According to a new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), blockchain technology could boost the global economy by $1.7 trillion over the next decade.
The report, titled Time for trust: The trillion-dollar reason to rethink blockchain), is PwC’s latest bullish blockchain projection. It was intended to assess how the technology is currently being used and explore its potential future impact on the global economy.
The report laid out five key application areas for the technology that underlies cryptocurrency and examined the potential to generate economic value using economic analysis and industry research.
The five use cases in question are product tracking ($962 billion), financial services ($433 billion), identity security ($224 billion), contracts and dispute resolution ($73 billion), customer engagement, and reward programs ($54 billion).
According to PwC experts, there will be a tipping point in 2025, where blockchain technologies should experience greater adoption across the globe. If this turns out to be accurate, the report notes that blockchain will make the most significant impact in Asia, with China, India, and Japan driving the region.
Among potential beneficiaries, China stood out, boasting the highest potential net benefit at $440 billion. Next was the U.S. at $407 billion, followed by Germany, Japan, the U.K., and India, around $50 billion each for the same period.
The report also presented blockchain as a potential remedy for companies battered by the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. As Steve Davies, Global Leader, Blockchain, and Partner at PwC UK put it,
“as organizations grapple with the impact of the pandemic, many disruptive trends have been accelerated. The analysis [in the report] shows the potential for blockchain to support organizations in how they rebuild and reconfigure their operations.”
For the most part, the report spoke in glowing terms about blockchain’s economic potential, but it also warned that its energy overheads must be managed if its promise is to be realized. Read the full report here.
