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Jai Singh, lecturer in finance session with the ICMA Center
Although blockchain remains a prominent topic of the fintech conversation, technology still has much to do before it can be at the height of its billing, warned an important technology academician.
"It will be a slow progress for blockchain this year, because many of the ideas out there are a bit futuristic," said Jai Singh, Sessional Lecturer in Finance at the ICMA Center, which is part of Henley Business School . "People are struggling to apply blockchain to industry challenges that have been around for many years, and the solutions are not quite there yet."
He said that cases of use of blockchain in real life are also held back by a lack of formal education regarding technology and its functioning: "A key obstacle is to have enough key talents out there who know enough," Singh said. "The small blockchain start-ups do not really have the money to finance this type of education or training at work – there are also bigger companies doing blockchain things, of course, but there's still a lot to show for this , not that the public is aware of it anyway. "
Singh acknowledged the progress made by technology giants and consultants such as IBM and Accenture, who said they were engaged in developing cases in 2018, but claimed that for all their investment they are still stuck in the development.
"The applications we have seen are often in the supply chain management sector, for example with Carrefours in France, which has been using blockchain supply management for almost a year," he added. "It's important for them, they're using it in over 1,000 locations to help prevent food contamination."
Singh expects companies to apply blockchain in industries such as finance and supply chain as technology matures, and said it was encouraged by the progress made by Hyperledger, Ethereum Enterprise Alliance and Corda.
See the most likely long-term dividend of the blockchain, offering a reduction in trading costs, 24-hour trading and faster transactions, a reduction in potential frauds or price scandals, the tokenisation of resources to allow new types of investments and a positive impact on the investment model for private equity companies and REITs.
