enterprise blockchain for the future-

1. Blockchain will remove friction

Blockchain is not about a single enterprise, the issue arises when one goes beyond an enterprise especially in non-financial services. This leads to inefficiencies and lack of trust which eventually leads to friction. "Friction equals loss, it needs to be taken out and that's where blockchain has a role to play because it (by being a distributed ledger) creates trust," shares Vivekanand. Trust plays a big role between two organizations having a smooth flow. "Time equals risk, time equals loss. A lot of your know what time means when it comes to cashflow. When the cash is not flowing, when there is a drag, there is a loss," he adds. With blockchain, a trusted, transparent, less risky, real-time processing, and immutable process can be achieved.

2. Partnering with AI

Artificial intelligence needs to be leveraged to truly harness the data stores in blockchain. A combination of blockchain and AI on Predictive AI is already powerful, however, what can happen with Generative AI needs to be explored. "These advacements mean that it will bring down the wall of resistence for wider adoption of blockchain and bring down the cost of adoption of blockchain," opined Vivekanand.

3. Giving rise to transformational apps

Business case matters more than the use case. He believes that one day most securities will be tokenized, as it will drive liquidity. Quartz's blockchain solutions are present across mutliple industries including Metaverse, DeFi, CBDC, Track and Trace, Record Keeping, and ESG/Sustainability. "A lot of power of blockchain will be driven by the ability to create solutions, an intersections between industries, which will require usage of C-suite to sell the product," he shares.

"There is an opportunity for a lot of us here to create a very different future, completely reimagine it, because the technology is already good enough for it," Vivekanand concludes.