Cryptocurrencies are still struggling to attain wider adoption by industries, but its underlying technology, blockchain, is gaining more traction from companies, large or small, public and private alike, who see it as a viable application for a variety of uses in a multitude of sectors. One of those companies is IBM, which boasts 1,500 employees working on over 500 blockchain projects in a bevy of industries.
IBM is part of the Forbes’ list of 50 companies exploring blockchain use, which include domestic names, such as JPMorgan Chase & Co, Berkshire Hathaway Inc, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo. From the financial sector to the healthcare sector, blockchain technology appears to be manifesting itself in various forms as a workable solution for housing data and securing it from unwanted access.
Companies like IBM are vying to become early adopters in order to further their businesses, such as the joint venture between the tech giant and transportation company Maersk, which launched a blockchain shipping platform dubbed TradeLens. The TradeLens platform has already been put to use facilitating global trade without relying on middlemen for a year, which has resulted in $154 million shipping events at ports located around the world.
Now, the blockchain platform is growing at a rate of $1 million daily.
“As blockchain is a technology that creates trust, it has the power to bring efficiencies to the shipping & transportation industries where there are multiple logistics & governmental participants involved in moving goods from point A to B,” said Matt Markiewicz, Managing Director at Innovation Shares, an index provider for exchange-traded funds (ETFs). “Through their TradeLens platform, A.P. Moller-Maersk, the Danish container shipping company, is one of the leaders in helping to streamline processes & reduce costs involved in the movement of freight across more than 200 ports around the globe.”
IBM’s penchant for early adoption is well-documented, according to Josh Olson, an analyst at Edward Jones. IBM is in the forefront of blockchain usage in financial services with its LedgerConnect app store that gives financial companies access to blockchain vendors to streamline back-end operations.
“Historically we’ve seen IBM invest in a technology early with some early promise, but then they’ve had difficulty commercializing good technologies or innovations at scale,” said Olson.
Part of the drive towards implementing blockchain technology is IBM listening to their customer base. By identifying key needs in customers’ demands, IBM can determine whether blockchain technology is a viable solution.
“We didn’t start with a big bang,” said Marie Wieck, the general manager of IBM Blockchain. “We found (blockchain) had real applicability but not just as an extension of our existing products. We had to create something new, so we started experimenting and doing some customer pilots, and we saw there was enough interest to move forward.”
Related: World Bank Launches Blockchain-Only Bond
Still an Uphill Climb for Cryptocurrencies
As blockchain technology continues to gain wider acceptance, cryptocurrency efforts like Bitcoin ETFs continue to face an uphill climb to legitimacy in the investment space and despite efforts by firms, the Securities and Exchange Commission stands firmly in the way. Bitcoin-based exchange-traded fund (ETF) applications have been getting seemingly perfunctory rejections, preventing cryptos from gaining more acceptance from investors who are wary of the unregulated exchanges of cryptocurrencies.
In an attempt to fall under the governmental regulation of the SEC, the cryptocurrency industry has been unable to bring this into fruition, starting with the Winklevoss Capital Management founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss application, which was rejected twice. The US Securities and Exchange Commission postponed their decision on a bitcoin ETF by investment firm VanEck and financial services company SolidX until the end of this month.
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