Mainstream adoption of blockchain technology may be some time away, but the technology offers potential to change industries from the bottom up. According to figures from Statista, the blockchain technology market is expected to be worth over US$1tn by 2030.
Blockchain technology offers a variety of benefits to businesses, many of which stem from its key characteristics: decentralisation, transparency, security and immutability. These features can be advantageous in a business context in a number of ways:
- Enhanced Security: Blockchain's structure makes it extremely secure. Transactions are encrypted and linked to the previous transaction. Additionally, the decentralised nature of blockchain makes it less susceptible to hacking and fraud compared to traditional centralised databases.
- Improved Transparency: Each transaction on a blockchain is recorded on a block and across multiple copies of the ledger that are distributed over many nodes (computers). This transparency ensures that all transactions are visible and verifiable, promoting trust among users.
- Reduced Costs: By eliminating middlemen and intermediaries, blockchain can significantly reduce transaction costs. It streamlines processes and removes the need for various third parties, which is particularly beneficial in industries like finance.
- Increased Efficiency and Speed: Traditional paper-heavy processes are time-consuming and prone to human error. Blockchain streamlines these processes and makes transactions faster and more efficient by allowing peer-to-peer cross-border transfers with a digital ledger.
- Traceability: In supply chain management, blockchain allows for the creation of an audit trail that documents the provenance of a product at every step on its journey from source to consumer. This feature is particularly useful for verifying the authenticity of products and preventing fraud.
With these benefits in mind, Technology Magazine highlights some of the leading companies in the world of blockchain, from companies driving app development to some of the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges.
10: Appinventiv
Blockchain software development company Appinventiv allows organisations from startups to large-scale enterprises to tap into the blockchain universe with its world-class custom decentralised solutions.
Appinventiv has almost a decade of industry experience, having delivered multiple custom blockchain solutions. Its team of more than 500 certified blockchain experts have extensive experience of working on a multitude of blockchain projects, fulfilling the needs of a varied set of industries and businesses.
9: ScienceSoft
A blockchain development company with 34 years of experience in IT, ScienceSoft offers end-to-end blockchain application development services to introduce reliable blockchain solutions. Throughout the company’s history, ScienceSoft has helped over 1,200 clients from 75+ countries successfully deliver their IT initiatives.
ScienceSoft can provide a full scope of blockchain software development services – from blockchain development consulting to blockchain implementation, quality assurance, and support.
8: Hyperledger Fabric
By embracing the open-source principles established by the Linux Foundation, the Hyperledger Foundation promotes interoperability and standardisation, paving the way for the widespread adoption of secure and scalable blockchain and digital trust solutions across industries and sectors.
The Hyperledger Fabric serves as the foundation for developing applications or solutions with a modular architecture. It allows interchangeable components, including consensus and membership services, enabling a plug-and-play environment. Additionally, it offers a unique approach to consensus that facilitates scalable performance while maintaining privacy.
7: R3
R3’s Corda is the leading tokenisation platform powering the digitalisation of real world assets and currencies for global regulated institutions everywhere. The company was founded in 2014 with the belief that direct, digital collaboration was the future of financial services.
The R3 team developed Corda: the world’s first native private, permissioned Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform that is not only secure and regulatory-compliant by design, but has facilitated hundreds of networks across financial services. Today, Corda is trusted by regulated institutions to enable the tokenisation of digital assets and currencies, faster settlement and automation of complex business processes.
6: Block
Block is a financial services and mobile payments company that works across businesses worldwide to develop inclusive policies, forecast finances, give legal counsel, and to safeguard systems.
Led by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, Block has rapidly expanded its reach in the last couple of years, with its subsidiaries including Cash App, payments platform Square and Bitcoin-focused Spiral, as well as acquired platforms like music streaming service, TIDAL.
5: Circle
Circle is delivering the largest and most widely used stablecoin network for billions of people, millions of businesses and developers everywhere.
Its USDC coin is a digital currency backed by the US dollar and always redeemable 1:1. Circle works closely with regulators to ensure its digital dollar guides and surpasses the standards for stablecoins, and partners with leading financial institutions like BNYMellon, which is the primary custodian for USDC reserves, and BlackRock.
4: Ripple
Through blockchain technology, Ripple enables global financial institutions, businesses, governments and developers to move, manage and tokenise value, helping to unlock greater economic opportunity for everyone, everywhere.
Using proven crypto and blockchain technology honed over a decade, Ripple’s enterprise blockchain solutions for finance are faster, more transparent and more cost-effective than traditional financial services. Some of the international financial institutions using Ripple’s secure blockchain network include American Express, BBVA and BMO.
3: IBM
Through its fully-integrated, enterprise-ready blockchain platform, IBM offers a number of solutions for businesses.
Key benefits include optimised multi-party workflows around trusted, permissioned data and accelerated performance across the value chain with blockchain applications.
Firms can also streamline shared processes, increase accountability, minimise disputes and automate reconciliation tasks.
IBM also offers blockchain consulting services experts specialize in NFT, web3, software development, ledger technology and app development, helping businesses determine the best blockchain strategy.
2: Coinbase
Founded in 2012, Coinbase is a secure online platform for buying, selling, transferring, and storing cryptocurrency. Its mission is to create an open financial system for the world and to be the leading global brand for helping people convert crypto into and out of their local currency.
Led by CEO and Co-Founder Brian Armstrong, 245,000 ecosystem partners in over 100 countries use Coinbase to easily and securely invest, spend, save, earn and use crypto. The company is the largest crypto exchange in the United States, holding US$114bn in safeguarded assets for more than 100 million clients in more than 100 countries.
1: Binance
Binance is the world’s leading blockchain ecosystem, with a product suite that includes the largest digital asset exchange. Its mission is to be the infrastructure provider for crypto in tomorrow’s world.
Founded by Changpeng Zhao in 2017, Binance’s cryptocurrency exchange allows customers to buy, trade, and hold over 350 different cryptocurrencies on its platform.
Binance launched two of its own cryptocurrencies, Binance Coin (BNB) and BinanceUSD (BUSD). Initially starting as an Ethereum token, BNB later moved to Binance’s proprietary blockchain, Binance Smart Chain (BSC). This later merged with the older Binance Chain, creating the BNB chain.
Its platform is trusted by millions worldwide, and, it says, features an unmatched portfolio of financial product offerings.
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