Trending Bitcoin News and Market Sentiment, Weekly Edition, 17th October, 2020: $1.7T Global Economy Boost from Blockchain, Nigeria National Adoption, 100 Italian Banks on Blockchain

• PwC estimates that the blockchain industry will provide a USD 1.7 trillion boost by 2030
• Nigeria preps move for national blockchain adoption
• 100 Italian banks are already on blockchain

As Bitcoin and Ether shrug off the early week malaise, and take new aims at making new records after breaking 2-month highs, we see plenty of positive news for the overall blockchain industry that will make proponents smile, and Bitcoin critics wonder if they’re taking 2020 the wrong way.

First, we see a new report from a Big Four auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), who says that blockchain derived economic gains will boost the global economy over the next decade to the tune of USD 1.7 trillion, with the Asian continent enjoying the most economic benefit.

In fact, by 2025, economists at the famed auditing firm believe that a tipping point could be observed by mainstream adoption as blockchain apps contribute to over 1% of the world’s total GDP. China, followed by India and Japan, are also seen as the drivers of mass adoption, with the world’s second largest economy standing to gain a net benefit of USD 440 billion, in front of the US with USd 407 billion.

Europe will generally see the same benefits as Japan and India, with Germany, France and the United Kingdom each set to gain about USD 50 billion.

Product tracking and tracing is where the big bucks are, with just shy of USD 1 trillion set to be generated by that sector alone. Financial services and payments make up USD 433 billion, identity security and credentials make USD 224 billion, contracts and dispute resolution will generate USD 73 billion, while customer engagement and reward programs contribute the remainder of USD 54 billion.

Identify and credential management will benefit three sectors the most with some USD 574 billion more of value generated in public administration, education and health care. According to global blockchain leader at PwC Steve Davies, the global pandemic has, in fact, accelerated adoption:

“Serious activity around blockchain is cutting through every industry across the globe right now.”

While the big economies have been named, developing ones are also looking to prep themselves for blockchain adoption. Nigeria, for example, is reportedly on the bring of putting forth a “Digital Nigeria” plan that will see a nationwide adoption of blockchain and crypto.

A draft of the strategy framework was published by Technology Times, which names the nation’s Federatl Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy as a partner with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) in this national blockchain adoption endeavor. A blockchain engineer who helped work on the draft has apparently confirmed this ‘National Blockchain Adoption Strategy’ which is an extension of current President Muhammadu Buhari’s vision of the diversification of the Nigerian economy. It is a stark contrast to the existing laws in Nigeria, which has banned the use of digital assets as money.

The political situation in Nigeria is on a knife’s edge right now, with protests ongoing against police brutality, with many calling for the dissolution of a special anti-robbery squad dubbed SARS. Buhari has been criticized for renaming SARS, instead of disbanding it, and protesting groups have been said to use Bitcoin to raise funds in an attempt to circumvent bans on these activities.

Meanwhile, banks, normally seen as the traditional foes of Bitcoin, seem to be getting on with the blockchain program, at least in Italy. There, 42 new Italian banks have joined the national banking blockchain network Spunta, bringing the total to 100 banks now using R3’s Corda solution for blockchain banking.

The Italian Banking Association (ABI) said early this week that this marked a key milestone in the Spunta group of banks who sought to increase interbank data transfer and settlement speeds in March 2020. The move had seen 55 banks joining in just two months, and now Spunta has already processed 204 million transactions, on track to surpass 350 financial transactions by the end of 2020.

Currently, interbank reconciliation is a pain as they all have to agree with each other on exactly how much every bank owes others. The process normally takes weeks to complete as the data is actually still stored on very old systems that takes literally days to spit out. But with a blockchain-based verified interbank transfer log such as that used by Spunta not dissimilar to that of Bitcoin, the same processing task can be completed within a day.

Blockchain or Bitcoin, it’s going to be one big exciting ride.

 

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