Guest Post : Blockchain – A Fintech Game-Changer

This week’s Guest post comes from our friends at Carsurance

Fintech’s history is characterized by groundbreaking ideas, as illustrated by Carsurance in its infographic. Many of the innovations introduced several decades ago continue to serve as today’s standards.

A good case in point is the development of the Fedwire Funds Service by U.S. Federal Reserve Banks, which gave the world its first taste of electronic fund transfer. The technologies like Morse code, on which the system used to rely, are now obsolete, but its spirit has stood the test of time.
Other great examples are the invention of the credit card in 1950 and the creation of the first automated teller machine in 1967. While no one today could imagine a world without them, it is fascinating to think about a simpler time when cold cash was all people could use to trade, and brick-and-mortar banks were the only depositories.

Then the digital age arrived. The internet and smart devices have accelerated the exchange of money like never before. For the first time in a while, traditional banks have found their match in fintech startups, which served as a constant reminder that the financial system as we know it can change in a blink of an eye.

Technology has leveled the playing field for unconventional financial institutions. Companies like Affirm strive to find a healthy balance between business and ethics in hopes of fixing the fundamentally broken system that keeps ordinary people trapped in endless debt cycles.

But no recent innovation has revolutionized fintech the way blockchain did. It has turned the banking world on its head. Invented by the enigmatic Satoshi Nakamoto to serve as the digital record-keeping technology for Bitcoin, blockchain gradually won the interest of major banks as cryptocurrency gains popularity.

Blockchain holds a lot of promise, especially when it comes to cost reduction. The brilliant philosophy behind it is helping banks create the ultimate mechanism to operate more efficiently in many areas.

It was estimated that the technology could reduce the infrastructure costs of banks by 30%. Mainstream commercial adoption of blockchain is expected by 2020.

Curiously, Europe and America were the last ones to embrace it. Some of the early adopters are Bank of China (China), Yes Bank (India), ALFA Bank (Russia), and United Overseas Bank (Singapore).

Check out the infographic below to learn more interesting fintech facts and statistics about blockchain.

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